Die Runeninschrift auf dem Rinderknochen von Břeclav, Flur Lány (Südmähren, Tschechische Republik)

Abstract

Abstract During recent excavations at Břeclav-Lany (southern Moravia, Czech Republic), archaeologists have found a fragmented bovine rib with runes. The rib was unearthed in an early Slavic pit-house and is radiocarbon- dated to ca. 600. The inscription begins at the break line and reads xbemdo (probably tbemdo), representing six of the last eight runes of the older fuþark – it seems that the lost piece of the rib exhibited the preceding part of the rune row. There is reason to believe that the carver was a Langobard who did not join the migration into northern Italy in 568 (or, alternatively, a Slav who learned and used the Germanic script?).