Runic inscription from Bergakker

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Runic inscription from Bergakker

The so-called runic inscription by Bergakker is a runic inscription on the silver-gilt lip of a sword scabbard of the 4th / 5th. Century, which was found in the Dutch residential area Bergakker near Tiel in the province of Gelderland in 1996. The inscription in the older Futhark (rune row) shows unique special characters (“double V”), which means that a conclusive interpretation has not yet been made and it is therefore the object of ongoing scientific discussion in runology and linguistics .

Finding and describing

In the spring of 1996, an amateur archaeologist found the mouthpiece of a probe with a metal detector on the elevated area ( Donk ) between Bergakker and Kapel-Avezaath and Bieg der Linge on the north bank of the Waal , west of Tiel in the Betuwe .

The late antique piece, presumably Roman production, is in the context of the settlement history of the region, which was heavily Romanized during the times of the Roman provinces of Germania inferior and Germania secunda ( Insula batavorum ). Settlement continued on site in the 4th / 5th century during the Migration Period . In the period of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, a cult site was operated on the "Bergakker", primarily for the local goddess DEAE HVRSTRGAE , as evidenced by the discovery of the votive stone in 1950. The technical-archaeological investigations revealed further finds, mainly of metal (mainly of bronze), such as coins, numerous fibulae , the fragment of a bronze statue, an iron weight, a medical instrument, jewelry objects, a silver votive plate and remnants of enamel. Thanks to the fibulae, most of the finds can be dated to the period from the 1st to the 5th century. The unused mouthpiece as a piece of equipment with its material high value is seen by some researchers in the context of a conditional cult site continuity in the migration period as a sacrifice of a Franconian senior military member. Whereby a profane use is not ruled out for the (late) finds, as some researchers consider the place of discovery as a “remnant depot” for remelting in relation to the remnants of the accompanying finds and a loot in the lip plate that was intended for melting down.

The mouth plate is 8.3 cm long and 1.4 cm high and is partly made of gold-plated silver, the back is ungilded and smooth. The runic inscription is on the back. The upper edge is curved outwards at right angles all the way round, whereby the edge on the "visible side" is slightly wider. The gilded front and the narrow sides are ornamented with half-circles, points, ridges and grooves. These form a wide, U-shaped pattern on the front, while the side parts are more simple, with parallel, plastic beads. The piece shows no signs of wear apart from two notches on the lower edge. The dating is done for the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The first archaeological and runological publication took place in the year of the find (Bosman / Looijenga). The mouthpiece is in the possession / collection of the Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen .

Inscription and meaning

Linguists assume that the find dates from the years 425 to 450 and from the Franks . Little is known from this period in the Netherlands. On the one hand, the inscription confirms the presence of the Franks in the area of ​​today's Betuwe - at that time Insula Batavorum  - which Roman sources also prove, on the other hand it shows that the Franks also used runes. This has been known for a long time from their Frisian neighbors.

The runes, except one, all belong to ancient Futhark.

Bernard Mees interprets the runes as haþuþȳwas ann kusjam logūns , meaning “Haþuþȳws. I (he?) Grant (lend) a flame (sword) to the elect ”, although Mees also admits that the meaning of the u / y runes is not certain.

Mees mentions in his analysis that the words show some features that correspond to the later Old Lower Franconian , the western branch of which is also called Old Dutch . For example, the “ s ” of logūns and haþuþȳwas could indicate a very early hardening of the final sound . If the interpretation turns out to be correct, the sentence can be seen as the oldest evidence of the Dutch language , of which otherwise very little has come down to the year 1100.

literature

  • AVAJ Bosman, Tineke Looijenga: A Runic Inscription from Bergakker (Gelderland), the Netherlands. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies . Volume 46, 1996, pp. 9-16.
  • Alfred Bammesberger (Ed.): Pforzen and Bergakker - New Investigations on Runic Inscriptions (= Historical Linguistic Research . Supplement. 41). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-26231-0 ( digitized version ). In this:
    • Alfred Bammenberger: Bergakker's runic inscription: attempt at an interpretation. P. 180ff.
    • Tineke Looijenga: The Bergakker Find and its Context. P. 141ff.
    • Bengt Odenstedt: The Bergakker Inscription. Transliteration, Interpretation, Message: Some Suggestions. P. 163ff.
    • Arend Quak: On the runic forms of the Bergakker inscription. P. 174ff.
    • Elmar Seebold : The runic inscription from Bergakker. P. 157ff.
    • Theo Vennemann : Note on the Runic Inscription of the Bergakker Scabbard Mount. P. 152ff.
    • Reviews:
  • Tineke Looijenga: Texts & contexts of the oldest Runic inscriptions (= The Northern World. Volume 4). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2003, ISBN 90-04-12396-2 .
  • Bernard Mees: The Bergakker Inscription and the Beginnings of Dutch. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies. Volume 56, 2002, pp. 23-26.
  • Robert Nedoma : Script and language in the East Germanic runic inscriptions. In: NOWELE . Volume 58/59 (2010), pp. 1-70.
  • Arend Quak: A new runic inscription in the Netherlands: Bergakker. In: Nytt om Runer. Volume 12, 1997, pp. 15-17 ( online ).
  • Arend Quak: Back to Bergakker. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies. Volume 53, 2000, pp. 33-39.
  • Arend Quak: Bergakker Revisited. In: Jana Krüger (Ed. Et al.): The fascination of the hidden and its decryption - Rāđi sa R kunni. Contributions to runology, Scandinavian medieval studies and Germanic linguistics. Festschrift for Edith Marold on his 75th birthday. (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde - supplementary volumes 101). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-054813-6 . Pp. 291-298.
  • Ludwig Rübekeil : Early history and language history in the Netherlands. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies. Volume 71, 2013, pp. 53-98.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Düwel : Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection, Volume 72). 4th, revised and updated edition, Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-14072-2 , pp. 32, 34, 71.
  2. ↑ Nico Roymans: Ethnic Identity and Imperial Power. The Batavians in the Early Roman Empire. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, ISBN 90-5356-705-4 , pp. 195ff.
  3. ^ Tineke Looijenga: The Bergakker Find and its Context. In: Alfred Bammesberger (Ed.): Pfrozen and Bergakker. 1999, pp. 141ff.
  4. ↑ Description of Characteristics of the runes project of the University of Kiel.
  5. ^ Tineke Looijenga: Texts & contexts of the oldest Runic inscriptions . Leiden 2003, p. 318.
  6. ^ Bernard Mees: The Bergakker Inscription and the Beginnings of Dutch. In: Erika Langbroek, Annelies Roeleveld, Paula Vermeyden, Arend Quak: Amsterdam contributions to older German studies . 56, 2002, ISBN 90-420-1579-9 . ( online ), pp.? - ?.