Runic Calendar
Norwegian, or perhaps English in origin, this item is made from a porpoise jawbone. The inscription is in a mixture of Old Norse and Northumbrian runes. It dates from about 1000AD. The drawing (from a 17th Century woodcut) is full scale viewed at 800x600 screen-size.

A Continuous Stave
Runic inscriptions often run in a continuous stave, as shown on this stone from the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

The old rune carvers were pretty indiscriminate about whether they went left to right, right to left, upwards, downwards, and even upside down.

This is also an example of an inscription that has been colored in with paint to show up the runes. There is archaeological evidence that inscriptions were often colored using red, white and black pigments.