Runes scratched onto a decorated comb are the oldest evidence of written West Germanic, the language that gave birth to English, German, Dutch, and a variety of other modern tongues. Discovered near ...

The ancient runic alphabet, used by Germanic peoples centuries ago prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet, remains one of the most enigmatic early writing systems. Chief among its mysteries is ...

The Vikings are often portrayed as illiterate, uncultured barbarians who evinced more interest in plunder than in poetry. In fact, the Vikings left behind a great number of documents in stone, wood ...

Both the Celtic Ogham and the Germanic Futhark have unique sequences for which no interpretation has yet been found. The composition of the Ogham and the Futhark is mostly explained by complicated ...

LANY, Czech Republic — In a region long fought over by rival ethnic and linguistic groups, archaeologists in the Czech Republic have discovered something unusual in these turbulent parts: evidence ...

Runes are the characters of the alphabet used by the Vikings and other Germanic peoples from about the second to the 15th centuries A.D. Some runes vaguely resemble letters in our own alphabet; others ...

Czech archaeologists say marks found on a cattle bone are sixth-century Germanic runes, in a Slavic settlement. The find has provoked an academic and nationalist brawl. By Andrew Higgins LANY, Czech ...