ogam

ogam (ogham) is an early Irish system of writing, preserved on stone but, according to literary sources, also employed on wood. It represents the oldest form of script in Ireland and consists of an alphabet of originally 20, later 25, letters, which might be incised along the edge of a stone pillar. The signs are slashes, differentiated by their number, their length, and by which side (or both) they appeared on. There are over 300 ogam stones known in Ireland, primarily concentrated in Munster, and in areas colonized by the Irish such as Wales. The inscriptions, memorial markers with the name and descent of an individual of the ‘X son of Y’ type, are generally dated from about the 4th century to the 7th century, the period of transition from paganism to Christianity in Ireland. The language employed is Primitive Irish, an elevated and very archaic form the use of which was probably confined to the older pagan priestly class for rituals and more formal oral renditions. The language of the ogam inscriptions was subsequently replaced by Old Irish, the more common vernacular, probably with the introduction of Christianity which had its own elevated language, Latin.

J. P. Mallory