I was given this today by a guy running a dusty gem and mineral store way outside of Tucson. He said it was a "Roman dog tag" which he meant to be a miles toe tag. I have no idea what it might be, except maybe a real dog's tag?? Never seen one like this. And, the guy who gave it to me had no provenance other than a friend of his in the UK who was a metal detector guy found it.
Any ideas what it might be>
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Agreed, that's an Eihwaz rune from the Elder Futhark, or possibly Eoh from the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. It did have connotations of protection about it, among other things.
However, single runes like this are not very common in Viking/Germanic era archaeology. Runes carved solely for their hidden meaning were more likely to be "stacked" or at the end of an inscription or both. Also, runes were carved. I cannot think of one incident where runes were cast into metal like this, but perhaps someone with more knowledge of this archaeological area can correct me. And an Eihwaz rune would be far more powerful if it were carved into an amulet of yew wood (yew is the literal translation of the rune).
I hate to say it, but based on the usage of the rune and the fact that this is cast metal, this is most probably some neo-pagan charm that somebody lost. Or less likely, it's a pendant from some neo-Nazi group. Some of them like runes.
