Wroxeter Stone facts for kids

The Wroxeter Stone is a stone unearthed in 1967 at Wroxeter, England, formerly the Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum. It bears an inscription in an Insular Celtic language, identified by the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project (CISP) at UCL as "partly-Latinized Primitive Irish".

It was included in A History of Ireland in 100 Objects (# 21) under the name of the Cunorix Stone. It is in the care of English Heritage and in 2017 was not on public display. The inscription, probably on a re-used gravestone, is dated to 460-475 AD, and comes from a period several decades after the Romans abandoned Roman Britain, and Irish raiders had begun to make permanent settlements in South Wales and south-western Britain.

Inscription

The text of the inscription reads: CVNORIX | MACVSM/A | QVICO[L]I[N]E

This is traditionally rendered into words as: CVNORIX MACVS MAQVI COLINE

Translation: Cunorix son of Maqui Coline, where Cunorix and Maqui Coline are personal names.

The National Museum of Ireland render the inscription as: "Hound-king, son of the tribe of Holly". "Cunorix" may relate to the etymology of the name of Cynric of Wessex, a 6th-century king.