Danish archaeologists have discovered runes inscribed on the blade of a knife dating back almost 2,000 years. This is one of the oldest runes ever discovered in Denmark.
The 3-inch (8 cm) iron blade was discovered in an ancient tomb near the city of Odense on central Funen Island in 2021 and has since been kept at the Odense Museum. However, curators have only recently uncovered the inscription.
Five runes engraved on the blade spell out the word “Hirira”, which means “little sword” in the language spoken by the Iron Age people who lived in the area from about 500 BC to 400 AD. It is thought to mean.
He said the runes themselves appear to be a form of “Elder Futhark” script, used from the 2nd century to the 10th century. Jacob BondeCurator of the Odense Museum, where the runes were discovered.
Bonde told LiveScience that the “little sword” on the knife’s blade could refer to the knife itself or to its owner.
Related: World’s oldest rune stones may contain the earliest written examples in Scandinavia
And while little is known about the knife owners, the fact that they were even remotely literate suggests they were high-ranking members of society, he said.
“Runic inscriptions are like finding messages from the distant past,” Bonde said in a statement. “I feel like I can hear them talking.”
Experts hope the inscription will shed light on the early use of the runes themselves and the ancient language they represented.
ancient tomb
Bonde said the knife was discovered in November 2021 in an archaeological tomb east of Odense and was kept in the museum’s archives. A few months ago, museum conservators were cleaning the knife when they noticed a decorative design on one side. The blade was further cleaned to reveal more of the design, and that’s when Bonde noticed the runes on the other side.
He said the knife was buried as a “grave item”. A pottery jar with three bronze brooches was found in the tomb above it, and its style indicates that the tomb dates from around 150 AD.
This rune is recognized as some of the oldest ever discovered in Denmark. The only other specimen of similar age was found in 1865 on a bone comb at a site several miles away. Bonde said the rune on the comb appears to be spelled “Harja,” which could simply mean “comb,” or the name of the person who owned it.
runes
Runes have been used throughout Northern Europe for over 1,000 years to write inscriptions in Germanic languages.
Several The oldest one is from Norway. Later Germanic peoples, like the Anglo-Saxons of Britain, our own versionsome of the most famous ones are on, Danish Jelling Stones From the 10th century. They are especially vikingsNorse people who lived in Scandinavia from the 8th to the 11th century.
After becoming Nordic, christianHowever, they preferred to write in the Roman alphabet, and the runes fell into disuse.
One of the characteristics of runes is their angular character, which allows them to be easily carved into stone, bone, and metal. But experts point out that the use of such angular letters was also a feature of many other early alphabets, and it is thought that runes may have evolved from runes. Other characters such as Raetic and Old Latin.
Bonde said the runic decorative design on the other side of the blade may have been imitated. roman It can be seen that the people living on the island of Funen at that time were strongly influenced by the Romans, who were located further south.