The Svingerud Runestone: unveiling the world’s oldest rune stone
Updated: 1 day ago
In short: the Svingerud stone, found in Norway in 2021, is the oldest dated runestone known, carved roughly 2,000 years ago. Below: how it was found, what its runes may say and why it matters for the history of writing.
Before we dive in, here are some key highlights about the Svingerud Runestone:
World’s Oldest Rune Stone: Carved roughly between 50 BCE and 250 CE (about 1–250 AD), it predates other known runestones by several centuries.
Discovered in Norway: Unearthed at Svingerud in Hole municipality (near Tyrifjorden, ~40 km northwest of Oslo) during 2021–2023 excavations.
Historical Importance: Provides the earliest datable example of runic writing on stone, offering a rare glimpse of early literacy in Iron Age Scandinavia.
Multiple Inscriptions: The stone has several short rune sequences, including what looks like a personal name (“idiberug”) and even the first letters of the runic alphabet.
Linguistic Clues: Written in Proto-Norse using Elder Futhark runes (the oldest runic alphabet), the texts are still being deciphered but hint at female names and phrases like “I ... wrote the runes”.
With those points in mind, let’s explore the full story of the Svingerud Runestone from its ancient origins to its modern discovery.
Historical context: runestones and the dawn of runic writing
To appreciate the Svingerud Runestone, it helps to know the broader history of rune stones and runic writing. Runes are the characters of an old alphabet (the Elder Futhark) used by Germanic peoples during the Iron Age and Viking Age. They were typically carved onto wood, metal, stone, or bone. Historically, when people think of runestones, they imagine Viking Age memorial stones (circa 800–1000 AD) standing tall with long inscriptions. However, runic writing actually began much earlier – around the first centuries AD – and not all runic texts were on big monuments.
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Discovery of the Svingerud Runestone
The story of how the Svingerud Runestone was found is an archaeological adventure on its own. It wasn’t a random find by a farmer or hiker; it emerged through a careful excavation at an ancient burial ground. Let me set the scene:
Svingerud is the name of a site in Hole municipality, Buskerud County, Norway, near the Tyrifjorden lake. The area contained an Iron Age grave field with several burial mounds and flat graves. In 2021, archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History (University of Oslo) were excavating this site – partly as a routine check ahead of a road construction project.
Under one of the burial mounds, they discovered an older cremation grave (a “flat” grave without its own mound) containing burnt bone fragments and charcoal. Lying within this grave, almost unnoticed at first, was a slab of reddish sandstone about 31 × 32 cm in size – roughly a foot across. Little did they know at first that this unassuming rock was inscribed with runes.
As the team carefully cleaned the dirt off the stone, shallow scratch-like markings became visible on one face. Some marks looked like random lines, but others clearly formed recognizable runic characters. The archaeologists realized they had something extraordinary: a rune-inscribed stone in a grave. Steinar Solheim, the project’s lead archaeologist, recalled that when they found it, “we had no idea there was a rune stone there” until the post-excavation analysis revealed the inscriptions. Imagine the excitement of that moment – the first person to read those faint runes in perhaps two millennia!
Over the next two years, excavations yielded more pieces of the same stone from the vicinity. It turned out that the original stone had broken into multiple fragments across different graves:
Archaeological significance and context
From an archaeological perspective, the Svingerud Runestone is a treasure trove of information. It’s not just the oldest runestone – it’s also one of the very few found in a clear archaeological context with organic remains that allow precise dating. Let’s break down why this matters and what we’ve learned about the stone’s original use.
Secure Dating (50 BCE–250 CE): The burial context provided charcoal and cremated human bones right alongside the stone. These remains were radiocarbon dated, giving a timeframe between roughly 50 BCE and 250 CE for the grave and thus the rune stone’s carving. In plainer terms, the stone was inscribed about 1,800 to 2,000 years ago, in what archaeologists in Norway call the Roman Iron Age.
This makes the Svingerud stone “the earliest datable runestone found so far”. For comparison, many previously known early runestones (like Einang or Kylver) had to be dated indirectly or approximately, often with wider uncertainty. Here we have a rare case where we can confidently say, “This stone was carved around the 1st or 2nd century AD,” thanks to the associated cremation’s dates.
Context in a Grave Field: The stone was found in a cremation grave, meaning it likely had a funerary purpose. In that period, a typical burial ritual would involve burning the body on a pyre, then collecting the ashes, bone fragments, and possibly charcoal from the pyre, and placing them in a pit or urn which is then buried. The Svingerud grave (A4367) followed this pattern. The presence of the inscribed stone in the grave suggests it could have been a grave marker or memorial stone for the deceased individual whose remains were buried with it. It might have originally stood upright above the grave (as Hole 1’s position hints), and later fell or was moved.
Linguistic insights: deciphering the runes on Svingerud
Reading the inscriptions on the Svingerud Runestone has been a thrilling challenge for linguists and runologists. Remember, these are Elder Futhark runes – the earliest runic alphabet with 24 characters, used from roughly the 2nd through 8th centuries. The language of the text is an early form of Proto-Norse, the ancestor of Old Norse (and later Scandinavian languages) spoken during the Roman Iron Age. But because this stone is so early in the runic timeline, the carvers were essentially pioneers of writing – their spelling and technique were not standardized and often experimental. Let’s explore the main inscriptions identified on the stone and what they could mean.
