Ogham stone

Small greensand baluster column bearing an inscription in ogham, an Irish script. This is the only example of a stem-line ogham inscription in southern Britain and dates from the late fourth or fifth century AD. It was found in a well in insula IX in 1893 and had crushed a pewter flagon beneath it.

John Rhys, Professor of Celtic at Oxford University, examined the stone on 8 August 1893 and identified the person named on it as Ebicatos. He rejected four marks he had originally thought to be part of the inscription considering only one of them to be deliberate. If three of these horizontal lines are accepted as part of the inscription, the name becomes Tebicatos.

Part of Insula IX is currently being re-excavated by the University of Reading.