- Graham Senior, 55, was clearing his flowerbed when he made the discovery
- The sandstone rock bears an early form of Ogham script from Ireland
A teacher was left stunned after unearthing a stone with an ancient Celtic script from the 4th century while weeding in his garden in Coventry.
Graham Senior, 55, was clearing his overgrown flowerbed when he made the incredible discovery during lockdown in May 2020.
The sandstone rock has since been found to bear an early form of the Ogham script from Ireland, which is about 1,600 years old.
The 11cm (4in) stone is now on display in a museum as experts try to determine the full meaning of the mysterious relic.
The rectangular block features a series of lines engraved on three sides in a script mainly used in early medieval Ireland.
A teacher was left stunned after unearthing a stone with an ancient Celtic script from the 4th century while weeding in his garden in Coventry.
Scottish historian Professor Katherine Forsyth, from the University of Glasgow, partially translated the words to reveal a name: Mael Dumcil.
Graham believes the stone may have been worn as a memento by a Roman soldier who had left a loved one in Ireland.
Graham, a married father-of-two who is a geography teacher, said: ‘During lockdown at the end of May 2020 I was doing some weeding in the garden.
“I just saw this thing sticking out of the flower bed after digging it about four to five inches and thought, ‘that’s not normal.’
‘I could see that they weren’t animal scratches or anything like that and decided to investigate a little further.
‘My wife has a friend who is an archaeologist and we told her about it, expecting her not to be very impressed.
‘But she started to get very excited about it and before we knew it we were in contact with the local finds officer and various museums from all over the country.
‘No one can say with 100 percent certainty what it really is, but it dates from about 1,600 years ago.
Graham Senior, 55, was clearing his overgrown flowerbed when he made the incredible discovery during lockdown in May 2020
‘My house is about 100 meters from a Roman fort called Lunt, a tourist attraction and downstream of the River Sowe.
‘So we think a Roman soldier must have been running away from there when he dropped it and then got flooded.
‘It was possibly a memento from a loved one who had remained behind in Ireland, but it is clearly still quite a mystery.
‘It’s something very tangible – when you hold it in your hand it just feels good – like it’s meant to be held.
‘I didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out to be quite a remarkable thing to find while weeding the flower bed.
‘The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum has it now, but they made a nice 3D replica for me, so I have a nice souvenir of it.’
Teresa Gilmore, liaison officer for Staffordshire and West Midlands, told the BBC: ‘It’s a great find, we’re very lucky.
‘Most of the Ogham inscriptions that you generally find in the more Celtic areas – Scotland, Ireland and in Cornwall – you generally don’t find in the Midlands.’
Ms Gilmore said another theory was that Irish traders could have used this method to contact each other.
She thinks it could be linked to people coming from Ireland or to early medieval monasteries in the area.
The rock will go on display at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry from this weekend.
Ali Wells, curator of the museum, said: ‘It’s absolutely incredible. The language originates from Ireland.
‘So it was an exciting mystery to have found it in Coventry.
‘Coventry has been excavated over the years, especially the city centre, so there are not many new finds. It was quite unexpected.”