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Norway archaeologists find 'world's oldest runestone'

Archaeologists in Norway have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Archaeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing. The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.” “This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press. Older runes have been found on other items, but not on stone. The ea...

World’s oldest known person, a French nun, dies at 118

A French nun who was believed to be the world’s oldest person has died shortly before her 119th birthday PARIS -- A French nun who was believed to be the world’s oldest person but had been reportedly growing weary of the burdens of age has died a few weeks before her 119th birthday, her nursing home in southern France said Wednesday. Lucile Randon, known as Sister André, was born in the town of Ales, southern France, on Feb. 11, 1904, and lived through the two world wars. As a little girl she was astonished by her first contact with electric lighting at school and, more recently, survived COVID-19 without even realizing she'd been infected. Spokesman David Tavella said she died at 2 a.m. on Tuesday at the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in the southern port city of Toulon. The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, listed her as the oldest known person in the world after the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka, aged 119, last year...