Posted on 06/27/2023 9:23:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An old sewer pipe needed repair in Trondheim in mid-Norway last year. A last-minute dig to save possible archaeological objects yielded a surprising and rare result: a gaming piece with runes... The area that was excavated was a mere four metres long, but it turned out to be very deep.
At 3,8 metres under today's surface, the archaeologists found birch bark dated to around 1000-1150 AD. Slightly higher up they found a layer of coal dated to around 1030-1180 AD.
The gaming piece in soapstone was found between these two layers...
The find is unusual for Trondheim, where only two items with runic inscriptions have been found previously.
Runologist Karen Langsholt Holmqvist, associate professor at NLA University College in Oslo, confirmed that the gaming piece was in fact inscribed with runes.
Holmqvist has previously studied runes in Norway and Scotland, and wrote her PhD thesis on what old graffiti can tell us about medieval people...
Examining the piece in a microscope, Holmqvist also discovered that whoever made these inscriptions had first scratched helping lines, suggesting that the inscription was well planned in order to follow the shape of the round gaming piece.
In areas of the piece where there are no runes, the inscriber has created a decorative pattern.
The inscription is quite clear, according to Holmqvist, and reads siggsifr...
As the name ends with an r, she assumes the name is male.
The word sifr is a so-called heiti, meaning a metaphoric or poetic word in Norse. Sifr means brother. Sig- on the other hand means battle.
"So perhaps this is a hitherto unknown name meaning 'battlebrother'," Holmqvist suggests...
Archaeologist Solem suggests another explanation – that the piece could have been a King chess piece.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenorway.no ...
The Lewis Chessmen keyword, sorted:
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells....
From The Bells
by Edgar Allen Poe
Magnus Carlsen’s ancestor.
“layer of coal dated to around 1030-1180 AD”
Ohhhhh, now I think I understand. I was about to ask how can coal be formed in just a thousand years, but I now think this is some coal that was mined somewhere and then stored at this site. It was going to be used for heating a home.
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