Denmark’s oldest writing discovered on a 2,000-year-old knife

They were used in northern Europe from the 1st or 2nd century AD until they were replaced by the Latin script during Christianization in the 10th century.

“The knife itself is unremarkable, but there are five runes on the blade, which is amazing in itself, but the age of those runes is even more surprising, because they actually came from Denmark. It’s the oldest one we have,” said archaeologist Jacob Bonde. 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 “Hirira,” which means “little sword” in the Proto-Norse language spoken at the time.

Bonde said the inscription was a “memo from the past.”

“This gives us the opportunity to look more closely at how Scandinavia’s oldest known languages ​​developed and how people interacted.”

“The owner wanted to show that he was some kind of warrior or wanted to be,” 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 are no books or large inscriptions.”

Denmark’s most famous rune stone was built in the 10th century in the town of Jelling and has a longer inscription.

Strongly identified with the creation of Denmark as a nation-state, they were raised by Harald Bluetooth in honor of their parents, King Gorm and Queen Thyra.

CBW/PO/BC