Odd Oera Lindaesque Barrel Inscription

[MelissaePhylax]

Anyone with more familiarity than I on carved Inscriptions in Latin care to provide any opinion on whether or not I'm right in thinking this looks more like the runescript than what someone would scratch into something in even our current Latin alphabet?

Wasn't really going out looking to see anything related at all in reading about this particular thing so I was a tad thrown off.

[thread title edited by moderator]

[ott]

Thank you! I think it says IANVARIVS., with the A's having the shape of À from the Fryas Standskrift.
It's only the À that is typically Fryas, but I did see it (and other individual letters) in more alleged Latin and/or Greek inscriptions. If I find them back I will post these below.

[Wil Helm]

Good profile view to see here

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/c ... ?rdt=46642

As one of the comments neatly pointed out: looks like a butter churn, with a pole-hole to churn with.

It must be me, but those hard and fast conclusions when it comes to ancient inscriptions and names like the link, I rarely follow:
"Ancient Roman Wooden Barrel with Owner's Name Carved in it."

Why on earth should the owner or user carve his name into a butter churn? Or his "God"?
Certainly if it is found close to a Roman fort, where production in all different area's would have been necessary just for daily life and a relative great pastoral community. Or trade.

I for me think it is idd Ianuarius as mark for the month the butter was produced.
Productiondate if you wish in a Romanesk fort/abbey area, maybe even done by priestlike pastors who like to note everything in their lithurgic language.

[Wil Helm]

I for me think it is idd Ianuarius as mark for the month the butter was produced.

"Well Helm, if you are that sure ..."
(just a silly role play in plain sight)
"... then we must look for other kindlike barrels with only 12 different names on it. Untill this has been layed out, I go for Mister January"

[Wil Helm]

(just a silly role play in plain sight)

Sssccchhh Helm, what a ... you are.

[Wil Helm]

Sssccchhh Helm, what a ... you are.

Idd a schelm I am.
Welgemutst.
Goochelen maar, die woorden.

En nu we aanhouden als ook de naam van Wilhelm aka William.
't Is niet de gehelmde Wil, meer de Wel gehelmde.

[Coco]

It is evident that the inscription's letter R corresponds to a Standskrift R, while the R present in the Vindolanda tablets exemplifies a more Carolingian lowercase variant. Both the butter churn and the Vindolanda tablets hail from Britain and are estimated to originate from a similar historical period.

Regarding the nature of inscriptions, it is important to note the tendency among archaeologists and historians to assume that inscriptions possessed a religious purpose when, in fact, most of them are of a mundane nature. In this particular case, "Januarius" is a conventional Roman name.

[Wil Helm]

Regarding the nature of inscriptions, it is important to note the tendency among archaeologists and historians to assume that inscriptions possessed a religious purpose when, in fact, most of them are of a mundane nature. In this particular case, "Januarius" is a conventional Roman name.

Totally agree "probably mundane".
Btw do you have more info about dates, carving ...
Because seems to me that the carving is pretty "fresh". No expert in weathering though.
But the wood seems so much more worn out, than the carving.

[Nordic]

One ought to be wary of allowing on one hand the pc reading of any and whatever forms of letters as "Roman" or "Latin", and on another hand requiring absolutely pixel-perfect true Frisian OL script to be of any interest. Presence of letters like J, separate V and U, variant vowels with dots (ä/æ, ö/ø, å) should all be big pointers to a non-Roman (perhaps Nordic) influence, including in our claimed Roman everyday script.

Here in this case we have Roman/Latin IANVARIVS with lack of proper J and separation V/U, but with seeming OL A. For some reason N and U are written as if re-modelling of A (again - OL influence?) and the S at the end is bit weird, as if added later by other non-literate writer. If we assume that there existed OL Frisian culture and on top of that the Roman era, this is what one would get. If on other hand one assumes there was no local preceding text system, there are the oddities above.