Mirror Runes?

[gutdwala]

Sorry to bump this, but I was looking at the Dahmdorf spearhead and
noticed the same thing. This has got me really curious. Not only is
the inscription 'read backwards', but the letters themselves are a
mirror image of what we would expect them to be. If one isn't
backwards, it's symmetrical. I'm just an amateur, but is it possible
that the photos we have are somehow flipped? Or perhaps it's a casting
issue, although I was under the impression that spears were forged
rather than cast. I haven't found any information confirming that this
is how they were supposed to be read and I find it hard to believe
that whoever made the inscriptions would have reason to flip them around.

T - symmetrical
I - symmetrical
L - mirrored
A - mirrored
R - mirrored
I - symmetrical
D - symmetrical
S - mirrored

R - mirrored
A - mirrored
N - this one is actually going the right way when read right to left,
but would be mirrored if it were left to right
J - symmetrical
A - mirrored












--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "gutdwala" <gutdwala at ...> wrote:
>
> Everytime I see a pic of the spearhead of Kovell, there's always some
> text mentioning that it's read right to left. Is it possible that the
> photo is just a mirror image? The L, R, S and A runes are all flipped,
> but if I just flip the image, it reads left to right, with the runes
> facing the right way. The logical conclusion would be that we're just
> looking at a mirror image, but since a lot of people have scrutinised
> it much more than I ever will, I'm guessing that there's some reason
> to think it's meant to be read this way?
>


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