‘Giving’ and ‘Making’ in Early Runic Epigraphy

The paper investigates the potential role of the Raetic inscription corpus for the derivation of the Germanic futhark. It gives an overview of the North Italic corpora and the current state of research, focussing on the Raetic epigraphical evidence. A detailed comparison of the grapheme inventories of Raetic and Runic as well as their respective epigraphical characteristics shows that the Raetic alphabets do not serve as convincing models for the Runic script.

Raetic and Runes

Salomon

2020

Runic fragments from the Svingerud grave field in Norway

Zilmer,

Vasshus

2023

In 2021–2023, several rune-inscribed sandstone fragments were discovered by archaeologists of the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, at a Roman Iron Age grave field by the Svingerud road at Hole in eastern Norway. Several of these fragments fit together as parts of one larger sandstone slab. The main fragment with multiple inscriptions was unearthed in a flat grave (cremation) in November 2021. Radiocarbon dating of the organic material dated the burial to before 300 CE (Solheim et al., forthcoming). This article provides a detailed runological and linguistic account of the inscribed fragments, as of July 2023. The focus is on the main finds, while the work on numerous small fragments is ongoing. This find may shed new light on the features and functions of early runic writing.

The Vimose Dedication as Ritual Language

Mees¹

2015

The inscription on the Vimose buckle has been the subject of a long and diverse historiography. Taken in the light of early runic epigraphic typology, however, the inscription appears to preserve an early example of Germanic ritual language. Rather than a product of Romanisation (as archaeologists have assumed for similar votive bog finds), the inscription on the Vimose buckle is better understood in terms of the linguistic anthropology of dedicatory epigraphs. The Vimose text shows clear signs of being a thoroughly native expression, a linguistically archaic inscription which alliterates, features pro-drop, verb-final word order and athematic verbal inflection.