Denmark's oldest runes inscribed on ancient knife

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Archaeologists in Denmark have discovered runic letters inscribed on a knife vane dating back nearly 2,000 year , making them some of the old runes ever found in the country .

The 3 - column inch ( 8 centimeter ) atomic number 26 vane was find in an ancient tomb near the city of Odense on the central island of Funen in 2021 and since then has been stored at the Odense Museum . But curators only latterly made out the lettering .

Side view of the blade of an 1800 year-old iron knife with Danish runes that seem to spell out the word "hirila."

The runes on the blade seem to spell out the word “hirila” which may mean “little sword” in the language used on the Danish island of Funen during the Iron Age.

Five runic letter inscribed on the vane spell the parole " hirila , " which may mean " little sword " in the terminology verbalize by the Iron Age citizenry who inhabited the region from about 500 B.C to A.D 400 .

The runic letter themselves seem to be a strain of the " Elder Futhark " script , which was used between the second and tenth centuries , saidJakob Bonde , a curator at the Odense Museum who made the uncovering of the runes .

" Little sword " on the knife blade could refer to the knife itself or to its owner , Bonde recite Live Science .

Man in gray sweater holds 1800 year-old iron knife inscribed with some of Denmark’s earliest runes in his palm.

Odense museum curator Jakob Bonde holding the 1,800-year-old iron knife inscribed with some of Denmark’s earliest runes.

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And while small is sleep together about the proprietor of the tongue , the fact that they could read and write at all marked them as a high - condition member of guild , he said .

" A runic inscription is like observe a message from the upstage past , " Bonde sound out in a statement . " It almost feel potential to hear their voices speaking . "

One side view of 1800 year-old iron knife with ornamental design possibly inspired by Roman designs.

The ornamental design on the other side of the blade may have been inspired by Roman designs, which were influential on Funen in the second century A.D.

expert hope the dedication will spill light on the other use of rune themselves and the ancient language they map .

Ancient grave

Bonde say the tongue was found in a grave at an archaeological site east of Odense in November 2021 and had been stored in the museum ’s archive . A few months ago , while cleaning the tongue , the museum ’s conservators point out that it had an cosmetic design on one side . The blade was pick further to reveal more of the design , and that ’s when Bonde noticed the rune on the other side .

He said the blade had been lay to rest as a " grievous good . " A pottery jar with three bronze breastpin was happen in the tomb above it , and their panache indicated the grave was from about A.D. 150 .

The rune have now been recognized as some of the oldest ever found in Denmark . The only others of the same age were bring out in 1865 on a ivory coxcomb from an archeologic situation a few miles away . The runes on the comb seem to write " harja , " which could simply signify " comb " or the name of the individual who owned it , Bonde said .

a decorated green sword

Runic alphabet

rune were used throughout Northern Europe for more than 1,000 old age to compose inscriptions in Germanic speech .

Some of theearliest are from Norway . Later Teutonic people , like the Anglo - Saxons in Britain , hadtheir own interpretation , while some of the most illustrious are onDenmark ’s Jelling Stonesfrom the tenth century . They are especially relate with theVikings , Norse citizenry who exist in Scandinavia between the eighth and 11th centuries .

After the Norse becameChristians , however , they prefer to publish with the papist ABC , and runes were no longer used .

A corroded bronze sword broken into three parts is reassembled on a long light-colored wooden board. The board is on the snow-covered ground, and a yellow measuring tape is expanded beside the sword.

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a photograph of an antler with carvings

One lineament of runes is their angular letters , which could be easily carved into endocarp , off-white or metallic element . But experts observe that the economic consumption of such angulate letters was also a feature of many other former ABC’s , and it ’s thought that the runic ABC’s may have developed fromother scripts , such as Raetic and Old Latin .

Bonde said the ornamental design on the other side of the blade from the runic letter may have mimickedRomandesigns and that the masses who lived on Funen at that time were heavily tempt by the Romans in lands far south .

Four views of a gold-covered figurine in the shape of a woman. She holds a shield and a sword and wears her hair in a ponytail. There is a small hole behind her neck, perhaps for hanging.

A whitish stone tool is stuck into a piece of brown wood with greyish tar. There is a hole drilled into the wood.

a close-up of a stamp with a warrior riding a horse

Fragment of a stone with relief carving in the ground

Stone-lined tomb.

Circular alignment of stones in the center of an image full of stones

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)