Runes inscribed on an ancient knife discovered in Denmark may be the oldest ever discovered in the country.
The 8cm blade, discovered in an ancient tomb, is engraved with five runes.
The 2,000-year-old knife was discovered on the central island of Funen, about 140 kilometers west of Copenhagen.
The runes spell out the word “hirala,” said Lisbeth M. Ymer, a runologist at the National Museum of Denmark.
This may be translated as “little sword” in the language of the people who lived there during Denmark’s Early Iron Age, between 500 BC and 400 AD.
A statement from the Montergaarden Museum near Odense said the “small sword” could refer to the owner of the blade or the knife itself. The object will be displayed at the Odense Museum along with other artefacts from the site.
The knife runes, which date back to about 150 AD, are the oldest known Norse script. The blade is about the same age as a bone comb with runic inscriptions discovered nearby in 1865, making it one of the oldest runic inscriptions found in Denmark.
The discovery comes a year after Norwegian archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old rune stone, possibly the world’s oldest.
A Norwegian runestone discovered in 2021 in another tomb near Tillifjord, west of Oslo, has been dated to between 1 and 250 AD.
As one of the earliest written documents in Scandinavia, discoveries like this are an important part of understanding and interpreting the use of writing in ancient Norse culture.
