Anglo Saxon Brooch Has Oldest Writing In English

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 6-7-2003 | Paul Stokes

[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.

[paulat]

No
Empire
for
Islamic
Maniacs

[Wombat101]

NEIM: It's an ancient Anglo-Saxon abbreviation for:

"My grandmother went to Ireland and all I got was this lousy crucifix"

Seriously, if this inscription bears Roman lettering, it must be remembered thatthe letter "I" really stand for the letter "J" (and if you saw Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, you'd know this!).

So what is the chance, do you think, of NEIM simply being the Anglo-Saxon rendering of the Latin "INRI" (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews") usually found on crucifixes?