Rune stone find authenticated(Denmark)

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http://www.cphpost.dk/get/104461.html


The Copenhagen Post

Rune stone find authenticated

21.11.2007

Archaeologists have confirmed the authenticity of a rune carved into a stone over a millennium ago

Add Aslak to the list of names that already includes Roulf, Gudmund, Ã…ver, Sote, Elev, Asgot, Thormund, Ragnhild, Alle and Thorith.

Yesterday, officials from Odense City Museums acknowledged that Aslak is the newest confirmed name of a Viking immortalised in runes.

The announcement comes after a months long study of a stone found earlier this year in the town of Faaborg, Funen.

The runes spelling the name Aslak - likely a chieftain during Denmark's late Iron Age or early Viking period - were probably made at some point between 750 and 800 AD.

While the stone itself is a sizeable boulder measuring 50 cm by 150 cm, the simple inscription 'Aslak' belies the high status of the person who bore the name.

'He was undoubtedly a very powerful man, since there's some kind of monument to him,' said archaeologist Karsten KjÃ*¦r Mikkelsen. 'We normally find the remains of settlements, their treasures or their graves, but most exciting of all is when you learn the name of someone who lived in the Viking age.'

New rune stone finds are few and far between, and the new find is the first rune to be found on the island of Funen in 147 years.

'It's exceedingly rare that new rune stones are discovered, and it always happens accidentally,' Mikkelsen said.

This spring, a beachcomber spotted the stone in a retaining wall on the beach in Faaborg. Before it wound up there, it was believed to have been used in the foundation of a building.

The wear and tear of 1200 years of wind and water have taken their toll on Aslak's stone. With the runes hardly discernable, the museum says special care will be needed to keep them from disappearing completely.

'If you say it's got a cat's nine lives, then it's used eight,' Mikkelsen said. 'We're taking no chances. We're taking it straight to the museum, where we can study it further.'

Skara Brae,

madkins

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