[gothic-l] ØVRE STABU runes - from 2nd century.

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

I just checked Looijenga's book once more
for the age of the oldest runic inscriptions.

First, Looijenga quotes Jørgen Ilkjær, the Danish
archaeologist who has published the Illerup Årdal
finds, who in a paper on 1996, that Looijenga
refers to in Ch.3, page 40 of her book, states
that the oldest runic object is the comb from
Vimose, and gives 160 AD as its date.
(combs can be dated accurately because of the
organic material they are made from)
The Vimose comb bears the inscription HARJA.
(which incidentally is the same as the 1st part
of the Negau name)

Then she is still quoting Ilkjær when she mentions
that the Vennolum type lanceheads to which the
runic lanceheads belong (Typ 15 in the catalog),
were widespread in Scandinavia, but that only few
lanceheads from the Continent show some similarity
and that only one item from Poland is of the Vennolum
type. Now the runic spearhead found at ØVRE SPARBU
in Norway in 1890, belongs to the Vennolum type
and has been dated to the second half of the 2nd
century. It is thus of approximately the same age
the HARJA comb found at Vimose. It is the SPARBU
spearhead that has the afnmous RAUNIJAR inscription.

In another place I also read:
"one of the oldest [runic] items from outside
Denmark is the Norwegian ØVRE STABU spearhead
of the Vennolum type (see Capter II, 4 and further),
dated to the second half of the second century."

Ilkjær also found that iron ore from Nord Trøndelag
(in middle Norway) had been used to manufacture the
spearheads.


I will finish by adding another Looijnga quote.
On page 79 she writes:
"Runic knowledge among the Goths, if there was any
was most likely tied to Scandinavia, because the Goths
originated from there, and because there were continuous
contacts between Denmark and the Black Sea region in
which the Goths had settled."

Best regards
Keth



Also: MIRROR RUNES  and TREMOLO STYLE.




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