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A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but the majority of the extant runestones date from the late Viking Age.
The oldest find is the "Heavener Runestone," first documented in 1923. It is a 19th-century artifact made by a Scandinavian immigrant (possibly a Swede working at the local train depot). [1] Two other "Heavener Runestones" are most likely not runic at all but exhibit incisions of Native American origin.
A Swedish immigrant, [3] Olof Ohman, said that he found the stone late in 1898 while clearing land which he had recently acquired of trees and stumps before plowing. [4] The stone was said to be near the crest of a small knoll rising above the wetlands, lying face down and tangled in the root system of a stunted poplar tree estimated to be from less than 10 to about 40 years old. [5]
The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: The majority are found in Sweden, estimated at between 1,700 [2] and 2,500 (depending on definition). Denmark has 250 runestones, and Norway has 50. [2] There are also runestones in other areas reached by the Viking expansion, especially in the British Isles. [3]
The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, [1] is a 2.5 t (2,500 kg) slab of metasandstone located in Rhode Island, United States. It is 5 (1.5m) feet high and 7 feet (2.1m) long. [ 2 ]
In another set of four Viking-era monuments, known collectively as the Bække-Læborg group, two runestones mention a woman named Thyra. Those stones are associated with a carver named Ravnunge ...
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The oldest known runestones date to the early 5th century (Einang stone, Kylver Stone), although the Svingerud Runestone, discovered in 2021, is dated even earlier. The longest known inscription in the Elder Futhark, and one of the youngest, consists of some 200 characters and is found on the early 8th-century Eggjum stone , and may even ...