GP 2 Akebäck kyrka 2

Context and Discovery
The stone is located in the late 12th-century choir of Akebäck church, forming the top surface (table) of the altar. It was discovered in this position by Beata Böttger-Niedenzu in 1984 and reported to RAÄ by Jan Peder Lamm in 1985. Böttger-Niedenzu, who submitted her master’s thesis on Gotland’s picture stones to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich in 1982, went through the Gotlandic rural churches during the years 1981–1985 and discovered no fewer than 38 previously unknown picture stones, which she published in a brief catalogue in 1988. At least three more Gotlandic picture stones have been reused as altar tops: GP 159 Halla kyrka (I), GP 175 Hangvar kyrka II and GP 428 Stenkyrka kyrka 46. However, these stones have been removed from the churches, whereas the Akebäck stone is still located in situ. Another picture stone was found inside the church wall and is now erected at the churchyard, see GP 1 Akebäck kyrka (I).

Another crudely carved and fragmented stone slab has been discovered in front of the choir portal, re-used as a step (GF1310-145). It was registered in 1997 (GF: Akebäck kyrkogård, kyrkogårdsinventeringen 1996–97) and in 2004 (GF: Akebäck kyrka, utvändig restaurering 2004, dokumentation) (see there for photos). However, the carving technique is different from those of the picture stones and seems to indicate a later date (Middle Ages? Early Modern Period?).

SO
GP 159 Halla kyrka (I)
GP0175
GP 428 Stenkyrka kyrka 46
GP 1 Akebäck kyrka (I)

Measurements, Material and Condition
Perhaps the stone had once been mushroom-shaped but was reworked to a rectangular slab of 1.48 x 0.98 m and re-used as the altar table. The surface was reworked as well and thus the original carvings are almost completely obliterated. It is entirely covered by regular chisel marks. Five small and simple (consecration) crosses are carved on the surface, four of them near the edges, forming a rectangle, and the fifth in the middle of the stone, next to a small cup-like recess (sepulcrum). To the limited extent that the cross section of the slab is visible at the plastered edges of the altar, the reverse of the stone seems to be unworked and slightly convex, which corresponds very well to the typical shape of a picture stone.

Description of Ornament and Images
There are only a few scattered and faint traces of possible carvings left on the stone surface. Figures are not identifiable at all. In the north-eastern corner of the slab, however, remains of a possible bas-relief decoration can be observed – perhaps, according to Böttger-Niedenzu (1988, p. 3), a roughly S-shaped element, possibly belonging to an interlace pattern forming the border decoration of a picture stone.

Interpretation of the Imagery
No interpretations

Type and Dating
The S-shaped element in the north-eastern corner of the slab described by Böttger-Niedenzu (see VI) is very hard to verify and remains uncertain. Maybe it had been part of a border pattern, indicating a picture stone of the later periods, i.e., a type C/D or E stone (8th to 11th centuries). The cross section of the slab corresponds to the shape of those picture stones (see V). Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether the slab actually was once a picture stone.

References
Böttger-Niedenzu 1988, p. 3.

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