Location
Beside Gordon Terrace in the north of Inverurie
Inverurie, Aberdeenshire
OS Map Reference
NJ 760 224
Description
A class I Pictish symbol stone that may re-use a megalith from the stone circle that once stood here. 3 feet 6 inches high by 4 feet 2 inches wide by about 3 feet thick. It is re-assembled from fragments found in a dyke and some missing parts are substituted with cement. The south-east face bears the crescent and V rod and serpent and z rod symbols to the left of the symbols is an ogam inscription which reads IRATADDOARENS some part of which may be a version of the name Ethernan (as in St.Ethernan).
The stone circle was partially excavated by I A G Shepherd and Bill Sievewright (of Ellon Plant) in January 1983. Basically the top soil was removed revealing five stone-holes and evidence of the deliberate destruction of the circle. The deduced outline of the original circle is now indicated by the modern hard landscaping of the site.
Related Information
Unromantically located amidst a modern housing estate this stone might illustrate changing attitudes through the ages, perhaps a Pictish reverence for the past made them re-use a sacred site and an object from an older culture, it survived for more than another millennium until the people of the recent past (circa 19th cent) destroyed it with great violence and now we have gone to the opposite extreme and risk killing the vitality of ancient artefacts with too great a respect for a static 'authenticity' which can detach them from any relevance to the living altogether.
Era
Dark ages
Information Source
Field Guide to the Pictish Symbol Stones, Alastair Mack, the Pinkfoot Press 1997,
and RCAHMS
Categories
Iconography
- pictish symbols
- serpent
Photographer
- Michael Watt
Unavailable Data
- Date
- Related Artefacts
- Creator
- External Links
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