Posted on 06/07/2003 6:14:03 PM PDT by blam
Anglo Saxon brooch has oldest writing in English
By Paul Stokes
(Filed: 07/06/2003)
What is believed to be the oldest form of writing in English ever found has been uncovered in an Anglo-Saxon burial ground. It is in the form of four runes representing the letters N, E, I and M scratched on the back of a bronze brooch from around AD650. The six inch cruciform brooch is among one million artefacts recovered from a site at West Heslerton, near Malton, North Yorks, since work began there in 1978. Dominic Powlesland, the archaeologist leading the excavation team, said: "This could well be the earliest example of written English we know of.
"Only one or two other runic inscriptions from around this period have been found, but this is either the earliest or one of them. We have no idea what the letters mean, except that it would have been something in early English.
"Whether it is a charm of some form, a person's initials or the first letters of a phrase is something only future research will be able to determine. It was obviously something treasured by its owner as it had been carefully repaired."
The site alongside the cemetery is the first Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain to be forensically excavated using modern techniques.
Mr Powlesland, the director of the Landscape Research Centre, an archaeological charity funded by English Heritage, said the discovery had forced a re-think of what were known as the "Dark Ages" after the fall of the Roman Empire.
He said: "It shows that a well-ordered, sophisticated society existed in the fourth century as the Roman world was collapsing. Previous thinking suggested that the Anglo-Saxons lived in squalor and near chaos."
English Heritage has provided £55,000 to display the finds at Malton Museum.
Hwæt! Þes ys micel! (Wow! That is hugh!)
Soþlice. (Truly.)
Four little letters,
I wonder what they may mean.
Stay awake and think.
Wrath of Nature
Defensive Protection
Standstill Challenge
Reliable Strength
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i'm sorry. every time i see these articles i think of 'the motel of the mysteries," which seems to put all our little temporal desires into perspective.
funny stuff.
It might have been pre-Christian.
From what I have seen much of the evidence uncovered would indeed indicate Europeans --- in this case those living in what is today Britain - were civilized and had a 'high culture.'
The facts seem to be arrayed against the Islamic-mythos that Europe was a backward land of savages when they (Islamic culture) were at their high water mark ((not taking into account that ""Islamic culture"" was a bedouin cult grafted onto existing Romanesque societies)).
Thanks for the post.
Then the warrior, battle-tried, touched the sounding glee-wood:
Straight awoke the harp's sweet note; straight a song uprose,
Sooth and sad its music. Then from hero's lips there fell
A wonder-tale, well told.
Archaeological Find May Lead To Rewriting Of History
Scientists have uncovered a landscape of buried buildings and villages representing more than 6,000 years of British history.
Anglo-Saxon settlements, Roman houses, Bronze Age graves and Iron Age homes - covered by thick layers of sand and loam - have been pinpointed using hi-tech magnetic sensors and air reconnaissance surveys.
The discovery, at West Heslerton in northern England, suggests the British countryside may have been far more intensively occupied and farmed than previously realized. The surveys have also directed archaeologists to make several significant finds, including a 1,300-year-old brooch scrawled with letters that are the oldest known form of writing in English.
Archaeologists believe the Heslerton Parish project could lead to a shake-up in our understanding of the nation's history. "Take the Dark Ages," said project leader Dominic Powlesland. "Our work shows they never really existed. Civilization didn't disappear in Britain when the Romans left. Buildings were in continuous use and farms operated quite successfully between the Romans leaving and the Anglo-Saxons taking over."
Oh, okay, I just noticed the date of the original post of this thread--now I see why this sounded familiar, LOL!
i saw a history channel show about this guy, he had his class give DNA samples to the university and had his taken to show the kids how to do it. pretty cool show
Yup. I've seen it, good show.
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English in 650" I will have to think about that, find it very hard to belive, unless English evovled in Saxony, then it would make sense.
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