The Caistor-by-Norwich astralagus is a roe deer Talus bone, astragalus (ankle bone) found in an urn at Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk, England in 1937. The astragalus is inscribed with a 5th-century Elder Futhark inscription, reading "roe deer". The inscription is the earliest found in England, and predates the evolution of the specifically Anglo-Frisian Anglo-Saxon runes, Futhorc. As the urn was found in a cemetery that indicated some Scandinavian influence, it has been suggested that the astragalus may be an import, perhaps brought from Denmark in the earliest phase of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
[ pp. 389-91.] The inscription is an important testimony for the Eihwaz rune and the treatment of Proto-Germanic ''*ai''. The Hagalaz, ''h'' rune has the Nordic single-bar shape , not the Continental double-bar which was later adopted in the Anglo-Frisian runes.
References
Further reading
*Bammesberger, A. 'Das Futhark und seine Weiterentwicklung in der anglo-friesischen Überlieferung', in Bammesberger and Waxenberger (eds.), ''Das fuþark und seine einzelsprachlichen Weiterentwicklungen'', Walter de Gruyter (2006), , 171–187.
*Hines, J. 'The Runic Inscriptions of Early Anglo-Saxon England' in: A. Bammesberger (ed.), '' Britain 400-600: Language and History'', Heidelberg (1990), 437–456.
5th-century inscriptions
Runic inscriptions
Archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom
Archaeology of the kingdom of East Anglia
Anglo-Saxon runes
1937 archaeological discoveries
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