Danish archaeologists have discovered a small knife inscribed with runic inscriptions that is about 2,000 years old, marking the earliest traces of writing found in the country, the Odense Museum said.
The runic alphabet, also known as Runes, is the oldest known Scandinavian alphabet. These were used in northern Europe from the 1st or 2nd century AD until they were replaced by Latin script during Christianization in the 10th century.
“The knife itself is unremarkable, but there are five runes on the blade, which is surprising in itself, but the age of the runes is even more surprising, since they were obtained from Denmark. It’s the oldest one in existence,” said archaeologist Jacob Bonde. Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I haven’t written anything so far,” he said.
The iron knife, which dates back to around 150 AD, was discovered in a tomb in a small cemetery east of Odense in central Denmark. The five runes spell out the word “employment,” which in the Proto-Norse language spoken at the time means “little sword.” The inscription is a “memo from the past,” Bonde said.
“This gives us the opportunity to take a closer look at how Scandinavia’s oldest known languages developed and how people interacted.”
“The person who owned this wanted to show that he was a warrior or wanted to be a warrior,” Bonde said.
The first traces of human habitation in what is now Denmark date back to the Stone Age around 4000 BC, but there is no evidence of writing before the Roman Iron Age (0-400 AD).
Bonde said the small bone comb, discovered in 1865 and inscribed with runes, dates from about the same time as the knife.
When writing first appeared in Scandinavia, it was “mainly just small inscriptions written on objects, for example, there were no books or larger inscriptions.”
Denmark’s most famous runestone, built in the 10th century in the town of Jølling, has a longer inscription, strongly conscious of Denmark’s founding as a nation-state, and dedicated to his parents, King Gorm and Queen Thyra. It was developed by Harald Bluetooth in honor of. .