How old is the writing?
A story about the “oldest rune stone” is easy to get curious about. I’d want to see the letters straight away. But with the discoveries at Svingerud in Norway, the graves around the stone are part of the story too.
Excavators found inscribed sandstone fragments in and around graves at Svingerud in Hole. In a 2025 study, Steinar Solheim and colleagues connected pieces of the same stone and examined where they had been found. [1] To understand the proposed date, it helps to follow what they were actually able to measure.
What the date tells us
The study gives a range of 50 BCE to 275 CE for the key burial context. That range comes from radiocarbon measurements of associated organic material, including charcoal and cremated bone. It isn’t a direct measurement of the moment someone carved a rune. The authors also discuss limitations in the samples and test their model with different selections. [1]
I’d keep that connection beside the date whenever I write it down. “Material from the burial” tells me much more than a number on its own. It also helps explain why researchers give a range rather than a single year.
One stone can have a long story
The fragments fit together, but that doesn’t mean every mark was carved at the same time. The study discusses several episodes of carving, with both runic and other marks. Some readings and interpretations are still uncertain. [1]
I find it easier to think about the steps separately. Someone shaped the stone, people marked it, it broke, and pieces ended up in graves. Working out how those events relate is part of the research.
You don’t need to become an archaeologist to enjoy following it. I’d start with the photographs and their captions, then read how the authors connect the finds to the dates. If you’d like a shorter inscription afterward, the Vimose comb gives us another chance to ask how old an object is and what we can read on it.
Sources and reading notes
- Solheim and colleagues, Antiquity (2025)Original archaeological and runological study. The dates concern burial contexts, not a precise carving event.
