Archaeologists in Denmark have discovered runic letters inscribed on a knife blade dating back nearly 2,000 years, making them some of the oldest runes ever found in the country.
The 3-inch (8 centimeters) iron blade was found in an ancient grave near the city of Odense on the central island of Funen in 2021 and since then has been stored at the Odense Museum. But curators only recently made out the inscription.
Five runes inscribed on the blade spell the word “hirila,” which may mean “little sword” in the language spoken by the Iron Age people who inhabited the region from about 500 B.C to A.D 400.
The runes themselves seem to be a form of the “Elder Futhark” script, which was used between the second and 10th centuries, said Jakob Bonde, a curator at the Odense Museum who made the discovery of the runes.
“Little sword” on the knife blade could refer to the knife itself or to its owner, Bonde told Live Science.
And while little is known about the owner of the knife, the fact that they could read and write at all marked them as a high-status member of society, he said.
“A runic inscription is like finding a message from the distant past,” Bonde said in a statement. “It almost feels possible to hear their voices speaking.”
Experts hope the inscription will shed light on the early use of runes themselves and the ancient language they represented.
More: Denmark’s oldest runes inscribed on ancient knife | Live Science
Tom Metcalfe 