A Woman's Footprint: Ancient Rune Stone Linked to Several Mysterious Messages

According to the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo, runes were the basis of the first Germanic writing system during the first few centuries AD and were used in Scandinavia until the late Middle Ages. According to the museum, it is believed that the Germans drew inspiration from the Latin alphabet to create hieroglyphs, but the exact origins of the runes and how they were used remain unclear.

Numerous rune-carved stones found across Scandinavia contain fascinating messages, such as one about a powerful Viking queen or a warning of drastic climate change based on past events. But many of these stones date back to the Viking Age, roughly 800 to 1050 A.D., and only a few examples of early runes exist, CNN notes.

Archaeologists who initially unearthed the oldest known runestone in 2021 while investigating an ancient burial site in eastern Norway found a large piece covered in runic inscriptions. But as fieldwork continued, the researchers found additional sandstone fragments, some with similar runic inscriptions, in other nearby graves.

The pieces seemed to fit together, and some runic writing from one stone continued onto the other, leading the scientists to realize that all of the fragments had once been part of a single stone. The research team published their new findings in the journal Antiquity.

The way the stone was broken suggests that the stone was intentionally fragmented, with individual pieces placed in various burials that occurred later, CNN notes. Over time, runestones were used as memorials or to mark events. The ritual use of this particular runestone changed over time, according to the latest findings.

The stone fragments, including the original 2021 find, were buried alongside cremated human remains, allowing researchers to confirm that the rune stone fragments are the oldest ever documented. Radiocarbon dating showed that the fragments date to between 50 BC and AD 275.

“Because of the rarity of runestones found in archaeological excavations, we had little concrete evidence regarding the early use of runic inscriptions on stone and the age of the earliest runestones,” said study co-author Dr. Christel Zilmer, professor of runology at the University of Oslo History Museum. “The inscribed fragments are such a rare exception, and they also feature a remarkable combination of multiple inscriptions and other markings – unlike anything previously seen on runestones.”

But the fragments also hold new mysteries, including clues contained in cryptic runic symbols that are difficult to translate, as well as unexpected clues about the identities of the carvers themselves. And these findings may help researchers better understand how rune stones changed over time.

Archaeologists have found runic inscriptions on various objects, including a bone comb and an iron knife, in addition to rune stones that had various uses. In any case, translating the runes is difficult because the Germanic languages ​​they represented changed over time.

“The runestones likely had both ceremonial and practical significance,” notes Dr. Zilmer. “The grave field and the original (single) tombstone suggest commemorative and dedicatory intentions, while the subsequent use in a single burial sheds light on later pragmatic and symbolic expressions.”

The research team initially began investigating the Svingerud grave field – the source of numerous archaeological finds from the past – in the Norwegian municipality of Hol (40 kilometres northwest of Oslo) as part of a “rescue excavation” that was carried out in anticipation of the construction of a new highway and railway, says lead researcher Dr Steinar Solheim, associate professor of archaeology at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History.

The inscriptions on the stones found at the site are particularly intriguing because they appear to reflect multiple inscriptional activities, “showing a fascinating combination of deliberate, clear writing, attempts at writing, and script-like or ornamental motifs,” Dr. Zilmer emphasizes.

The unknown signs may represent early versions of runes, but researchers have difficulty telling when the various inscriptions were made.

One of the inscriptions on the Svingerud stone, now known as the Hole 2 stone, stands out: it is a single word, or name, Idiberug. Researchers cannot determine the exact meaning, so they believe it was the name of a person, possibly a woman.

The clearest inscription is on the stone with hole 3 and appears to be the signature of the person who inscribed the rune.

“The text begins with the word ‘I,’ followed by the name of the author of the inscription, then a verb indicating an action (‘wrote’), and finally the word ‘rune,’ which refers to the inscription as a whole,” Zilmer says.

“The name of the artist who carved the runes is difficult to determine due to the faint outlines of the runes and the weathered areas of the surface,” adds Zilmer. “We have proposed several possible readings. The most intriguing feature is the -u ending, which suggests that it could be a woman’s name. If so, this would be the earliest known reference to a woman writing runes.”

In the runic script, the ending -u is feminine. At this stage of their research, the authors hesitate to connect the potential female inscriber of the inscription on the stone with the hole 3 with the probable female name Idiberug on the stone with the hole 2.

The team's work to identify more of the additional small fragments discovered in 2023 continues, with researchers still trying to determine the best way to piece them together.

“The problem is that it’s an incomplete puzzle — we’re missing significant pieces, and there are obvious gaps,” Zilmer says. “But we think it should be possible to determine how many of the smaller pieces might be connected to the larger pieces or to each other.”

Dr Lisbeth Ymer, curator and senior researcher at the National Museum of Denmark, believes the stones will force researchers to question their understanding of rune stones, which typically served as memorials to people's names and prevent them from fading over time.

“But the Svingerud stone challenges this perception because it was carved with runes, then it was destroyed, then a new inscription was carved on it, and so on,” Ymer notes. “So maybe we should not see it as a rune stone, but as something else entirely. There are still mysteries to be solved.”

Previous research had identified three burial mounds at the Svingerud excavation site, but during the new excavations, archaeologists discovered cremations in a fourth mound and two flat graves.

The team began by excavating cremation pits, or simple graves with few or no above-ground markers, which were common from the Late Bronze Age (1750-500 BCE) to the Roman Iron Age (1-400 CE). The team found cremated adult bones, charcoal and other grave goods, as well as a reddish-brown stone slab with runic inscriptions hidden beneath a younger burial mound.

The team also found pottery, brooches, belts, needles and bone comb fragments, and since 2022 they have continued to find sandstone fragments with traces of inscriptions. One of these, called Hole 3, had runes and lines running across it. The runes served as the beginning and end of inscriptions on two larger fragments found nearby.

The largest fragment the team discovered, called Hole 1, was found vertically placed in the grave and has no signs of a runic inscription, leading the researchers to speculate that it was once the base of an upright stone.

When Holes 2 and 3 were examined in March 2023, “it quickly became apparent that they fit together,” Zilmer said, suggesting the stone was originally intended to mark a single grave before being broken into pieces to commemorate later burials. It’s also possible that the individual graves are connected in some way that remains unknown, according to the study.

Imer believes the stone fragments are an extremely interesting find because they were found in a burial field, allowing for radiocarbon dating.

In a January 2011 study, Ymer suggested that the earliest runestones may date to the late Roman period, between 160 and 375 AD, “due to stylistic features of the rune shapes and linguistics, and that the earliest runestones were probably erected in Norway,” she said.

“I’m very pleased to see that Norwegian scientists can now confirm this chronology,” says Ymer. “The carbon-14 dating they’ve been able to establish for the Svingerud stone places it between 50 BC and 275 AD, which covers quite a wide time range, but it fits in quite nicely with the earliest inscriptions we know from other types of materials and objects: brooches, weapons and other personal equipment.”