[Regia-NA] futhark numbers

[Jack Garrett]

Kjartan,
 
I've had the same question for years, and still don't have a good answer.  I have a half-dozen books on runes, but none addresses how numbers would have been written.  The inscriptions on stones that I've seen just don't mention numbers at all.
 
However...
 
The one stone that does have numbers - and dates - is the Kensington Stone, found in Minnesota in 1898.  It's generally regarded as a fake, but those who translated the runes carved on the stone seemed to have little trouble deciphering the number runes and the numbering system used.  Frustratingly, I've yet to see those runes described anywhere outside the Kensington Stone context.  Here's a site that shows the runes and their translation:
 
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6726/kensington/kenrunes.htm

There is a method of carving runes that seems to be close to the number runes on the Kensington Stone.  It uses their "ætt" placement (that's "aett", if it looks odd after bouncing around various email systems).  Here's a site that shows that:
 
http://www.ancientscripts.com/futhark.html
 
I thought at one point that the Kensington number runes might be borrowed from Ogham/Ogam Celtic alphabet, but they're not really close to that either.
 
The Kensington runes seem to use a Roman Numeral system for what has been translated to be "22 Norwegians", showing two "double five" runes followed by why I think are two "two" runes.  Yet, the date, 1362, is shown in proper Arabic tens position manner with runes for 1, 3, 6 and 2.  What does this all mean?  I haven't a clue.  It's supposed to be a fake, after all.
 
So ... I'm still looking.  Sorry this doesn't help much.  Anyone else?
 
Ottar Leiðarstjarna
Jack Garrett

Alamo, California

Arthur <shutterbug49 at att.net> wrote:
Greetings,
I was wondering if the futhark had a number system. I would like to be able 
to write numbers without having to write the word for the number.
Thanks,
Fare thee well.
Kjartan.

Brian Lathrop, Colorado Springs.
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