Piecing Together the Puzzle of the World's Earliest Datable Rune Stone
upstart writes:
Piecing together the puzzle of the world's earliest datable rune stone:
Piecing together fragments of the world's earliest known rune stone shows they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and may have been separated intentionally, shedding light on the varied pragmatic and ritual aspects of early Germanic rune stones.
Runes were the letters used to write Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet, the oldest of which were in use until about AD 700. However, how these runes originated and were used is unclear.
"The development of runic writing and the practice of inscribing runes on stone are difficult to trace," says Dr. Kristel Zilmer, professor in runology at the University of Oslo, and member of the research team behind a new publication in Antiquity.
Thus, the discovery of several sandstone fragments inscribed with runes at the grave field of Svingerud, Norway, is exciting, as they shed light on early use of runic writing on stone and feature multiple intriguing sequences of runes alongside other puzzling markings. The archaeological contexts of the finds provide excellent opportunities for dating the rune stone by radiocarbon dates.
The pieces of stone were found in separate graves. Through meticulous archaeological investigations over three field seasons and analysis of the fragments in the lab, the research team found that they fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. By piecing together the fragments, the team were able to detect several runic inscriptions.
[...] This suggests that the original, large stone was intentionally fragmented, scattered and incorporated into later burials. Perhaps the stone was initially intended to mark one grave, but was fragmented to commemorate subsequent burials.
This invites a different perspective on the rune stone: could some of the unidentified symbols bridge the gap between ornamental script and early writing? Was the fragmentation and scattering of rune stones a means to connect different graves across the grave field?
Journal Reference: Inscribed sandstone fragments of Hole, Norway: radiocarbon dates provide insight into rune-stone traditions, Antiquity (2025). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2024.225
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