Early medieval rune stone in the kitchen floor

A massive rune stone has been discovered under the linoleum of the kitchen floor of a farmhouse in Mosekær, Denmark. It may be one of the oldest in the country. While the archaeologist didn't see a historical artifact in it, a local detectorist noticed the runic markings after pulling them out.

The stone was discovered by Lene Brandt and her husband Anders Nielsen when they were renovating a mid-19th century farmhouse. After removing the old linoleum floor in the kitchen, they uncovered a large stone. They tried to dig it out, but it was too heavy for them because the stone, which is 2 metres long and 80 cm wide, was too heavy. Fortunately, the neighbour's offer to cut the stone into smaller pieces was not taken up, much to the relief of the historians.

As several rune stones had already been found in the area and this one looked "suspicious", the couple decided to contact an archaeologist from the Museum of East Jutland to examine the stone before removing it. However, by looking at the top of the stone, the archaeologist concluded that it had been shaped in a younger time than the Viking Age, and the couple were thus able to turn their attention to its removal.

When Lena's friend and detectorist Helle Nielsen saw photos of the moved stone on Facebook, she noticed some faint markings on the back. She thought they might be runes and asked her friend, a museum worker, to take a look at the stone. Photos of the back, which the first archaeologist called in had not seen, were sent to the Museum of East Jutland, where they confirmed the rune stone was from the time of the Vikingers.

This is a very significant find, the last time a runestone was discovered in this area was twenty-seven years ago. Only five runes have been identified on the stone. National Museum runologist Lisbeth Imer reads them as "Aft bi" - figuratively "here lies B-". Monumental rune stones were often erected as memorials, so it is likely that B was the first letter of the name of the person being remembered, perhaps Birk or Bjørn.

Dating the stone is difficult, but the style of the inscription and the typology of the runes suggests that they are very old. If the runes were the beginning of a sentence rather than the end of a sentence, they were carved very early, probably in the 8th century. There are only about a dozen rune stones of this age in Denmark, which is why the stone has been declared a "danefæ" - the Danish version of a treasure. It is now in the Museum of East Jutland, where it is undergoing further analysis of the inscriptions and refinement to determine its age.

Roman Nemec

Sources: amtsavisen.dk, thehistoryblog.com, vafo.dk