Runes are interesting in that they are basically geometric indicating they were originally carved in wood.
Speculation is that runes were origianlly carved in wood that has since rotted away, makes historical determinations, such as age of the letter form and provence of origin, difficult to determine. Stone lasts longer and there do exist runic phrases carved in stele, but they are primarily in western Europe.
Interestingly enough, the magnificent marble temples that the ancient Greeks built exhibited in their structures an origin in wood, which was simply copied when carved out of marble. Parts of a building along the eaves, primarily dentil ranges, triglyphs and metopes, would have had structural purposes in a wooden edifice that did not carry over to a stone structure. The marble colums, which originally would have been wood, did serve as supports for the roof.
In her Plato Prehistorian: 10,000 to 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology, Mary Settegast reproduces a table which shows four runic character sets; a is Upper Paleolithic (found among the cave paintings), b is Indus Valley script, c is Greek (western branch), and d is the Scandinavian runic alphabet.
Thanks, great comments.
