The database includes every non-Runic inscription raised on a stone monument within Celtic-speaking areas (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Dumnonia, Brittany and the Isle of Man) in the early middle ages (AD 400-1000). There are over 1,200 such inscriptions. In dealing with such a large corpus limitations of time have meant that, for this version of the database, the entries for Wales, Scotland, Dumnonia, Brittany and the Isle of Man, are fuller than those for Ireland. These problems will be rectified before the final version is released (June 2001). The final release will also see the search facility greatly enhanced.
Information on the stones has been broken down into three main types - SITE, STONE, and INSCRIPTION.
SITE: Includes information on the physical character and/or history of the site.
STONE: Includes information on discovery, location, condition, size, form and
decoration.
INSCRIPTION: Includes information on legibility, position, script, linguistics and
readings.
Within each of these you can find bibliographic references that are linked to the bibliography
Links to IMAGES of many of the stones can be found within the INSCRIPTION pages.
CISP has given each site, stone and inscription a 'unique identifier' to aid searching. Thus each stone and each inscription from each site has been placed in sequential order beginning with 1. An example of this follows:
SITE: The sites with inscriptions have been listed alphabetically (including alternative names, and names in the modern Celtic vernaculars). These can be found with links to the main entries through the Site Index - Alphabetical.
REGION: Listings of all the sites with inscriptions have also been grouped by county and country (Ireland is treated as a whole, and Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man are treated individually). These can be found with links to the main entries through the Site Index - Geographical.
CISP CODE: Working on the above explained principle, a list of CISP site codes, with links to the main entries, can be found by looking at the Site Index - CISP code.
PERSONAL NAME: All the personal names within the database have been listed alpabetically (including fragmentary names). These can be found, with links to the main entries, through the Name Index - Alphabetical. This will by-pass the site entry and take you straight to the INSCRIPTION entry.
NAME OF STONE: Some stones, such as Men Scryfa, are also known by a particular name. These can be found, with links to the main entries, through the Stone Index - Named Stones.
CORPORA: A Stone and inscription can also be found by using a recognised corpus number, such as Macalister/1949, no. 743, or Okasha/1993, no. 21. This will by-pass the site entry and take you straight to the STONE entry.
If you know the CISP code of a site, or stone, or inscriptions type it in the box below, and click SEARCH (Hitting return will simply take you to HOME).
If you know the Corpus number of a stone, select the Corpus from the table, and type the number in the box below and click SEARCH (Hitting return will take you to HOME).
Within these web-pages is the facility to e-mail the CISP team of Dr. Mark Handley and Dr. Kris Lockyear. This has been done to ease the collection of comments (and criticisms) from users of the database. It is our hope that if users find an error, or realise that there has been an omission, they will let us know so the problem can be rectified. It is our intention to make corrections and improvements through periodic updates. PLEASE NOTE: THE SITE NOTES OF SOME OF THE FILES HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED IN THE COURSE OF ELECTRONIC CONVERSION; these are now being systematically checked and corrected (1 September 2000) but this will take time; do please, however, advise us of any errors of this type that you find.
A complete database manual is available, covering all aspects of the CISP database in detail. This is available in two formats:
The html manual is also linked contextually from the data pages.We would like to thank Katherine Forsyth, Jost Gippert, Elisabeth Okasha and Charles Thomas for permission to quote from their works extensively, and the National Museum of Wales and Four Courts Press for granting permission to use works and images for which they hold the copyright.
This website was designed and generated from the database by Mike Gahan.