GP 139 Hablingbo Havor VIII

Context and Discovery
The cemetery of Havor lies in the southern part of Gotland, on the southern banks of the former lake and later moorland of Mästermyr, on the northern outskirts of Hablingbo parish, some kilometres east of the western shore of Gotland. The area, which today is widely forested, stretches around 750 meters from east-northeast to west-southwest on a gravel ridge. Around 260 of approximately 370 registered graves were excavated, dating from the Pre-Roman Iron Age to the late Viking Age, with a hiatus in the late Vendel Period and the Early Viking Age (Nylén 1955, pp. 61–64; Toplak, in press). The north-eastern and probably oldest part of the cemetery was heavily disturbed by gravel extraction from the middle of the 19th-century onwards, which led to the discovery of the picture stone GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I, and the extent as well as the original number of burials in this area remain uncertain. Some smaller groups of graves can be found at the southwestern periphery of the cemetery, either constituting the outer edges of the burial area or belonging to separate cemeteries. The cemetery at Havor is part of a unique complex with an uninterrupted continuity of settlement from the late Bronze Age to the late Viking Age (Manneke 2005; Manneke et al. 2013). Approximately 800 meters east of the cemetery lie a ringfort, several buildings with stone foundations as well as the remains of further settlements in the direct surrounding area. The ringfort was built no later than at the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and was used in several phases at least until the end of the Migration Period as a meeting place and arena for socio-political or religious activities. Remains of settlements north of the ringfort can be dated back to the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age and are therefore slightly older than the earliest burials from the Pre-Roman Iron Age in the cemetery. Several stone foundations south of the ringfort and the rich finds from settlements, graves and the ringfort – such as Roman imports or golden jewellery and especially a unique hoard with a golden neck ring (Nylén 1962; 2005) – bear witness to the great regional significance of Havor as a socio-political or religious central place in the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period. Following a decline of Havor in the Vendel Period, the late Viking Age burials attest a revival of the local society, probably due to increasing trading activities, but also a significant return to older traditions such as the re-use of older graves or the incorporation of picture stones in burials (Toplak 2022; in press).

The fragment of the picture stone was found during the excavation of the cemetery of Havor in 1886 in a late Viking Age grave (grave No. 199). The grave – a shallow burial mound with the inhumation of a male-gendered individual with the head to south-southwest – was located in a separated group of late Viking Age burials in the western area of the cemetery, in the vicinity of the ‘picture stone grave’ 191 in which the picture stones GP 133–138 Hablingbo Havor II–VII were found (see Toplak 2022). The deceased was buried in a supine position with a penannular brooch beneath a stone packing (Thunmark-Nylén 1995–2006 IV, p. 305; Toplak 2022, in press). Between the boulders next to the badly preserved bones of the skeleton, a small fragment of a picture stone was found. According to Gustafson’s assumption, the fragment was thrown back into the grave pit by his worker Boberg when refilling the grave with the remaining overburden (Toplak, in press).

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GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I
GP 133 Hablingbo Havor II
GP 134 Hablingbo Havor III
GP 135 Hablingbo Havor IV
GP 136 Hablingbo Havor V
GP 137 Hablingbo Havor VI
GP 138 Hablingbo Havor VII

Measurements, Material and Condition
According to a sketch by Gustafson in his notebook, the fragment’s measurements were 37 cm by 31 cm, and it was 14-cm thick. The thickness of 14,0–17,0 cm given by Lindqvist (1941/42 II, p. 56) can be inferred neither from the sketch nor from the description in the excavation report. On the right side of the fragment, the undamaged original edge was still visible.

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Description of Ornament and Images
On the obverse part of the fragment, parts of a small roundel with whorl-shaped crescent fields are vaguely visible, similar to the whorl rosette on the picture stone GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I. Every second crescent field was probably chiselled down.

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GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I

Interpretation of the Imagery
More elaborate information on the possible interpretation of whorl motifs as sun symbols and the iconography of the Type A picture stones can be obtained in the article on GP 350 Sanda kyrka IV.

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GP 350 Sanda kyrka IV

Type and Dating
Probably fragment of a picture stone representing an Early Type monument, belonging to the first “Großsteingruppe”, group 4 – “Vallstenagruppe” – of Lindqvist’s “Abschnitt” A (circa AD 400–600; Lindqvist 1941/42 I, pp. 28, 110; see also Oehrl 2019, pp. 8–10). Characteristic of this group of monuments, consisting only of GP 537 Vallstena Vallstenarum I and GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I, is the limitation to only one roundel (see VII). Following Hauck’s classification (1983a, pp. 543–545), Hablingbo Havor VIII would belong to his type IV, which is characterised by a whorl roundel as central motif.

Lindqvist’s dating to the Migration Period finds support in the archaeological material from the cemetery of Havor which demonstrates a last phase of socio-political, economical, and perhaps even religious importance of the society at Havor and a rapid decline during the early Vendel Period (Toplak, in press).

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GP 537 Vallstena Vallstenarum (I)
GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I

References
Lindqvist 1941/42 II, pp. 56–57, fig. 374; Toplak, in press.

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