![Ancient Scandinavians wrote encrypted messages in runes 1500 years ago 1](https://i0.wp.com/images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/05121918/SEI_162819022.jpg?resize=696%2C465&ssl=1)
The Ellestad stone, inscribed between AD 500 and 700, appears to include encrypted runes
Unknown/Creative Commons
People living in Scandinavia may have written encrypted messages in runes – the alphabet later used by the Vikings – several centuries earlier than previously thought.
In runic writing systems, each rune can represent both a sound and a word. For example, in an early runic system called the Elder Futhark, the rune that corresponds to the letter S also means “sun”.
It is generally possible to translate runes into modern languages. But we have long known that …