What Is Ogham?
Ogham is the earliest written form of Primitive Irish, the oldest of the Gaelic languages.
Ogham was used in Ireland and parts of England, Scotland and Wales between the2nd and 6th centuries.
Though its actual origins remain a mystery today, it is believedthe Celts desired a cryptic alphabet that could not be deciphered by Roman Britain.
Represented as a series of perpendicular and intersecting lines, this ancient script isthought to be influenced by the Latin alphabet using 20 characters.
It is most commonlywritten vertically and is read from bottom to top. When presented horizontally, it is readfrom left to right.
Ogham was carved into stones to mark land boundaries or tocommemorate a member of the community.
Today there are roughly 400 survivingstones featuring proper names, ancestral and tribal affiliations, and Latin words.