Runes and Ogham

I learned about Ogham and runes at the National Museum of Archeology in Dublin.

Ogham

Ogham is an ancient alphabet inscribed on rocks and maybe trees and wood. We don’t know because the wood decayed and the trees died and then decayed. Rocks are sturdier and more durable so they were preserved long enough that we can research them. Ogham was found in Ireland and archaeologists have found 60 examples of Ogham. The first examples of Ogham were from the year 300 AD and the last examples date to the year 1000 AD, suggesting that the use of Ogham lasted 700 years. Ogham was a successful alphabet. Ogham was written on a line normally on the corner of the rock going up and down a tall rock. Ogham usually marked land and recorded names. Here is an example of what the Ogham script looked like:  

Runes

There are three main types of runes, and three main cultures that used them. Ancient Futhark was used in the years 150-800 AD. Younger Futhark was used in the 9th century by the Vikings. Younger Futhark only had 16 characters. The Anglo-Saxons were the people in England in the Middle Ages and used their runes from the 5th century to the 11th century. Unlike Ogham, people wrote big paragraphs and stories in runes. People wrote runes on stones and those stones are called rune stones. Here is an example of what Ancient Futhark looked like:

Here is Young Futhark:

Here is Anglo-Saxon runes:

Here is a picture my dad took of a deer antler that says “Deer Antler” in Anglo-Saxon runes: