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Ancient Rune Stone Found Near Oulu |
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By Edward Dutton
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Thursday, 24 July 2008 |
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A stone covered in what seems to be the ancient script runes has been uncovered in Eksymäjärvi (in the Oulu region), reports the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper. The intriguing find has been sent away for examination.
Kari Eksymä reported that his wife found the stone on the beach near their summer cottage amongst various other stones a couple of years ago. Thinking little of it, the family put the find on top of their fire-place where it sat for a long time without being disturbed. 'We haven't been loud about it', Kari Eksymä told Ilta-Sanomat. They only decided to show the stone to an archaelogist when Mr Eksymä's sister's boyfriend Harri Salomaa saw it and got rather excited. There is writing on both sides of the stone though one side is more faded than the other. 'I have been on excavations when I was young,' Mr Salomaa told the newspaper. 'On this stone you can see all the details like in old, ancient runes in general.' Historians generally accept that runic script was introduced by the Germanic peoples in either the 1st or 2nd century AD. The oldest runic inscription can be found in Denmark and is dated to 150 AD. However, some historians controversially believe that runes developed out of a need to write down a Finnic language and were adopted and developed by Germanic peoples such as the Vikings.
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