| Corpus Refs: | Macalister/1945:448 Nash-Williams/1950:370 RCAHMW/1925:941 |
| Site: | SDAV1 |
| Discovery: | recognised, 1895 Williams, H.N. |
| History: | Rhys/1896, 104--106: `Last October I was again down in Pembrokeshire when Mr. Owen drove me and Mr. Lewis as far as Solva, where we took up Mr. Williams, Editor of The Pembroke County Guardian, who kindly informed us of an unpublished inscription a few miles off, in the direction of Mathry, at a farmhouse called Carn Hedryn, two miles north of Solva. Mr. Williams conducted us to the place, where the Rev. Thomas Lewis, Congregational minister, welcomed us, and told us all he knew about the stone. It is now a gate-post near the farmyard; but when Mr. Lewis bought the farm, a few years ago, it served another gate a few yards away from its present position. I think that I heard that the previous owner was Mr. Le Hunt...I understand that Mr. Henry Owen and Mr. Williams have had the stone removed to the neighbouring new church'. Williams/1896, 165--166: `This stone...has been purchased by Mr. Henry Owen, F.S.A., from the Rev. Thomas Lewis, Congregational minister, upon whose land it was found, for the sum of £5, and has now been moved within the porch of the Church of St. James the Great, Carnhedryn, with the permission of the Rev. Canon Lewis, vicar of the parish. The stone has been placed in the north-west corner of the porch, in an upright position, so the inscription may be read, and its base has been firmly fixed in cement'. Allen/1896, 290: `Placed within the porch of the Church of St. James the Great, Carnhedryn'. Rhys/1897a, 126: `The Carn Hedryn stone has, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Owen and the good offices of Mr. Williams, been set up inside the porch of the neighbouring church of St. Jude. We visited it together'. Macalister/1945, 425: `Discovered by Mr. H. N. Williams, of Solva, acting as a gatepost on the farm of Carn Hedryn, in 1896. Removed in the same year to the porch of the church, a chapel-of-ease in the parish of St. David's'. Nash-Williams/1933, 182, gives a reference to the Pembroke County Guardian for 30 November 1895. It seems likely, therefore, that the `find date' was actually in 1895, not 1896, cf. Rhys/1896, cited above. |
| Geology: | Williams/1896, 166: `Geologically, it is one of the quartz-felsite boulders common in the neighbourhood'. |
| Dimensions: | 1.4 x 0.48 x 0.36 (converted from Macalister/1945) |
| Setting: | in display |
| Location: | other Macalister/1945, 425: `in...the porch of the church, a chapel-of-ease in the parish of St. David's'. Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `Mounted (on a cement base) inside church porch'. |
| Form: | plain Rhys/1896, 105: `The inscribed gate-post stands about 4 ft. above ground, and it is 1 ft. 4 in width above the inscription, and the thickness at the top is about 7 ins., while about the middle it is about 11 ins'. Allen/1896, 301: `Rude pillar-stone'. RCAHMW/1925, 322: `The stone a height of 55 inches, with a base width of 20 inches, tapering to 15 inches at the top'. Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `Rough pillar-stone. 57+" h. x 20" w. x 14 1/2" t.'. |
| Condition: | complete , some Williams/1896, 166: `The stone...is but little affected by exposure'. |
| Folklore: | none |
| Crosses: | none |
| Decorations: | no other decoration |
| Rhys, J. (1896): | RINACI | NOMENA Expansion: RINACI NOMENA Translation: The Name of Rinac (PN). Rhys/1896 106--107 reading only |
| Macalister, R.A.S. (1945): | RINACI | NOMENA Expansion: RINACI NOMENA Jackson/1953 290 reading only Macalister/1945 425 reading only |
| Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950): | [R^P]INACI | NOMENA Expansion: RINACI NOMENA Translation: The relics (?) of Rinacus (PN) (lie here). Expansion: PINACI(S) NOMENA Translation: The relics (?) of Pinax (PN) (lie here). Nash-Williams/1950 205 reading only |
| Orientation: | vertical down |
| Position: | ind ; broad ; n/a ; undecorated Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `Latin inscription in two lines reading vertically downwards'. |
| Incision: | pocked Macalister/1945, 425: `pocked and rubbed'. Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `lightly picked'. |
| Date: | 400 - 533 (Nash-Williams/1950) 400 - 499 (Jackson/1953) Jackson/1953, 290. |
| Language: | Latin (rcaps) |
