ABCAR/1

Rhys/1873, 9: `Sept. 1...Persuaded him [Mr Wilkins] to come with me some six miles along the Brecon road in quest of a stone which Professor Westwood found used as a lintel of an out-house...The stone was in the same position, but the door had been walled up and a building made adjoining it'.

Westwood/1876, 64: `In one of my rambles in Brecknockshire I found this stone (to which I had been directed by the late Taliesin Williams of Merthyr Tydfil, and which had not been previously recorded) forming the lintel of a beast-house at Abercar, on the west side of the road from Brecon to Merthyr, about 100 yards north of the thirteenth mile-stone from the former place and two miles south of Capel-Nant-Ddw. The adjoining farm-house abuts on the turnpike-road, on the south side of a small rivulet, and a long barn and cow-house close adjoining are on the north side of a small brook (Cwm-Car) which crosses the road. The stone has one end built into the wall...Since my visit, the doorway, as we learn from Prof. Rhys, has been walled up, and a building made adjoining it'.

Rhys/Wilkins/1886, 95: `Some years ago...we found that the inscription was all covered by the doorway having been walled up...Since then Mr. Wilkins...and Mrs. Davies...[have extricated] this ancient monument, which is now open to easy examination on Mr. Wilkins's lawn at Merthyr Tydfil'.

Anon/1901, 61: `The Abercar inscribed stone was dislodged from its former inconvenient position as a lintel in a beast house at Abercar, and brought to Merthyr through the instrumentality of our [The Cambrian Association] Local Secretary, Mr. C. Wilkins. It has now been removed to St. Tydfil's Churchyard. and erected on a suitable pedestal near the entrance gate'.

Macalister/1945, 319--320: `This stone was discovered by Iolo Morganwg, whose son Taliesin Williams drew Westwood's attention to it. It was then doing duty as a door-lintel in a cattle-shed on the farm of Abercar, on the west side of the road from Merthyr Tydfil to Brecon...It was afterwards removed by Mr. C. Wilkins of Merthyr Tydfil to the lawn of his garden: and it is now in the parish church of the same town'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `Roughly quadrangular pillar stone'.

See also Rhys/Wilkins/1886.

Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `top fractured away...The stone appears to have been trimmed down in modern times'.

Macalister/1945, 321: `The peculiar ordo uerborum is capable of a very simple explanation. The engraver worked from a copy, prepared for him on a small writing tablet. The dictator wrote first ANNICCI FILIVS | TECVRI, in two lines, the second line coming close to the margin of the tablet. Then, perhaps, as an afterthought, he added HIC IACIT IN HOC TVMVLO in small letters; but he had not left himself sufficient room to squeeze in the words on a third line, so he had to set them out thus--- '

[Diagram showing the layout of the inscription]

Nash-Williams/1950, 178: `Hic in tumulo iacit, like the simple Hic iacit, is of Christian-Roman origin. It appears in Italy in the 4th century A.D., and subsequently comes into vogue, in variant forms, in N. Africa, Gaul, and (more rarely) Spain in the 5th and 6th centuries. It occurs in Wales on Nos. 41 [this stone], 289, and 409'.

Rhys/Wilkins/1886, 95--6: `The lower part [of the letter S in the second line] ...was perpendicular, so I regard it as having been the same sort of s as that in singno on the Caldy Stone...or as the ss in Trenegassi on the Cilgerran Stone...This, it will be seen, would not stand alone as a miniscule in the Abercar Stone; for there we find one h (I think two), and the rounded E is more minuscule than otherwise.

`Among the other characteristics of the lettering, it may be mentioned that the N has its first limb longer than the others, especially in IN. The letters LI form the usual ligature, the I falling below the line and attached to the extremity of the L.'

Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `Roman capitals, with half-uncial H, lightly picked. The lengthened first stroke of the N's may also show half uncial influence. The ligature of LI in l. [line] 1 follows Roman cursive practice. The A with the open cross-bar in l. 2 also approximates the cursive form.'

Macalister/1945, 320--321: `The lettering...is in good condition; except that the top of the C in IACIT is broken, the proceding IA is faint, and a triangular flake has been broken from the T of TECVRI...The first letter of each line is also cut or broken away. An appendage resembling the tail of a Q projects from the final O, but it is only a fracture'.