Household ecology, gender and funerary rites in the 4th or 5th century AD: The evidence of the Tune inscription

John  Hines

doi:10.31265/t3pv7d86

Authors

John Hines Cardiff University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0440-6214

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31265/t3pv7d86

Keywords:

bread, kinship, memorial, Migration Period, Roman Iron Age, runes, settlement archaeology, social relations, Tune runestone, Østfold

Abstract

The Tune runestone is a funerary memorial, first recorded in 1627, at which date it had been incorporated into the stone wall enclosing the churchyard of the parish of Tune, near Sarpsborg in .stfold. Its earlier history has to be reconstructed, and while there is evidence that provides clues to its earliest contexts, the date at which the inscription was made is difficult to pin down. Linguistic features of the inscription and the way it has been laid out on the stone are characteristic of very early runestones from Norway, but even so it could be either of the Late Roman Iron Age or the early Migration Period. In any case, the inscription clearly documents important facets of the social and economic circumstances in which it was made. Those show how valuable it will be when scholarship and science advance to the point at which they can locate the memorial stone in a more precise historical context.

References

Bergström, Liselotte. 2007. Gräddat: Brödkultur under järnåldern i östra Mälardalen. Stockholm: Stockholm University.

Birkmann, Thomas. 1995. Vom Ågedal bis Malt: Die skandinavischen Runeninschriften vom Ende des 5. bis Ende des 9. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110893298

Bonde, Niels and Arne Emil Christensen. 1993. "Dendrochronological dating of the Viking Age ship burials at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, Norway." Antiquity 67: 575-83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00045774

Bugge, Sophus. 1891. Norges Indskrifter med de Ældre Runer, I. Christiania: Kildeskriftfondet.

Bugge, Sophus. 1903. Norges Indskrifter indtil Reformationen, første Afdeling. Christiania: Kildeskriftfondet.

Bukkemoen, Grethe. 2021. An Archaeology of Commensal Spaces: Crafts, culinary practice and the household in the transition from the Early to the Late Iron Age in Norway. PhD thesis, University of Oslo.

Burrow, Thomas. 1973. The Sanskrit Language. 3rd ed. London: Faber and Faber.

Bøe, Johannes. 1922. Norske Guldfund fra Folkevandringstiden. Bergens Museums Aarbok 1920-21: 1-73.

Bøe, Johannes. 1927. Norsk Gravguld fra Ældre Jernalder. Bergens Museums Aarbok 1926: 1-104.

Bårdseth, Gro Anita. 2009. "The Roman Age hall and the warrior-aristocracy: reflections upon the hall at Missingen, south-east Norway." Norwegian Archaeological Review 42: 146-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293650903351029

Bårdseth, Gro Anita and Paula Utigard Sandvik. 2007. "Missingen: ein storgard frå romartid (lokalitet 4 og 5)." In Hus, Gard og Graver langs E6 i Sarpsborg Kommune, edited by Gro Anita Bårdseth, 71-90. Oslo: Kulturhistorisk museum.

Carr, Charles T. 1939. Nominal Compounds in Germanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cleasby, Richard and Guðbrandur Vigfusson. 1957. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Dahlin Hauken, Åsa. 2005. The Westland Cauldrons in Norway. Stavanger: Arkeologisk museum i Stavanger.

Dahlin Hauken, Åsa. 2018. "Introduksjonen av dreiekvernen i Sørvest Norge." Viking 81: 15-34. https://doi.org/10.5617/viking.6478

Friesen, Otto von. 1900. "Till tolkningen av Tune-stenen." Arkiv för nordisk filologi Ny följd 12: 191-200.

Gjerpe, Lars Erik. 2023. Effective Houses: Property Rights and Settlement in Iron-age Eastern Norway. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.194

Grimm, Oliver and Frans-Arne Stylegar. 2017. "Norwegian runestones with inscriptions in the older futhark..." In Die Faszination des Verborgenen und seine Entschlüsselung, 121-45. Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110548136-010

Grønvik, Ottar. 1981. Runene på Tunestenen: Alfabet, Språkform, Budskap. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Grønvik, Ottar. 1992. "Runestenen fra Malt i Jylland." Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 107: 1-34.

Grønvik, Ottar. 1994. "Kan de gamle runinnskriftene fortelle oss noe om begravelsesriter..." In Myte og Ritual i den førkristne Tid i Norden, 41-62. Odense: Odense Universitetsforlag.

Grønvik, Ottar. 1998. "Enda en gang om Tuneinnskriften." Maal og Minne 1998 Hefte 1: 35-40.

Gudesen, Hans Gude. 1980. Merovingertiden i Øst-Norge: Kronologi, Kulturmønstre og Tradisjonsforløp. Oslo: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.

Hansson, Ann-Marie. 1996. "Bread in Birka and on Björkö." Laborativ Arkeologi 9: 61-78.

Heltoft, Lars. 2017. "Maltstenens tekst: hvordan dæmonen uddrives." Danske Studier 2017: 27-100.

