OSLO, NORWAY—Science Norway reports that a stick and a bone inscribed with runes have been unearthed in Oslo’s Medieval Park, where a carving depicting a king with a falcon on his arm was found last month. The bone, thought to be a piece of a rib from a horse or a cow, bears Norse inscriptions on both sides, according to archaeologist Solveig Thorkildsen of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research. The inscription includes a person’s name or nickname, and runes for the word bone, referring to the object itself. Thorkildsen’s colleague, Ingeborg Hornkjøl, was working in wet soil at the site when she discovered the rune stick, which is inscribed on three sides in Latin and in Norse. Runologist Kristel Zilmer of the University of Oslo said that the Latin inscription includes the words manus, or hand, and Domine or Domini, for lord or God, in addition to Bryngjerd, a woman’s name. This inscription may record Bryngjerd’s dedication of her life to the service of God, Zilmer explained. Examination of the artifacts under a microscope should reveal more information, she added. To read about an Old Norse runestone discovered in Sweden, go to “The Emperor of Stones.”
