THE DISCOVERY:
In autumn 2021, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo investigated a grave on a plot of land near Tyrifjorden.
The Museum of Cultural History has carried out the archaeological excavation of the burial field at Hole as part of the planned road and railway development (Ringeriksporteføljen) by Nye Veier AS between Sandvika and Hønefoss.
While carrying out explorations of the terrain west of Oslo (Norway) in the Svingerud area, a stone the size of a book was found, which is believed to have served as a tombstone or as an indicator of a burial place.
Upon closer inspection, researchers were surprised to find that this stone contained very fine lines that drew inscriptions in the Old Futhark.
ANTIQUITY OF DISCOVERY:
The stone with runic inscriptions was found among one of the archaeological layers that were discovered during the excavation.
These layers contain the answer to how archaeologists were able to arrive at a first-hand estimate of its age: They count each layer of sediment that has accumulated on the tomb and thanks to these calculations they can determine the approximate era of its creation.
But the more they dug, the more objects they found. Beneath one of the mounds were the remains of an older grave, dating back to before the custom of mounds gradually became less common. The researcher in charge of the excavation, surnamed Solheim, said that this is what archaeologists call a flat-floored grave.
This type of grave was quite common and typical of funerary finds of the period. A deceased person was cremated on a pyre, and the remains of both the corpse and the pyre were placed in a pit or container.
It was in this area of mortuary containers that the Svingerud Stone was found, and to the good news of the researchers, this layer contained remains of birch and pine charcoal, as well as burnt human bones. Thanks to this, the use of Carbon 14 could be carried out without problem, resulting in the bones, the charcoal, and the tombstone being dated to the year 250 BC.
This makes the Svingerud stone the oldest known runestone. Since the connection between the stone and the dated remains is so clear, it gives researchers a more visible idea of when people started making runestones.
WHAT THE STONE BLOCK LOOKS LIKE AND WHAT IT SAYS:
This ancient Norwegian runestone is attracting international attention among runic scholars and archaeologists. The inscriptions are over 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.
Sometime over 2,000 years ago, someone stood near Tyrifjorden and carved runes into the 31 x 32 cm block of reddish-brown sandstone.
On the front side of the stone, eight runes stand out clearly among other inscriptions. Converted into Latin letters, they are written: idiberug.
It is speculated that the tomb may have belonged to a woman named Idibera (historical recorded name) however, there is also speculation that the name Idibergu or Idiberung was intended to be written.
The ways of writing the oldest rune inscriptions varied greatly, and the language has changed considerably from the time these runes were carved through the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. Interpreting the messages in stone is therefore a challenge.
The stone has several types of inscriptions. Some lines form a grid pattern, there are small zigzag figures and other interesting marks. Not all of them make linguistic sense, and one might get the impression that someone has imitated, explored or played with the writing. Perhaps the carver or carvers were in the process of learning how to carve runes.
The inscriptions were carved (possibly) with the point of a needle or knife, on a reddish-brown Ringerike sandstone block measuring 31x32 cm (12.2x12.6 in).
Runologist Kristel Zilmer, professor of written culture and iconography at the Museum of Cultural History, worked on interpreting the inscriptions on the runestone throughout 2022.
According to Zilmer, Viking Age runestones are probably the best known, and in that case you tend to think of monumental stones with deeper runes carved into them; but someone has carved small, shallow scratches into the Svingerud stone. Some of the markings look like scribbles, while others form clearer words.
Zilmer also claims that the dating of the remains of the funeral pyre found with the Svingerud stone is so unique that it could change the timeline of runestones in Norway. “In light of the Svingerud Stone we can begin to wonder whether some other stones may be older than we previously thought.”
These questions make sense, since many of the stones we know today and have dated to certain points in history were analyzed throughout the 20th century, but with current technological advances, we can arrive at much more accurate and precise approximations of the age of many objects and remains, opening the possibility for Runic researchers to re-evaluate the dating of all archaeological remains with the new technology. This could yield many surprises.
The question of when people started carving runes on stones currently has no answer. The oldest known inscribed runes to date come from a comb found in Vimose in Denmark. It is dated to around 160 AD, according to the Encyclopedia of World History.
Zilmer also notes that further results will be forthcoming from the study of the runestone. Researchers are working with 3D models of the stone and scientific papers, as well as different ways of reading and interpreting the inscriptions.
“This may be a memorial stone, where a person more skilled in runes has inscribed the name. Then there may be several others who have tried to imitate some symbols or create their own versions of these runic forms,” he said.
EXTRA DATA:
- The stone is named after the site where it was found, Svingerud, Norway, and to this day is generally referred to as Svingerudsteinen ("the Svingerud stone").
- The first three runes of the runic alphabet, ᚠ (f), ᚢ (u) and ᚦ (th), are found in one place on the stone, making it the oldest known occurrence of this sequence.
- The University of Oslo has put the stone on public display from January 2023 until the end of February 2023.
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