Looijenga, Tineke. Texts and contexts of the oldest runic inscriptions. Leiden, NLD. Brill academic publishers, 2003.

Runes first show evidence of use in Germany around 100-200 AD. The first Artifact with Runic inscriptions to show up on the archeological time table is a comb found on the Danish Island of Funen. The comb has the inscription “harja” in runes, and dates from around 160 AD.

            After this period Runes are found in small numbers, but relatively regularly through out mainland Europe, and the British isles. The majority of artifacts with runic inscriptions found on them are weapons, tools, and jewelry. This might be simply because precious metals last well through out the centuries, without much decay going on. There are example of runes written on wood or bone, but these artifacts tend to be badly decomposed, and are hard to decipher for that reason.

            One of the biggest and most important Runic finds is a collection of 200 gold bracteates. Bracteates are small medallions inscribed with runes on them. This finding is substantial mainly due to it’s size. It seems that the use of  fupark never became as wide spread as the roman alphabet, but the bracteates represent a surge in popularity.

            This surge in popularity probably represents a rise of power by an elite group in Denmark between the 5^th and 6^th centuries AD who valued fupark, it represents a rise in the level of civilization achieved by the various Germanic peoples of the area. Large finds like these are very uncommon, so we still don’t know very much about translating all of the runic inscriptions we find.

            Most evidence points to fupark at least being inspired by the roman alphabet. Germanic tribes around the first century AD were actively engaged in mercenary work for the Roman empire. It is simple to believe that high ranking Germanic leaders would have mixed and mingled with Roman scribes writing using the Roman alphabet, it would not take long for these Germans to see the usefulness of such a technology, not unlike the Akkadians felt about the Sumerian writing system.

            Dane Ludvig Wimmer was the first scholar to propose that Fupark came from the Roman alphabet. There is one “original” Fupark found with an alphabet of 24 characters. Wimmer theorized that the Fupark were mostly inspired from the Roman alphabets Capitals. It seems that the majority of scholars are in agreement on this point, but not all scholars share this thought. there are some who believe that fupark comes from the Greek miniscule script, (Otto Von Friesen) or maybe derived from some version of  Greek or even Etruscan script. There is no real concensus to this day, but there is a consensus that Fupark was inspired by other scripts, and not an original creation by the Germanic peoples.

            Another bit of evidence to help suggest Roman origins is that the oldest runic inscriptions have clear lines of relation to Roman actions. Meaning most of the earliest runes are found where Germanic tribes and Roman order are in close proximity, the spread seems to be gradually north and west from Roman epicenters. Unlike other scripts, it seems that runes may have been used for more mystical purposes, as apposed to the cuneiform and its main use for counting grain and sheep, fupark is found more on decorative objects, and for burial ceremonies. There is evidence to suggest that runes were not just meant for magical purposes, but the art of runology is so filled with gaps and unanswered questions that we aren’t quite sure what early Germanic tribes used fupark for. It is easy to believe though that their first introduction to writing was filled with awe and wonder, an amazing technology to carry ideas from one place to another, more permanently.