An Inscribed Silver Spoon from Ichtratzheim (Bas-Rhin)

Abstract

This article presents a Merovingian Period silver spoon that was recently discovered in an opulent female chamber grave in the “Niederfeld” row grave cemetery of Ichtratzheim (Bas-Rhin). The spoon has no less than three different inscriptions, one in seriffed Latin capitals and two in runes. The first contains a Latin male personal name, Matteus, the second a previously unattested runic lapela ‘spoon’, and the third a sequence abuda, presumably a female personal name. This makes it the second known example of an inscribed object with both runes and Latin from Merovingian Period Gaul. From a runological perspective, this is one of the most important discoveries in recent times because it contains the oldest known case of a linguistically meaningful runic inscription using the rare p-rune and some very archaic linguistic forms. From an archaeological perspective, this is one of the richest known Merovingian Period female burials in Alsace, and it is very likely that the buried woman may have been a leading member of the local elite.