A ceramic beaker with runes ‒ the archaeological and linguistic context of the word alu

Abstract

This article presents the first find of a runic inscription on pottery from Denmark. The word alu has been written into the still wet clay on the base of a drinking beaker deposited in a posthole of a Late Roman Iron Age (AD 160–375/400) farmstead near the abandoned village Tovrup in the Region of Southern Denmark. Charcoal from a posthole was dated by 14C to AD 245–365. It is the most common word in Iron Age runic inscriptions and is found in large parts of the Germanic language area. The find makes us question whether runic script was confined to the elite. alu should be interpreted as a verb in the first person singular ‘I help / strengthen / give power / protect’. The word is related to the drink ‘øl’, Old Norse ǫl, but is not a direct predecessor.