Berezan' Runestone

And when he came to Berezanj from the south - on his way to the thick-wooded creeks of Mälaren or the stony havens of Gotland - he could gather strength here before being forced to bend back and oar in the long struggle against the river currents and all the other obstacles in his way.

Soon enough the time would come for the unloading and the dragging over the portages and the reloading, all in the sticky heat of the interior, hardly relieved by the steppe winds and the summer rain.

On June 9, 1905, von Stern's crew discovered a lidless stone coffin in the eastern part of the kurgan containing a skeleton whose skull was resting on the runestone.

There are no special traits in the inscription that suggests that it was written in the Old Gutnish dialect of Old Norse, but the shape of the runestone and its placement are usually found on Gotland.

It may also have been due to the tradition of inscribing runes on wooden poles that were erected on the barrows, something which was described by Ibn Fadlan who met Scandinavians on the shores of the Volga.