If you could head way back to Kerry County, Ireland in the year 5 AD, you’d find yourself amidst the Ogham alphabet as a series of notches and lines etched pristinely in stone.
Ongham stones are among Ireland’s most remarkable national treasures. These perpendicular cut stones bear inscriptions in the uniquely Irish Ogham alphabet, using a system of notches and horizontal or diagonal lines/scores to represent the sounds of an early form of the Irish language. The stones are inscribed with the names of prominent people and sometimes tribal affiliation or geographical areas.
Travel back to the current day and those markings, the earliest record of Irish written language, would be faded from the elements and history. Before the artifacts are destroyed any further by the unfolding entropy of time and the Universe, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is using an Artec Eva 3D laser scanner to render 3D models of all 400 Ogham stones to be made freely available online.
The 3D models will both help preserve the ancient records of 5 AD Ireland and provide ample information to archaeologists and linguists.