Knirk, James. 2011. "En steinhoggerundersøkelse av Tune-steinen fra 1949." In Festskrift til Ottar Grønvik, 102-9. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Loftsgarden, Kjetil and Steinar Solheim. 2023. "Uncovering population dynamics..." In Complexity and Dynamics, 99-112. Leiden: Sidestone Press.

Lorange, Anders. 1869. "Student A. Loranges Udsigt..." Fortidsmindesmerkers Bevaring, Årsberetning (1869): 39-84.

Lund Hansen, Ulla. 1995. Himlingøje-Seeland-Europa... Copenhagen: Kongelige Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.

Maixner, Birgit. 2015. "Missingen/Åkerberg i Østfold..." Fornvännen 2015: 27-42.

Marold, Edith. 2012. "Vers oder nicht Vers?" Futhark 2 (2011): 63-102.

Marstrander, Carl J.S. 1930. "Tunestenen." Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskab 4: 294-358.

Mees, Bernard. 2013. "The Tune memorial's asijostez." Futhark 4: 187-90.

Munch, Per A. 1857. "Tunestenen." Fortidsmindesmerkers Bevaring, Årsberetning 1856: 72-80.

Neckel, Gustaf (ed.), rev. Hans Kühn. 1962. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius... Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Carl Winter.

Nielsen, Hans Frede. 2000. The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Carl Winter.

Nimura, Courtney. 2016. Prehistoric Rock Art in Scandinavia. Oxford: Oxbow Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dsjs

Palm, Rune. 1992. Runor och Regionalitet. Uppsala: Institutionen för Nordiska språk.

Pedersen, Ellen Anne, Frans-Arne Stylegar and Per G. Norseng. 2003. Øst for Folden. Østfolds Historie Bd. 1. Sarpsborg: Østfold Fylkeskommune.

Petersen, Jan. 1916. Gravpladsen fra Store-Dal i Skjeberg. Kristiania: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.

Resi, Heid Gjøstein. 1986. Gravplassen Hunn i Østfold. Oslo: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.

Røstad, Ingunn M. 2021. The Language of Jewellery. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Schetelig, Haakon. 1917. Tuneskibet. Kristiania: Universitetets Oldsaksamling.

Schulte, Michael. 2023. "Runica metrica..." Filologia Germanica 15: 223-48.

Seip, Didrik A. 1955. Norsk Språkhistorie til omkring 1370. 2nd ed. Oslo: Aschehoug.

Solberg, Bergljot. 2000. Jernalderen i Norge. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk.

Solheim, Steinar et al. 2025. "Inscribed sandstone fragments of Hole..." Antiquity 99 (2025): 422-39. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.225

Spurkland, Terje. 2001. I begynnelsen var fuþark. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk.

Spurkland, Terje. 2005. Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions. Woodbridge: Boydell.

Steinshamn, Håvard, Lars Nesheim and Anne K. Bakken. 2016. "Grassland production in Norway." Grassland Science in Europe 21: 15-25.

Straume, Eldrid. 2011. "Gläser mit Fadenauflage..." Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 92: 381-497.

Stylegar, Frans-Arne. 2008. "'…an ornament in peace and a defence in war'..." In Facets of Archaeology, 243-62. Oslo: Unipub.

Syrett, Martin. 1994. The Unaccented Vowels of Proto-Norse. Odense: Odense University Press. https://doi.org/10.1075/nss.11

Thórhallur Eythórsson. 2012. "Three daughters and a funeral..." Futhark 3: 7-43.

Thórhallur Eythórsson. 2013. "On Tune's sijostez once again..." Futhark 4: 191-4.

Undset, Ingvald. 1878. Norske Oldsager i fremmede Museer. Kristiania: Kristiania Videnskabsselskab.

Vikstrand, Per. 2023. "Plural tuna names in Norway." In Placing Place Names in Norwegian Archaeology, 79-98. Bergen: Universitetet i Bergen.

Vogt, David. 2012. Østfolds Helleristninger. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Wangen, Vivian. 2009. Gravfeltet på Gunnarstorp i Sarpsborg, Østfold. Oslo: Kulturhistorisk museum.

Werde, Ferdinand (ed.). 1913. Stamm-Heyne's Ulfilas. 12th ed. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.

Zachrisson, Torun. 2014. "Rotary querns and bread..." In Seen Through a Millstone, 181-91. Stavanger: Arkeologisk museum.

Zilmer, Kristel and Krister S.K. Vasshus. 2023. "Runic fragments from the Svingerud grave field..." NOWELE 76: 233-303. https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00080.zil

Ødegaard, Marie, Lars Erik Gjerpe and Linnea Syversætre Jonannessen. 2023. "Maintaining boundaries..." In Complexity and Dynamics, 69-84. Leiden: Sidestone Press.

www1: https://3d.unimus.no/bitfrost/single_viewer.html?obj=NDC55_KHMC2092

www2: http://www.runesdb.de/