World’s oldest rune stone found in Norway, archaeologists believe

Believed to be somewhere in the range of 1800 to 2000 years old, this means that runic writing has been around for a good long time. Doubtless there’s a link between the runes and Greek writing, but the currently popular theory that runes derived from Roman sources would seem to be much less likely now. The runes seem to have been fully developed and in use well before there was much contact between the Romans and the northern Europeans.

Some Twitter threads by the researchers working on this.

New runestones discovered!
The oldest datable runestone has been discovered in Svingerud in Ringerike (Norway). 1/9https://t.co/jobDdPhgWS

— Krister Vasshus (@KristerVasshus) January 17, 2023

1. This thread is about a unique #runic find from Norway – the oldest datable rune-stone in the world. It can change our knowledge about early runic writing tradition and the custom of making rune-stones. #runology #archaeology Photo: George Alexis Pantos, @Kulturhistorisk pic.twitter.com/34k6gw10ON

— Kristel Zilmer (@Kristel_Zilmer) January 17, 2023