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The Celtic Art Coracle Volume 1 Issue 2 page 18
AMERICA B.C. REVISITED

Fig. 17: Ogham letters
H, D, T, C, Q; B, L, F(V), S, N

Ogham characters are arranged in groups of five on either side of a centre line.

Fig. 17: Ogham Letters H, D, T, C, Q; B, L, F(V), S, N

Ogham is the name of an ancient Celtic alphabet system found in stone carvings in some Celtic countries, but mainly Ireland.  

In a recent [1983] study, the Epigraphic Society's director, Professor Barry Fell, reported finding ogham inscriptions dated to the sixth century, in W. Virginia. 

The inscriptions, believed to have been prehistoric American petroglyphs, were identified by Professor Fell as ogham. 

Previously, Professor Fell reported ogham inscriptions of unusual form, apparently used in New England, but not in Ireland. The New- England inscriptions, according to Fell,  are Iberian-Celtic words. 

Someone familiar with Celtic languages, for instance, might recognize the name from a W. Virginian inscription, MB EOGN as McEogan, or "Son of Eugene".

Professor Fell compares the inscriptions - reproduced in his book, America B.C. - with one of70-odd variations on the Ogham alphabets to be found in  the 14th- century- Irish Book of Ballymote.  

But how does an Ogham script, supposedly used by New World explorers from Spain in 800 BC, wind up a thousand years later in the Book of Ballymote?

Professor Fell suggests that Irish monks recorded the peculiar ogham they found in America, and brought it home to be filed as one of seventy-odd varieties listed in the Book of  Ballymote.  

America B.C. - B. Fell,  N Y 1976 ISBN 0-671-79013-7

Artwork © Aidan Meehan 1983
 

The Celtic Art Coracle Vol 1
Contents © Coracle Press 1983
ISSN 0828-8321 
All Rights Reserved
10.02.01edition
coracle@thecoracle.tripod.com

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