Folia archeologica 45.

Beszédes József: Dioscuros ábrázolású sarokkő Alsóhetényből

172 MIHÁL.Y NAGY Drawing of the howl with Runic inscription from Csákvár A csákvári rúnafeliratos tálka rajza and firing (Fig. 14 and the second line on Fig. 15). As the signs were scratched into the rim, the stylus had pushed the clay towards the end of each line, enabling us to establish the ductus of writing (see the lower three lines on Fig. 15). The first combined sign may be interpreted as a ligature of four runes (hail), while the fifth one (s) may belong to the next symbol (see the analytical drawing in the first line of Fig. i5 with the number of the signs above). The fifth and ninth signs are the symbols of the Sun and Moon.

b

7 Signs 6-8 can be read as akj(a), and may be paralleled with the Gothic conjunction ak(jah), meaning 'likewise'. Signs 10-15 seem to be three pairs of runes (//=feliu 'Vieh, Fahrhabe [cattle] ',í?e = ehwaz 'Pferd [horse]', n«=naudiz 'Not, Schicksalszwang [fateful necessity]'). These signs are possibly magic ones, by which the rune-master wanted to multiply the wealth ol the deceased, and the last two signs served the enforcement of magic.

6* The seven vertical dashes, of which the first is shorther than the others in the 16th sign, are identical with the hidden version of the rune 'k', described first by Hrabanus Maurus. According to him, the letter 'k' can be coded as follows: the futhark, consisting of 24 runes, should be divided into three groups, each containing eight signs. "These symbols, sometimes combined with runes, frequently occur on Eastern Germanic lance heads; see e.g. Krause 1966, 76-77 no. 32: Dahmsdorf (Burgundián?); 77-80 no. 33: Kowel (Gothic); 8182 no. 35: Rozwadów (Vandal? cf. Altheim 1959, 297-298), all three dated to the middle of the 3rd century A.D. Lance heads without runes -.Much 1920-1921, 78-81; Raschke 1933, 49-60 and recently Scukin 1993, 323-333. 6

8 Krause 1966, 208 mentions a similar magical text with three '/

s dated to the period around 600 A.D.