Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus

The Caistor-by-Norwich astralagus is a roe deer astragalus (ankle bone) found in an urn at Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk, England in 1937.[1] The astragalus is inscribed with a 5th-century Elder Futhark inscription,[2] reading ᚱᚨᛇᚺᚨᚾ raïhan "roe". The inscription is the earliest found in England, and predates the evolution of the specifically Anglo-Frisian 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.[3] The inscription is an important testimony for the Eihwaz rune and the treatment of Proto-Germanic *ai. The h rune has the Nordic single-bar shape ᚺ, not the Continental double-bar ᚻ which was later adopted in the Anglo-Frisian runes.