GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV

Context and Discovery
This is one of eight picture stones found in the summer of 1900, beneath the floor in Ardre church during restoration work: Ardre kyrka I–VIII (GP 15–18, 20, 21, 23). For more about the find circumstances, see GP 17 Ardre kyrka V.

This stone, GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV (G 111), and the stone GP 20 Ardre kyrka VII (G 112) belong to the same family and they were placed side by side in the church floor, to the north-east of the large older picture stone GP 21 Ardre kyrka VIII, which had been placed in the middle of the floor. Pipping mentions in his report that our stone Ardre IV had been set in plaster, and in a handwritten note he adds that close to the stone, there was a thin layer of stamped clay (Pipping 1900).
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GP 15 Ardre kyrka I
GP 16 Ardre kyrka II
GP 17 Ardre kyrka V
GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI
GP 20 Ardre kyrka VII
GP 21 Ardre kyrka VIII

Measurements, Material and Condition
andstone slab, 5–5.5 cm thick. The height is 0.77 m, the width of the head 0.49 m, of the neck 0.44 m. The width of face A at the lower edge of the decoration is 0.51 m, the height from this level 0.49 m (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 21).

The stone has smooth, but noticeably curved broad sides, of which face B is worn down by footsteps (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 21). The narrow sides are dressed or slightly convex, at right angles to the broad sides, or slightly convex.

The decoration is executed with lines carved about 2 mm wide and 1 mm deep, following thin sketched lines that partly are still visible. The background field was been carved down. The indentation on both sides represents clear and, particularly regarding face A, simplified replicas of the decoration of the respective faces of GP 22 Ardre kyrka III (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 21). This is the only one of the eight stones found in Ardre church that was not carved in relief; the ornament is contour-incised on both faces.

In a photo from 2000 taken in the museum store in Tumba, it can be seen that the stone was coloured in black and red on face A.
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Description of Ornament and Images
Face A features a dragon whose body is laid in two figures of eight. There is an runic inscription along the edge, crossing the surface horizontally under the dragon. The runic inscription ends about halfway across the surface and leaves some space empty in the rune band. On face B, we see two antithetical dragons, where the respective front legs ensnares the opposite dragon. A band follows the edge and crosses under the dragons, just as on face A, but instead of carrying runes it is ornamented with a running dog motif.
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Interpretation of the Imagery
In contrast to the other picture stones from the church in Ardre, the dragons are incised with contours and not in relief. On face A, the carver has made some mistakes, as lines cross where they should not do so. On face B, the layout of the two dragons is not as well adapted to the available space as runic ornament by skilled carvers usually is. Overall, the impression is that this carving is not as well executed as that on, e.g., GP 22 Ardre III. It is possible that the carving is not finished; perhaps the intention was to carve parts of it in relief but this ambition was not fulfilled.

As for the size and shape, Elias Wessén discusses this type of dwarf-stone in relation to GP 113 Grötlingbo kyrka (G 37), where he stresses that most probably they were produced as churchyard monuments (GR I, p. 50). Wessén indicates that in the setting of a churchyard, the stones did not need to be large in order to attract attention. He thought that they belonged to an early phase of Christianity. The shape is associated with the picture stone tradition, but the border ornament is replaced by a rune band. Thus, the inscription has increased in importance as compared to the older picture stones. Dwarf-stones of this type are most common on southern Gotland. Wessén quotes the following as parallels: GP 333–334 Rone kyrka (G 52–53), GP 201 Hemse Annexhemman I (G 57), GP 231 Levide kyrka I (G 77), GP 480-481 Stånga kyrka I–II (G 86–87), GP 278 När Bosarve (G 92), GP 282 När Hallute (G 93), GP 279 När Mickelgårds (G 94), as well as the Ardre stones. Several of these are made of sandstone (GRI, p. 50). Ljung calls attention to the similarities between the dwarf-stones of Gotland to the early Christian grave monuments on Öland, for example the small size, the relief-carved ornament (not in this case, however), and the dressed shape of the stone. However, there is a difference in that Gotland stones are more often carved on both broad sides, which is very unusual on Öland (Ljung 2016 I, pp. 165, 169).

The stone was 3D-scanned in 2007 as part of a research project at Stockholm University (Kitzler Åhfeldt 2013). It is included in a study comparing the carving techniques of runestones on Gotland and on the Swedish mainland, where the results indicate a separate Gotland carving technique up to the middle of the 11th century (Kitzler Åhfeldt 2019, p. 105, Figures 8–9).
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GP 22 Ardre kyrka III
GP 113 Grötlingbo kyrka
GP 333 Rone kyrka I
GP 334 Rone kyrka II
GP 201 Hemse Annexhemman I
GP 231 Levide kyrka (I)
GP 480 Stånga kyrka I
GP 481 Stånga kyrka II
GP 278 När Bosarve
GP 282 När Hallute
GP 279 När Mickelgårds

Runic Context and Comments
The monument with its sad inscription has been raised in memory of a mother with young children who died. Birgit Sawyer discussed the inscription in the context of inheritance, where she pays attention to how the stone’s sponsor Hróðþjóð makes explicit that his wife is daughter of Hróðgeirr and therefore probably his heir (Sawyer 1991, p. 220).
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Type and Dating
Type E, dwarf-stone. The dragons are difficult to classify unambiguously in Gräslund’s style-chronological system (Gräslund 2006, p. 126), but can be judged to belong either to Pr2 (1020–1050 AD) or Pr3 (1045–1075 AD) (cf. Kitzler Åhfeldt 2019, p. 103). Snædal includes the stone in her Ardre group, sepulchral monuments in the form of picture stones with runic inscriptions along the edge and pictorial elements in the middle (Snædal 2002, p. 67). Snædal indicates that, based on runological criteria, the runic picture stones from Ardre can be dated to 1100–1130 (Snædal 2002, p. 99f.).
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References
Pipping 1900; 1901; Brate 1902; Noreen 1904, p. 482; Plutzar 1924, pp. 83f.; Lindqvist 1941/42 I, fig. 157, fig. 158, II, p. 21; Holmqvist 1973, p. 398; Snædal 2002, pp. 71f, 98–100.

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