Thread by @Kristel_Zilmer

1. This thread is about a unique #runic find from Norway – the oldest datable rune-stone in the world. It can change our knowledge about early runic writing tradition and the custom of making rune-stones. #runology #archaeology Photo: George Alexis Pantos, @Kulturhistorisk

2. This small slab of sandstone is from ca. 1–250 CE. Found late in 2021 by archaeologists @Kulturhistorisk while excavating a grave field at Hole, Ringerike, eastern Norway. The stone has multiple thinly incised inscriptions – an extraordinary sight on such an early rune-stone.

3. As the museum’s runologist, it has been amazing to work with something as unique and significant. Here is one moment captured among the many hours spent on studying the find.

4. This is work in progress, and I'll add new threads over the coming weeks and months. Our team has experts in runology, archaeology, language history, name studies, and digital documentation. @steinarsol, @KristerVasshus, @SandEriksen, Judyta Zawalska & Justin Kimball.

5. First, let us go back to a rainy Friday afternoon in November 2021. I am sitting behind my computer in the office, about to wrap up things for the weekend. An e-mail from colleagues pops up in Outlook at exactly 15.50. With some photos attached.

6. It says (in Norwegian): “Today we have completed excavations of a grave field […]. A stone has turned up […] with what we think are runes. There are inscriptions on the flat side and along a narrow side. See the pictures below.”

7. I scroll down and catch a glimpse of the photos. All of the sudden, the tired haze of Friday afternoon is gone, and new energy kicks in. What is THIS?

8. There appear to be runes of the older futhark on the stone – the earliest version of the runic alphabet. A peculiar b-rune is present among other characters; it has four pockets instead of two.

9. Some sequences are easy to read, even based on the photos. However, as a runologist, you wait before you state anything definite. You have to learn more about the object and find circumstances.

10. Imitations and fakes do sometimes pop up. Some modern rune-stones are known from Ringerike where the excavations took place. One stands in the corner of my office for the time being.

11. E-mails are exchanged back and forth. Archaeologists explain that the stone was found inside a cremation pit, as part of an Iron Age grave field with four grave mounds. Charlotte Nueva Finnebråten and Karu Cavicchioli dug out the stone.

12. The cremation pit was located underneath a grave mound. The slab, originally probably part of a bigger stone, may have been a grave marker. Some objects from the site were dated to the Roman Iron Age.

13. The excavations took place in the historic district of Ringerike by Lake Tyri (Tyrifjorden) in eastern Norway. Read about the project here: norark.no/prosjekter/rin…

14. The stone, ca. 31x32 cm in size, lay roughly half a meter below the surface inside the grave. Later analysis showed that the bone fragments belonged to a younger adult.

15. The modest size of the fragment was helpful. Judyta Zawalska who led the excavations on the site, decided to transport the stone to the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, as a fine sample of the Ringerike sandstone, known from the area.

16. Some well-known Norwegian rune-stones from the Viking Age are made of the same sandstone, including the Dynna and Alstad stones, discussed in this earlier thread:

https://twitter.com/Kristel_Zilmer/status/1274268749105856512

17. Thin lines on the muddy stone were not easy to detect outside in dim November light. Judyta brought the stone to the museum. Arriving in Oslo, she noticed that there was something inscribed on the stone! This is how we @Kulturhistorisk met the oldest datable rune-stone.

18. The stone has several thinly incised inscriptions. Some look much like casual scribbles and doodles. We notice runes, rune-like signs, ornamental figures and even an underlying grid of intersecting lines.

19. The stone looks very different from what we would expect to find on early runic objects, in particular stones. Its collection of inscriptions brings to mind quickly sketched wall graffiti rather than a stone memorial.

20. Eight runes along the bottom of the front face catch your eye. These are more deeply incised than the rest. Most likely, this is a person’s name, read as idiberug. (The final rune could be a reversed 'n', but the shape itself is closest to 'g'.)

21. This may contain a case form of the name Idibera, saying: ‘For Idibera’. Other options are Idibergu/Idiberga, or the kin name Idiberung. Some runes may have their order altered; some may be missing. We also observe a few rune-like markings following the inscription.

22. The b-rune is interesting, and the same shape appears several times on the stone. There are zigzag figures and other motifs. The surface of the stone looks like a page where someone has practiced writing.

23. Along the right side, three larger characters stand out. These look much like the runes f, u and þ – the first three runes of the futhark. This would then be the earliest known attempt to inscribe part of the runic alphabet.

24. To the left we notice two short lines with runes. In addition, some twenty runes run along one narrow side. The line there has numerous consonants, and only a few vowels. Further work will show whether it contains an understandable message.

25. Our archaeologists, led by the project manager Steinar Solheim, have dated the rune-stone grave to ca. 1–250 CE. The age is determined on the basis of radiocarbon (C14) dating of charcoal and cremated bone fragments; this fits with the typological dating of some objects.

26. It is always tricky to date runic objects, as we lack reliable script-related or linguistic criteria. This latest find makes us reconsider some earlier used rune-typological features.

27. Runologists consider a bone comb from Vimose in Denmark, from around 160 CE, to be the earliest certain example of recorded runes. It is debated whether a short inscription on a fibula from Meldorf in northern Germany (ca. 50 CE) uses (proto)-runes or Roman letters.

28. Other known early runic inscriptions from Scandinavia date from the end of the second and the beginning of the third century. In Norway, a bronze figurine from Frøyhov, and a spear blade from Øvre Stabu are among early finds.

29. The earliest rune-stones have thus far been assumed to be from the late 4th / early 5th centuries. Some *may* be earlier, but this was impossible to prove. Find out more about rune-stones in the Runor and RuneS databases: app.raa.se/open/runor/sea… & runesdb.eu/find-list/

30. In Norway, there are some thirty rune-stones preserved from the first few centuries up to around 500/550 CE. Only very rarely, new discoveries are made of stones with inscriptions in the older futhark.

31. Our find – the oldest datable rune-stone – sheds new light on the early rune-stone tradition. It shows that rune-stones appeared in Scandinavia earlier than previously assumed. And: The stone is incredibly interesting thanks to its diverse inscriptions.

32. New chapters will be written about the history of runic writing. Our research continues and will be presented in a forthcoming study during 2023. Do keep an eye out on more runic news from Norway. And follow this space for updates on the oldest rune-stone in the world.