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Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus facts for kids

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Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus
Material Bone
Created AD 425-475
Discovered 1937 in Caistor St. Edmund, Norfolk
Present location Norwich Castle Museum
Registration N59

The Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus is a roe deer 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 ᚱᚨᛇᚺᚨᚾ raïhan "roe deer". 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. 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 , not the Continental double-bar which was later adopted in the Anglo-Frisian runes.

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