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Fragments of the oldest rune stone in the world were found in an ancient Norwegian burial ground
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Inscriptions on the stones were determined to be the earliest known form of runic writing, which could hint at the largely unknown origins of runes
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The stones are actually broken off from the same slab of rock, even though they were in different graves, prompting questions as to what they were intended for
In an Iron Age burial ground surrounded by towering pines, rock fragments from the past have surfaced, and the faintly visible runes inscribed on them are whispering more to us about the practices and rituals of a civilization long since vanished.
It is rare to find a rune stone with early forms of runic writing. Now, pieces of sandstone from the Svingerud burial field in Hole, Norway, are thought to be the oldest rune stones in the world. Archaeologist Steinar Solheim, of the University of Oslo, and his team of researchers found that the approximately 2,000-year-old pieces had been broken off a single stone and possibly engraved by multiple individuals. There is some uncertainty on what the runes actually say—and if all the markings are meant to be letters.
“The Hole rune-stone is distinctive due to its multiple runic sequences and other visual elements,” the team said in a study recently published in Antiquity. “Some ambiguous markings illustrate the challenging distinctions drawn between early writing and non-writing.”
While the origins of runic writing are shrouded in mystery, its earliest form is known as the older futhark, which matches the runes carved on the Hole rock specimens. Radiocarbon dating of cremated human remains, charcoal, and artifacts from the graves where these rock fragments were found determined that they must have been inscribed from about 50 BC and 275 AD. Further analysis of the inscriptions involved identifying the characteristics of the runes and how they compared to other runic writing from around the same time period.
Solheim found that some of the rune sequences, which may have been intended as epigraphs, translated to words in the early Ancient Nordic Language. Others remained unclear. The writing on one of the fragments, Hole 2, is particularly interesting because it reads “idiberug.” This may be a reference to the deceased or something else entirely.
“One possible interpretation is a compounded female name Idibergu,” the researchers said in the same study, “[and] the second element ‘bergu’ may correspond to…a feminine noun meaning ‘help’; ‘protection’; ‘relief’; ‘shelter.’”
“Idi” was traced back to a word that refers to something recurring or everlasting. This could be a link to the afterlife, or even a sign that the writer was a woman. Also, whether the name Idibergu was misspelled on the stone, or the word was meant to be “idiberug” for a different reason, can be debated. The rune that translates to the “g” at the end could have also been ornamental or an early form of another rune that is not recognizable. Meanings and contexts of this and other words on the fragments are still vague.
Another enigma surrounds the Hole fragments. They were originally recovered from different graves and pieced together to reveal a slab of rock that had been purposely broken into pieces for an unknown reason. What possible uses did these rune stones have, and why were they fragmented?
Rune stones were often used as gravestones with inscriptions that memorialized the dead. The scientists think that it is possible that the Hole stones started as one grave marker, which was later broken into pieces and used for later burials, possibly for members of the same family. This offers a viable explanation for why it appears to have been written on by more than one person. However, a specific reason for the breaking of the stones and their use still eludes Solheim.
“The recorded [runic writing] may show some early variants of runes, used on stone,” he said. “[They] will necessitate new assessments of other early rune-stones and their relative chronologies in future research.”
Someday, the meanings of these mysterious epigraphs may finally be set in stone.
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