Caratacus Stone

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox historic site

| name =Caratacus Stone

| native_name =

| native_language =

| image =Caratacus Stone full view.jpg

| caption =Caratacus Stone, showing the inscription {{Smallcaps|CARAACI NEPVS}}

| locmapin =Somerset

| coordinates = {{coord|51.090527|-3.586698|display=inline,title}}

| gbgridref = SS88973355

| location =Winsford Hill, Exmoor, Somerset, England

| area =

| built =Sub-Roman period (approximately sixth century)

| architect =

| architecture =

| governing_body =

| designation1 =Scheduled Ancient Monument

| designation1_offname =Caratacus Stone

| designation1_date =

| designation1_number =1021228

| designation2 =

| designation2_offname =

| designation2_date =

| designation2_number =

}}

The Caratacus Stone, sometimes known as the Caractacus Stone, is an inscribed stone on Exmoor in Somerset, England. It is thought to date from the 6th century,{{PastScape|mnumber=35777 |mname=Caratacus Stone |accessdate=3 June 2011 }} and it has been a scheduled monument since 1925.{{NHLE|desc=Caratacus Stone|num=1021228|accessdate=9 June 2013}}

The inscription, in Latin, appears to read {{Smallcaps|CARAACI NEPVS}}, though experts have stated that a bar above the second {{Smallcaps|A}} forms a ligature meaning that it should be read as {{Smallcaps|CARATACI NEPVS}}.{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Thomas (historian) |title=And Shall These Mute Stones Speak? Post Roman Inscriptions in Western Britain |pages=288–9 |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-7083-1160-1}} It is possible that there was more text on the stone that has weathered away.

The inscription, which can be translated as "grandson or immediate descendant of Caratacus", has led to the general opinion that the stone was probably erected as a memorial to a person who claimed the first-century British chieftain Caratacus as an ancestor.

The first mention of the stone was in 1219, when it was described in a perambulation of the Royal Forest of Exmoor as "the Langeston". In 1890 the letter {{Smallcaps|N}} (which is reversed) was missing from the inscription, but by 1919 the missing piece had been found and was cemented back in place.{{Cite journal | last1 = Bruton | first1 = F. A. | title = The Caratacus Stone on Exmoor | journal = The Journal of Roman Studies | volume = 9 | doi = 10.2307/296006 | pages = 208–210 | year = 1919 | jstor = 296006 | s2cid = 163573086 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1449685 }} In 1906 a shelter was erected over the stone, and an excavation in 1937 revealed that the stone was not associated with a burial site.