| Ling. Notes: | Rhys/1896, 106--107: `My reading of the whole is Rinaci Nomena, which is, however, only the beginning of my difficulties. At first I thought Nomena must be a proper name, and that the whole meant Rinaci filia Nomena; but I know of no other instance of such a formula with filia or filius left out. Another way of looking at the inscription would be to regard it as consisting of a name with an epithet appended to it, and treat Rinaci as a nominative feminine, say for Rinacis; but the conjecture has not led me to any solution of the difficulty. So I fall back on the possibility of Nomena standing for Latin nomina, just as we have Emeret-o on another Pembrokeshire stone for Emerito. But what would Rinaci Nomina mean? Dr. Stokes suggested to me that nomena is simply an instance of our Celts having made nomen into a feminine; and he adds that the Latin agnomen, when taken into Irish, was also treated as a feminine. This, I think, is the most probable interpretation, and RINACI NOMENA would accordingly mean The Name of Rinac, which proves an exact parallel to the formula of certain Ogam inscriptions occurring in Ireland. They usually begin with the word amn, followed by the genitive of the deceased person's name; and anm represents an early Goidelic form, anmen, which in modern Irish is ainm, `a name'. It happens that none of these anm inscriptions can be proved to belong to the oldest class of Ogams; but there seems to be no reason to suppose that the formula is not ancient'. Macalister/1945, 425: `Presumably we see here an attempt to render the Ogham formula ANM, though this has never yet been found in Wales'. Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `The exceptional formula employed in the inscription is possibly akin to that found in N. African epitaphs of the 4th century A.D. and later,[1] compounded of Nomina (in the sense of `relics' or `remains')+ Personal Names (Gen. Plu.), usually commemorating martyrs.[2] For nomine (Abl.) used in a different (literal) sense in another Welsh formula see No. 279. [1] See Mémoires présentés à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres de l'Institut de France, xii (1908), pp. 171, 188; HAE, [Kaufmann/1917] p. 217 f. Cf. ILCV, [Diehl/1927--31] i. 2093 (N. Africa---[chi-rho] Nomina Marturum Nivalis, Matrone, Salvi, &c.). For another Welsh formula with possible N. African antecedents see No. 138. [2] An alternative possibility is that suggested by Sir John Rhys and R. A. S. Macalister, that the formula on the present stone may be an adaptation of the Ogam combination Anm (`name') +personal name, found on some of the Irish Ogam stones (AC, 1896, [Rhys/1896] p. 107 CIIC, [Macalister/1945] p. 425). If nomena could be regarded as a local by-form of the Abl. nomine (cf. ILCV, [Diehl/1927--31] i, nos. 1542 (nomene), 2133 (nominae, Abl.)), the present inscription would be strictly analogous to No. 279'. See Jackson/1953, 168, note 2 for some discussion of the translation of anm by nomina, and Jackson/1953, 191, for the argument that the inscribed spelling NOMENA stood for for Latin nomina reflecting a rare occurrence in Britain of writing e for i. Thomas/1994, 92: `NOMENA (possibly for nomine)'. Thomas/1994, 204--205: `Nomine (for which nomena is probably an error), `by the name (of)', `in the name (of)', may treat nomen `personal name' as equivalent to `soul, spirit, spiritual individuality, good name, repute', with the chance of a (written) affection from the unrelated numen `divine nature' - used normally of divinities and emperors ... On a group of Irish ogam inscriptions, confined to the south-west ... the opening word is the nominative ANM (representing Primitive Irish *anmen `name', a cognate of nomen). This may carry the sense of `(Inscription of -A, of-the-son of -B)', ... Where Latin nomen, nomine, was re-cast in Irish'. |
| Palaeography: | Rhys/1876, 105--106: `fairly good Roman capitals. The first letter is somewhat doubtful. I am inclined to read R, but it might be a P. Further, the I at the end of the first word has a sort of oblique mark on the right of it, which gives it somewhat of the appearance of k, minus the upper flourish; but I think the letter is I, and that the rest an accidental scratch. It would probably be easy to clear away all doubts as to these letters if the stone were covered for a month or two with earth, so that the lichen could be washed clean away'. Rhys/1897, 126, examining the stone after it had been moved to the church: `We...satisfied ourselves that the proper name is Rinaci and not Pinaci'. Macalister/1945, 425: `Roman capitals...The top corner of the N is left slightly open, so that the letter looks like IV. There is, however, no doubt of the reading, which is confirmed by Equestri nomine and Llandanwg (416)'. Nash-Williams/1950, 205: `Roman capitals...R in l. 1, with incomplete or damaged tail, approximates in form to a P'. |
| Legibility: | some RCAHMW/1925, 322: `The letters are well preserved'. Macalister/1945, 425: `It is worn, but otherwise in good condition'. |
| Lines: | 2 |
| Carving errors: | 0 |
| Doubtful: | no |
Rhys/1896, 107: `As to the genitive Rinaci, the name may have possibly meant variegated, freckled, spotted, or particoloured, as it seems to correspond to the modern Irish and Scotch Gaelic rionnach, `a mackerel'. It occurs in the Book of the Dun Cow, fol 80b, where we read of Ocht rindaich, or `Eight men of the name Rinnach''.
Jackson/1953, 290, treats the name as British.