Ogam stone inscriptions and Igbo column-writing: A comparison
Dir. Prof. Catherine Acholonu-Olumba
Nigeria
Summary: Ogam (also spelt Ogham) was the earliest form of writing and communication known in the British Isles and in Scandinavia, where ancient traditions insist that it was introduced by the Druids, who, according to the indigenous traditions of the Isles, were black African dwarfs and migicians. Research conducted by Marija Gimbutas has linked Ogam with the "Old European Script" dating back to 5300 BC (Marija Gimbutas "The Language of the Goddess", see Ego Nyland Website, 1996). Ogam appears to have a connection with the ancient Cretan script called 'Linea-A' (see Plate 4) which like Ogam was written in columns and strokes. Ogam inscriptions appear as etchings on thousands of stone monoliths scattered throughout Ireland. Irish scholars maintain that Ogam is much older than their native Celtic language, which is as good as saying that those who wrote Ogam lived in Ireland before the genetic ancestors of today's Irish people appeared in the land. The Catherine Acholonu Research Center, Abuja has conducted research on the phenomenon called Ogam and come to the conclusion, based on the ease with which the until then never-before-translated Ogam writings, actually translated into a tonal language in Nigeria - a West African country - Igbo to be precise, that Ogam belongs to the Niger-Congo body of tonal languages of West Africa.