Newton Stone

The Newton Stone is an ancient pillar stone, found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The stone contains two inscriptions, one identified as Ogham, but the second script has never been positively identified and many different decipherments or theories have been proposed since the 1850's.

Discovery and relocation

The Newton Stone has been known since 1804 when the Earl of Aberdeen George Hamilton-Gordon discovered the stone by the opening up of a new road near Pitmachie Farm, Aberdeenshire, after local shephards told him of a "curious monument" that sat there.^[1][2] The stone was later taken and planted in the garden of Newton House, in the Parish of Culsamond about a mile north of Pitmachie Farm by the antiquarian Alexander Gordon, alongside another stone found closeby the Newton Stone at Pitmachie.^[3] George Hamilton-Gordon was indebted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for writing a letter describing the original position of the Newton Stone (and the other stone) since Alexander Gordon removed them from their original position which archeologists and historians at the time thought could have been of significance.^[4] Before being moved to the garden of Newton House and subsequently becoming known as the "Newton Stone", the stone was known by locals as the "Pitmachie Stone".^[5]

Inscriptions

The Newton Stone contains two inscriptions. The first an Ogham script, but the second has never been identified and became known from the early 19th century as the "unknown script".^[6][7][8] The Ogham script is engraved down the left-hand side of the stone and runs across part of its face, while across the top third of the stone, roughly central, is the unknown text or unidentified script which contains 6 lines comprising 48 characters in total.^[9]

The "other" stone found with the Newton Stone at Pitmachie does not contain any inscriptions but is a Pictish symbol-stone.^[10]

Illustration of the Newton Stone from John Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland (1856).

Decipherment theories

John Pinkerton first published the engravings of the Newton Stone in his Inquiry into the History of Scotland (1814) yet made no attempt to deciphere the unknown script. George Hamilton-Gordon's son Arthur Gordon first took these published engravings to Cambridge University in 1849 and scholars first took an interest in attempting to deciphere the unknown text.^[11] Various different theories regarding the decipherment or identification of the unknown script have been proposed since 1850's.

In 1864 antiquaran Alexander Thomson read a paper to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland addressing six claims of alleged decipherment theories of the Newton Stone:^[12][13]

• Phoenician (Rev. Nathan Davis)
• Celtic (Dr. Padre)
• Latin (Thomas Wright)
• Greek (Constantine Simonides)
• Egyptian Arabic (Dr. J. E Brown)
• Hebrew-Bactrian (Dr. George Moore)

References

1. ^ "The Newton Stone", R. A. Stewart Macalister, Antiquity Journal, Vol. 9, No. 36, 1935, pp. 389–398.
2. ^ "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland", Vol. 5, 1865, p. 224.
3. ^ On Some Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Duncht House Aberdeenshire, George Forrest Browne, Cambridge University Press, 1921, p. 111 [1]
4. ^ "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland", Vol. 5, 1865, pp. 224-225.
5. ^ In an opening letter by George Hamilton-Gordon published in John Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland, Vol. i, p. 2 (1856) the Newton Stone is called the "Pitmachie Stone".
6. ^ [2]
7. ^ Padel, O. J (1972) "A note on the ogham inscriptions on the stones at Newton and Logie House", Archaeology Journal, Vol. 129. Page(s): 196 ff.
8. ^ "The Newton Stone", Earl of Southesk, 1883, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol. 17. Page(s): 21-45.
9. ^ The Early Races of Scotland and Their Monuments, Forbes Leslie, Kessinger Publishing, 2005, p. 384.
10. ^ [3] [4]
11. ^ "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland", Vol. 5, 1865, p. 225.
12. ^ Thomson, A (1865) "Notice of the various attempts which have been made to read and interpret the inscription on the Newton Stone, Garioch, Aberdeenshire", Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.5, page(s): 224-34
13. ^ The Dublin University magazine, "The Many Voiced Newton Stone", Volume 68, William Curry, Jun. & Co, 1866, p. 45.

External links

• Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Newton Stone