Close-up of the main inscription on the Svingerud stone, reading “ᛁᛏᛁᛒᛂᚱᚢᚵ” (transliterated as idiberug). The runes are shallowly carved, reflecting an early attempt at writing on stone.
Experts have discerned several distinct sequences of runes on the stone’s surfaces, thanks to the multiple fragments. Here are the key inscriptions and interpretations:
Comparing Svingerud to Other Runestones
Given its importance, you might wonder how the Svingerud stone stacks up against other rune stones historically. Let’s compare it with a few notable examples:
Why the Svingerud Runestone Matters
I’ve hinted at the significance of this artifact throughout the article, but it’s worth summarizing clearly why the Svingerud Runestone is such a big deal:
It’s a Record-Breaker: This is the oldest rune-inscribed stone ever found. It pushes our timeline of runic writing on stone back to around the time of the birth of Christ, whereas before, the oldest confirmed runestones were from a few centuries later. It’s a reminder that literacy in Germanic societies began earlier than we thought.
Bridging Prehistory to History: Scandinavia in the first centuries AD was prehistoric in the sense of lacking written records. The runes on Svingerud are literally among the earliest written words in Scandinavia. We’re essentially witnessing the moment Northern Europe entered the historical era (the era of written records), even if just in a few scratches.
Insight into Early Language: The inscriptions are in Proto-Norse, so they give linguistic researchers data on how the language was evolving. For example, seeing the word fahidō (wrote) with that spelling, or the name Idibergu, helps us understand sound changes and name formations in that era. It’s like hearing a very old dialect of the Norse language recorded in stone.
Cultural and Ritual Clues: That the stone was found in a cremation grave shows how runes might have been used in ritual contexts – possibly to honor the dead or to mark graves – very early on. The possible re-use of the stone for multiple burials hints at family or ancestral traditions. This find therefore informs us about Iron Age burial customs and the spiritual significance of inscribed stones (it could have served as a gravestone or had a protective/magical role given the name meaning “protection”).
Multiple Inscriptions = Multiple Authors: Unlike most runestones that have a single continuous text, the Svingerud stone has multiple short inscriptions likely carved by different individuals at different times. This is unique and suggests a communal or iterative aspect to the stone’s use. It’s almost like a message board of its day, added to over time.
Also read: Anglo-Saxon runes · What are runes · Runes: meaning and description.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Svingerud Runestone
Finally, let’s address some common questions readers have about this remarkable find:
What is the Svingerud Runestone?
It’s a small sandstone slab found in Svingerud, Norway, that bears runic inscriptions. Carved roughly 1,800–2,000 years ago, it is currently the oldest known runestone (rune-inscribed stone) ever discovered. The stone is named after the Svingerud site where it was unearthed (its formal designation in research is sometimes the “Hole 2” fragment of the Hole runestone). In short, it’s an ancient Norwegian runestone from the early Iron Age.
Why is the Svingerud Runestone so important?
Because of its age and context. It dates to around the 1st or 2nd century AD, centuries earlier than any other known runestone. This pushes back the timeline of runic writing on stone and provides a rare datable example of early. Its discovery gives scholars new insights into the development of writing, language, and burial customs in Iron Age Scandinavia. Essentially, it’s rewriting (no pun intended) a chapter of history.
How old is the Svingerud Runestone and how was that determined?
It’s about 1,900 years old. Radiocarbon dating of cremated bone and charcoal found with the stone established a date range roughly between 50 BCE and 250 CE. The archaeologists are confident the stone was deposited in that time frame because it was found in direct association with those dated burial remains. So, unlike many rune finds, we have scientific dating to back up its age.
What do the runes on the stone say?
They are still being studied, but the clearest inscription reads “idiberug”. This is likely a name, which could be interpreted as Idibera or Idibergu – possibly a woman’s name meaning “Idiberga” (with connotations of “lasting protection”).
Another sequence of runes is “fuþ”, which is just the first three letters of the runic alphabet F-U-TH (imagine someone starting to carve “ABC”). And on a pieced-together fragment, there’s “ek … fahido runo”, translating to “I … wrote the runes.”
We don’t know the carver’s full name from that line (it might be something like “Gullu” or “Wullu”), but it indicates the person who carved the runes is identifying themselves. There are also a few other scratches and unclear rune-like marks that experts haven’t deciphered yet, likely due to damage or the carver’s own uncertainty.
What language are these runes written in?
The inscriptions are in an early form of the Proto-Norse language, written with the Elder Futhark runic alphabet. Proto-Norse was spoken in the region roughly between the 1st–7th centuries and is the precursor to Old Norse (the language of the Viking Age). So the language on Svingerud is basically what people in Iron Age Norway spoke. It’s Germanic, related to later Norse but more archaic.
Where exactly was the runestone found?
It was found at Svingerud, which is a site in the municipality of Hole in Eastern Norway. The site is a grave field near Tyrifjorden (a lake), about 40 km northwest of Oslo. The stone was in a cremation grave beneath a burial mound – essentially part of an ancient cemetery.
Who discovered the Svingerud Runestone?
A team of archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo discovered it during excavations in late 2021. The project was led by archaeologist Steinar Solheim, among others, as part of a dig before a highway/railway construction (so, a rescue archaeology situation). Once they realized it had runes, runologists like Kristel Zilmer were consulted to help interpret the text. It was a collaborative effort by experts in archaeology, runic studies, and conservation.
Written by Julia, rune reader since 2020. More about me →
