Gothic runic inscriptions
Very few Elder Futhark inscriptions in the Gothic language have been found in the territory historically settled by the Goths. Due to the early Christianization of the Goths, the Gothic alphabet replaced runes by the mid-4th century.
There are about a dozen candidate inscriptions, and only three of them are widely accepted to be of Gothic origin: the gold ring of Pietroassa, bearing a votive inscription, part of a larger treasure found in the Romanian Carpathians, and two spearheads inscribed with what is probably the weapon's name, one found in the Ukrainian Carpathians, and the other in eastern Germany, near the Oder.
Ring of Pietroassa
A gold ring was found in 1837 in Pietroassa, dated to ca. AD 400, bearing an Elder Futhark inscription of 15 runes. The ring was stolen in 1875, and clipped in two with pliers by a Bucharest goldsmith. It was recovered, but the 7th rune is now destroyed. The inscription reads:In pre-1875 drawings and descriptions the missing rune was read as othala, giving . This was interpreted in various ways:
- "sacred to the gothic women";
- "sacred to the Jove of the Goths" with Jove interpreted as Thunraz;
- "sacred inheritance of the Goths" ).
Spearhead of Kovel
The head of a lance, found in 1858 Suszyczno, 30 km from Kovel, Ukraine, dated to the early 3rd century.The spearhead measures 15.5 cm with a maximal width of 3.0 cm. Both sides of the leaf were inlaid with silver symbols. The inscription notably runs right to left, reading , interpreted as "thither rider" or, more likely, Ziel-Reiter, the name either of a warrior, or of the spear itself. It is identified as East Germanic because of the nominative -s.
The t and d are closer to the Latin alphabet than to the classical Elder Futhark, as it were <>.
An 1880 casting of the spearhead is exhibited in Berlin, an 1884 casting in Warsaw. The original was looted by Nazi archaeologists from its Polish owner in 1939 and it was lost altogether at the end of World War II.