A bone implement with rune-like signs from the Podgorovsk unfortified settlement

The paper reports on the find from the Podgorovsk unfortified settlement attributed to the Saltovo-Mayatsk culture located in the Veidelevsky district, Belgorod Region. The horizon of the refuse in the midden fill-in revealed an implement for treating fibrous material which is a fragment of a bull rib. A three-letter rune inscription was cut out on its surface. The context of the find and the implement featuring this grapheme suggest that this inscription is local, implying, in its turn, that the writing system was rather widespread in forest-steppe Khazaria.