Archaeologists have identified runes inscribed on the blade of an almost 2,000-year-old knife.
The discovery was made by researchers at the Odense Museum, who found the blade inside an urn in a small burial ground east of Odense.
The blade is estimated to date to around 150 AD, hundreds of years earlier than the runes inscribed on the world-famous Jelling Stone.
“It’s one of the most amazing things an archaeologist can experience, because it’s an incredibly rare find,” said Jacob Bonde, an archaeologist at the Odense Museum.
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Researchers say the blade runes are the oldest known runes and are made up of five runes, including the Old Norse word hirira, which means “little sword.”
Archaeologists from the Odense Museum are unable to definitively determine whether “Hirira” refers to the name of the blade or its owner. However, it was clearly an important property that was placed as a burial gift 2,000 years ago.
Lisbeth Immer from the National Museum said: “Finding runes as old as the ones on this blade is extremely rare and this is a unique opportunity to learn more about Denmark’s oldest written language, which was actually spoken during the Iron Age.” Ta. ”
Literacy was not widespread during this period, and being literate had distinct status and power. The early history of runic writing reveals that scribes, forming a small intellectual elite, were among the first in Denmark to possess these skills, and are the first traces of such a person. is found on the island of Funen.
Only one other example of runes from this period has been found in Denmark, around 150 AD, where a small bone comb inscribed with “Harja” was found at Vimossen (west of Odense).
Header image credit: Odense Museum
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