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Undley bracteate
 
 
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The Undley bracteate, a 5th century bracteate
Bracteate

A bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold coin produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age , but the name is also used for later produced coins of silver produced in central Europe during the early Middle Ages....
 found in Undley Common, near Lakenheath
Lakenheath

Lakenheath is a village in Suffolk, England. It has around 8,200 residents, and is situated in the Forest Heath district of Suffolk, close to the county boundaries of both Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and at the meeting point of the The Fens and the Breckland natural environments....
, Suffolk
Suffolk

Suffolk is a Non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south....
 . It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (as opposed to Common Germanic Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts and runestones....
). A picture of the bracteate can be seen .

The image on the bracteate is an adaptation of an Urbs Roma coin type issued by Constantine the Great, conflating the helmeted head of the emperor and the image of Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are the traditional Founding Fathers of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars ....
 suckled by the wolf on one face.






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The Undley bracteate, a 5th century bracteate
Bracteate

A bracteate is a flat, thin, single-sided gold coin produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age , but the name is also used for later produced coins of silver produced in central Europe during the early Middle Ages....
 found in Undley Common, near Lakenheath
Lakenheath

Lakenheath is a village in Suffolk, England. It has around 8,200 residents, and is situated in the Forest Heath district of Suffolk, close to the county boundaries of both Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and at the meeting point of the The Fens and the Breckland natural environments....
, Suffolk
Suffolk

Suffolk is a Non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south....
 . It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in Anglo-Frisian Futhorc (as opposed to Common Germanic Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts and runestones....
). A picture of the bracteate can be seen .

The image on the bracteate is an adaptation of an Urbs Roma coin type issued by Constantine the Great, conflating the helmeted head of the emperor and the image of Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are the traditional Founding Fathers of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars ....
 suckled by the wolf on one face. With a diameter of 2.3 cm, it weighs 2.24 grams. It may have originated in northern Germany or southern Scandinavia, and been brought to England with an early Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
 settler.

The inscription reads:

?????????????? [the vowels of the first word are actually written as ligatures]
g?æg?og?æ – mægæ medu,
The o being the earliest known instance of an os
Ansuz rune

The a-rune , Younger Futhark was probably named after the ?sir, in Proto-Germanic language *Ansuz.The shape of the rune is likely from Old Italic alphabet a , like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician alphabet Aleph ....
 rune
Rune Os
contrasting with æsc .

The mægæ medu is interpreted "meed for the kinsmen", i.e. "reward for relatives" referring to the bracteate itself. The gægogæ appears to be some magical invocation or battle cry, comparable to the g?ag?ag?a on the Kragehul I
Kragehul I

Kragehul I is a migration period javelin-shaft found in Fyn, Denmark. It is now in the collection of the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark....
 lance-shaft: in both cases the ga (gæ, go) are written as bindrunes, that is the X shape of the gyfu
Gyfu

Gyfu is the name for the g-rune in the Old English language rune poem, meaning "gift" or "generosity":The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is g, called giba....
 has side-twigs attached for the vowel. Since the entire difference of æ vs. o consists in slightly bent twigs, in a context of a magical chant or cry rather than actual words, the inscription presents only tenuous evidence of incipient Anglo-Frisian brightening.

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