The Undley bracteate is a 5th-century

bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...

found in Undley Common, near

Lakenheath Lakenheath is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It has a population of 4,691 according to the 2011 Census, and is situated close to the county boundaries of both Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in

Anglo-Frisian Futhorc Anglo-Saxon runes ( ang, rūna ᚱᚢᚾᚪ) are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ ''fuþorc'') from the Old English sound va ...

(as opposed to Common Germanic

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...

). The image on the bracteate is an adaptation of an ''Urbs Roma'' coin type issued by

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

, conflating the helmeted head of the emperor and the image of

Romulus and Remus In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (, ) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf suckling the ...

suckled by the she-wolf on one face. With a diameter of 2.3 cm, it weighs 2.24 grams. It may have originated in northern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

or southern

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

and been brought to England with an early

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

settler. The inscription reads right to left around the circumference of the obverse side, terminating at the image of the wolf: :ᚷ‍ᚫᚷ‍ᚩᚷ‍ᚫ ᛗᚫᚷᚫ ᛗᛖᛞᚢ :''g͡æg͡og͡æ mægæ medu'' The ''o'' is the earliest known instance of the '' os'' rune contrasting with the '' æsc'' rune . The three syllables of the initial word ''gægogæ'' are written as

bind rune A bind rune or bindrune ( is, bandrún) is a Migration Period Germanic typographic ligature, ligature of two or more Runic alphabet, runes. They are extremely rare in Viking Age inscriptions, but are common in earlier (Proto-Norse) and later (med ...

s, with side-twigs attached to the X shape of the

gyfu Gyfu is the name for the ''g''-rune in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, meaning ‘gift’ or ‘generosity’: The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is 𐌲 ''g'', called ''giba''. The same rune also appears in the Elder Futhark, with a ...

rune to represent the vowels ''æ'' and ''o''. The words ''mægæ medu'' are interpreted as meaning "

meed MEED, formerly ''Middle East Economic Digest'', is a media publishing company founded in 1957 focused on economic and business news related to the Middle East. MEED also provides advertising and marketing services. History The first issue o ...

for the

kinsmen A kinsman is a male relative (see kinship). The term kinsman (or plural kinsmen) may also refer to: Places in the United States *Kinsman, Illinois *Kinsman, Ohio *Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, Ohio *Kinsman Mountain, in the White Mountains ...

", i.e. "reward for relatives", referring to the bracteate itself. The word ''gægogæ'' appears to be some magical invocation or battle cry, comparable to the ''g͡ag͡ag͡a'' on the

Kragehul I Kragehul I ( DR 196 U) is a migration period lance-shaft found on Funen, Denmark. It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. The spear shaft was found in 1877 during the excavation of the classic war booty s ...

lance-shaft.

References

*J. Hines and B. Odenstedt, ''The Undley bracteate and its runic inscription'', Studien zur Sachsenforschungen, 6 (1987), pp. 73–94. *J. Hines, ''The Scandinavian character of Anglian England in the pre-Viking period'', BAR British Series 124 (Oxford, 1984), pp. 204–9. *S. E. West, ''Gold bracteate from Undley, Suffolk'', Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 17 (1983), p. 459. *

Notes

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External links

Gold bracteate at the British Museum
Bracteates Individual items of jewellery Medieval European objects in the British Museum Runic inscriptions Anglo-Saxon runes Anglo-Saxon art She-wolf (Roman mythology) Ancient Roman jewellery