Researchers in Norway say they have found what they believe is the world’s oldest runestone (符文石)—a stone with ancient writing on it.

Runes are the characters in several Germanic letters. These characters were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the change to the Latin letters. The origin of runic writing is unclear. The Norwegian researchers say the writing on the runestone could be up to 2,000 years old.

The runestone is square and flat. The runes carved into it may show the earliest example of recorded words in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic writings ever found” and “the oldest runestone ever found in the world”.

Kristel Zilmer is a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part. Zilmer said, “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.”

Runes have been found on stones and on home goods. Older runes have been found on other objects, also, but not on stones. The oldest known runic writing is on a hair tool made from bone. Zilmer said that the ancient writer might have used a knife or needle to make the runes.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters, the stone has several kinds of writings. Not all of them make sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug”—which could be the name of a person or family but not sure.

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, named Svingerud stone after where it was found.

The Museum of Cultural History is going to hold a public showing of the runestone for a month. The museum holds Norway’s largest collection of historical objects, from ancient times to the modern day.

In ancient times, Chinese used plant leaves or bird feathers as a fan during the summer time. This was the earliest form of the fan. The first real fan was made back in the era of Yao and Shun period thousands of years ago. Since then, Chinese-made fans have become a vital part of Chinese art and culture. At the beginning, the fan functioned as a tool to generate a current of air in the hot weather. Now electric fans such as ceiling fans and other technological breakthroughs have taken the place.

Long ago, fans caught the attention of ancient Chinese artists by chance. Thereafter, a unique fan art gradually took shape in the history of Chinese culture. Fan art usually includes Chinese calligraphy, paintings, or poems on the sectors（扇区）. Special skills are needed to write or paint on them.

Due to its history and partly because of its unique shape, Chinese would soon develop the tradition of using fans as ornaments（装饰品）. Fans are made in different sizes and different colors to meet the needs of each request. Other Chinese ornaments, such as the Chinese knot, the green jade, and the Spring Festival picture, are often combined in each design.

The value of fans depends mainly on the materials used and the level of craftsmanship that is involved during the process. Feather, paper, jade, bamboo and silk have all been used as ideal materials to make fans. Ancient Chinese even made iron fans to serve as deadly weapons（武器）in Chinese martial arts. Fans made by famous craftsmen are often characterized by pretty designs and detailed workmanship, and thus become favorites of collectors. Fans with masterpiece fine art like calligraphy or paintings are even more valuable.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone.

The strength of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is its ability to show slavery’s effect on families. Stowe’s characters freely debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Law(逃亡奴隶法), the future of freed people, what an individual could do, and racism. In the 1950s, poet Langston Hughes called the book a “moral battle cry for freedom.”

It is said that Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 by saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether the story is true or not, there is some connection between Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Civil War. The Civil War rose from a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic forces, and concerns for the welfare of slaves. The four-year war almost destroyed the United States. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contributed to the outbreak of the war by personalizing the political and economic arguments about slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped many 19th-century Americans determine what kind of country they wanted.

Immediately after its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was both praised as an achievement and attacked as inaccurate. Liberal abolitionists(废奴主义者) felt the book was not strong enough in its call to immediately end slavery, disliked Stowe’s tacit(暗含的) support of the colonization movement, and suggested that Stowe’s main character Tom was not forceful enough. More moderate anti-slavery advocates and reformers praised the book for putting a human face on those held in slavery, emphasizing the impact slavery had on families, and helping the public understand and empathize with the plight of enslaved mothers. Pro-slavery forces claimed that slavery was approved in the Bible, the Tom was too noble, and accused Stowe of fabricating(捏造) unrealistic, one-sided images of Southern slavery.

Stowe responded to her readers by writing The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her second anti-slavery novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), was much more forceful and called for an immediate end to slavery. During the Civil War, Stowe criticized British businesses that continued to trade with Southern cotton suppliers, and was impatient with President Lincoln’s willingness to put off freeing people held in slavery.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin made Stowe an international celebrity. When she traveled to Britain in 1853 to secure copyright protection for her novel Dred, she was rushed excitedly by crowds on the streets and invited by nobility to their estates. She was presented with a 26 volume leather bound petition signed by British women living all over the world, including the Duchess of Sutherland, the Countess of Shaftsbury, and bakers’ wives, begging their American sisters to immediately abolish slavery.

Stowe was invited to anti-slavery rallies(集会), where she hid behind Victorian propriety and had her husband or her brother present comments on her behalf. Queen Victoria was eager to meet the famous author, but was urged by advisors not to receive such a controversial figure. Instead, as Stowe’s sister Mary related in a letter, the Queen arranged to pass Stowe’s carriage on the road, so the two women could silently nod to each other.

Stowe’s three European tours brought her similar acclaim. She was welcomed by ex-patriot American writers in Italy with whom she established long-term friendships. The power of her celebrity and influence made other social reform groups appeal for her support.