Half column by Breza

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Abbreviated Futhark on the half column of Breza - photo from 1930, incisions from about 550 AD.

The half-column of Breza is an archaeological find from Breza near Sarajevo in today's Bosnia-Herzegovina . It is a half column made of marl , in which runic signs of the older rune series, also called "older Futhark ", are carved as graffiti .

Find description

The half column was discovered in 1930 in a Byzantine church ruin in Breza, which is 25 km northwest of Sarajevo. The column fragment is 56 cm high and has a cross section of 30 cm. The rune signs are between 0.5 cm and 2.6 cm in height, usually around 2 cm. They are not chiseled in, but have been made with a sharp object, e.g. B. a knife, scratched. At the site also have graffiti in Latin script found, including a Latin alphabet . The Breza half column is located in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

Description of the runic inscription

All 24 signs of the Elder Futhark

The inscription on the half-column fragment by Breza shows 20 of the older runes, which otherwise consist of 24 characters. Because the edge of the column broke off, the side branch and the last three runes are completely missing on the stone fragment near the laguz (l). According to Helmut Arntz , Berkana (b) was "accidentally left out" by the clerk. Tineke Looijenga suspects that the B rune was originally located on the broken part, although the otherwise usual arrangement within the rune row would inexplicably have been severely broken. Ehwaz (e) was either incised incompletely or is incomplete. Kenaz (k) is rotated by 90 ° and thus has the shape of a roof, which is also the case with other archaeological rune finds. Pertho (p) and Jera (j) have special forms, which are also known from some other finds. The two-stroke form ᚻ is used for Hagalaz , which suggests a West Germanic origin of the inscription.

Tracing of the runes from the Breza find:
fu þ arkgwhnijip ï ste (incomplete) ml (incomplete)

Dating and author

Helmut Arntz dates the inscription to around 525 AD. Wolfgang Krause comes to the middle of the 6th century and suspects that the graffito “was probably scratched by soldiers from a south Germanic tribe that cannot be determined.” Tineke Looijenga counts the scribe to the tribe of the Longobards , as they lived in the area around Breza from 535 to 567 AD. Consequently, she suspects this period as the origin of this rune graffiti.

literature

  • Helmut Arntz : Handbook of Runic Studies. Lempertz, Bonn 2007 (reprint of the 2nd edition from 1944).
  • Klaus Düwel : Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection. Volume 72). 2nd Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 1983.
  • Klaus Düwel: Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection. Volume 72). 4th edition. Metzler, Stuttgart 2008.
  • Wolfgang Krause : The runic inscriptions in the older Futhark (= treatises of the Academy of Sciences. Philological-historical class. 3rd episode, volume 65). Volume 2. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1966.
  • Wolfgang Krause: Runes (= Göschen Collection . Volume 1244/1244 a). De Gruyter, Berlin 1970.
  • Tineke Looijenga: Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscription. Brill, Leiden 2003, pp. 50-51.
  • Tineke Looijenga: Who wrote the Breza Futhark, and why? In: Wolfgang Schindler et al. (Ed.): Flu, Kamm and Eulenspiegel. Festschrift for Elmar Seebold on his 65th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, pp. 263-275 ( online ).
  • Konstantin Reichardt : Runenkunde. Diederichs, Jena 1936.

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Düwel: Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection. Volume 72). 2nd Edition. Stuttgart 1983, p. 20.
  2. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Who wrote the Breza Futhark, and why? In: Wolfgang Schindler et al. (Ed.): Flu, Kamm and Eulenspiegel. Festschrift for Elmar Seebold on his 65th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, SS 263 u. P. 273.
  3. ↑ Helmut Arntz: Handbook of Runenkunde. Lempertz, Bonn 2007 (reprint of the 2nd edition from 1944), p. 120.
  4. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Who wrote the Breza Futhark, and why? In: Wolfgang Schindler et al. (Ed.): Flu, Kamm and Eulenspiegel. Festschrift for Elmar Seebold on his 65th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, p. 273.
  5. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Who wrote the Breza Futhark, and why? In: Wolfgang Schindler et al. (Ed.): Flu, Kamm and Eulenspiegel. Festschrift for Elmar Seebold on his 65th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, pp. 263, 273-274.
  6. ↑ Helmut Arntz: Handbook of Runenkunde. Lempertz, Bonn 2007 (reprint of the 2nd edition from 1944), p. 65.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Krause: Runes (= Göschen Collection . Volume 1244/1244 a). De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 50.
  8. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Who wrote the Breza Futhark, and why? In: Wolfgang Schindler et al. (Ed.): Flu, Kamm and Eulenspiegel. Festschrift for Elmar Seebold on his 65th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin 1999, p. 274.