Parish Find Location 
Ardre

Find Location 
Ardre church, in the floor.

Find Context Classification 
Church

Coordinate Find Location (lat) 
6365669

Coordinate Find Location (long) 
722219

Present Location Classification 
Historiska Museet

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6581391

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
675775

Material 
Sandstone

Height 
38

Width 
30

Thickness 
4

Lindqvist Type 
E (ca. 1000-1150)

Lindqvist Shape 
Cist stone

Runic Inscription or not 
Yes

Runic Inscription 

GP 17 Ardre kyrka V

GP 15 Ardre kyrka I

GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI

Context and Discovery 
This stone is one of four slabs in an open cist with a coherent runic inscription, the Ardre cist, consisting of Ardre kyrka I, II, V, and VI (GP 15–18). See more about the find circumstances and interpretations of the cist monument in GP 17 Ardre V. In Gotlands runinskrifter I, the four stones in the cist are treated together as G 114. The stones are parts of an assemblage of a total of eight picture stones found in the summer 1900, beneath the floor in Ardre church during restoration work: Ardre kyrka I–VIII (GP 15–18, 20-21, 23).
LKÅ
GP 15 Ardre kyrka I
GP 17 Ardre kyrka V
GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI
GP 20 Ardre kyrka VII
GP 21 Ardre kyrka VIII
GP 23 Ardre kyrka IV

Measurements, Material and Condition 
Sandstone slab, c. 3–4 cm thick. Two fragments that fit together, constituting the right part of a cist stone. The height of the preserved part of the vertical border is 0.38 m, the original height probably was 0.72 m. The largest width is 0.30 m. The height of the runes is 4–5 cm. The stone has probably had the same shape and size as GP 15 Ardre kyrka I, although the thickness of 3–4 cm is a little less than for I. These fragments are identical also in regard of the manner of the decoration’s execution (GR I, p. 212; Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 20).
LKÅ
GP 15 Ardre kyrka I

Description of Ornament and Images 
The imagery is described by Lindqvist as follows: “At the very top, among other motifs, an animal’s foot of about the same form as, but more elongated than that seen to the extreme right in the panel of Ardre kyrka V [= GP 17]. Below that is a man walking to the left and holding a battle axe behind his back. In front of him (flees?) another, unarmed man. Below him, there are two men with their upper bodies strongly bent forwards; both men’s arms are extended in front. The right one, who – at least apparently – is carrying the axe-wielding man on his back, seems to reach for the upper end of a staff or the shaft of some weapon or similar object with his only partly visible hand. In front of him can be seen the upper part of an object that strangely resembles a cone tapering towards its top” (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 20).
LKÅ

Interpretation of the Imagery 
Lindqvist suggests that all four men possibly are part of the same scene, insofar as they in different ways pay reverence to a sacred image that may have existed in the lost half of the stone (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 20). Thorgunn Snædal, on the other hand, describes the scene as a fierce fight, where a man armed with a broadaxe surrounded by two men with helmets chase another man, who is fleeing for his life with his arms spread (Snædal 2004, p. 57). This stone is part of a monument with four slabs, with the inscription on this stone making up the final part in a coherent sequence, i.e., the runic inscription G 114. It is reasonable to believe that the images are related to the other slabs and the monument as a whole, where GP 17 Ardre kyrka V shows two runic beasts bound by a palmette knot, symbolizing the tree of life, and the images on GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI can be interpreted as a vision of hell (Karlsson 1983, pp. 66, 110; Oehrl 2019, pp. 58f.). The scene on this stone may therefore be a part that fits into an eschatological scheme.

The stones in the Ardre cist were 3D-scanned in 2007 as part of a research project at Stockholm University (Kitzler Åhfeldt 2013). The cist is included in a study comparing the carving techniques of rune carvers on Gotland and the Swedish mainland, respectively (Kitzler Åhfeldt 2019, see GP 17 Ardre kyrka V).
LKÅ
GP 17 Ardre kyrka V
GP 18 Ardre kyrka VI

Type and Dating 
Type E, cist stone. The stone is a part of the Ardre cist, of which other slabs have runic ornament in style Pr4, indicating a date 1070–1100 (Gräslund 2006, p. 126). Brate, Pipping and Noreen agree with a dating around the middle of the 11th century, while von Friesen indicated that it cannot be older than 1040–50, but possibly some decades younger (GR I, p. 220). Snædal includes the stone in her Ardre group, sepulchral monuments in the form of picture stones with runic inscriptions placed along the edge and pictorial elements in the middle (Snædal 2002, p. 67). Snædal incidates that based on runological criteria the runic picture stones from Ardre can be dated to 1100–1130 (Snædal 2002, pp. 99f.).
LKÅ

References 
Pipping 1900; 1901; Brate 1902; Noreen 1904, p. 482; Holmqvist 1973, p. 398; Lindqvist 1941/42, Fig. 162, 167, 224–225, II, pp. 20. Snædal 2002, pp. 73f.

Title
GP 16 Ardre kyrka II

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
12b

Statens Historiska Museer ID 
11118:II

Lindqvist Title 
Ardre, Kirche II

Runverket ID 
G 114