What is recorded here

Rectnia gives up her name on a thin stone in Clonmacnoise, her letters preserved above a simple cross while three corners surrender to rain. She is not a queen in a ballad or a saint in a book, but a woman detailed enough to carve when death came. The chisel did not hurry. It set her name above the symbol, gave the frame stepped corners, and left the slab tall enough to stand between worlds.

Clonmacnoise grave-slab inventory (1992) number: CLN00076 Dimensions: H 0.56.5, W 0.39, T 0.03 Outline cross with rectangular terminals inside a single line frame. There are steps on the outside corners of the frame and an inscription above the frame preceded by an initial cross. Inscription: 'RECTNIA' Evidence of discovery: Macalister 1898-1905. Condition: Three corners slightly damaged. Some weathering. National Monuments Service, Photo number: 81-96, 483, 801 Lionard, Early Irish Grave-slabs, PRIA 60(1959-60), p 113, Fig 10, no. 11. The Clonmacnoise inventory was compiled by the Office of Public Works. A copy of the record for this slab is available for inspection in the relevant Archaeological Survey of Ireland (SMR) file. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Date likely to the early medieval period (7th–11th centuries AD), given the cross-slabs found in the Clonmacnoise area are typically Christian in origin. The stepped corners may reflect a symbolic or decorative motif associated with monastic or ecclesiastical tradition.

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