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Gotlandic Picture Stones - The Online Edition

GP 178 Hejde prästgården









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Parish Find Location ⓘ
Hejde

Find Location ⓘ
A moorland west of the farm ʻTass gårdʼ in Hejde parish, re-used as bridge.

Find Context Classification ⓘ
Bridge

Coordinate Find Location (lat) ⓘ
6368301

Coordinate Find Location (long) ⓘ
701244

Parish Present Location ⓘ
Hejde

Present Location ⓘ
Re-erected near the find spot, west of the road Hejde–Väte, close to the road junction.

Present Location Classification ⓘ
Landscape

Coordinate Present Location (lat) ⓘ
6368301

Coordinate Present Location (long) ⓘ
701244

Material
Limestone

Height ⓘ
240

Width ⓘ
100

Thickness ⓘ
30

Lindqvist Type 

Lindqvist Shape 

Runic Inscription or not ⓘ
No

Context and Discovery ⓘ
The history of this picture stone and a long-lasting, controversial discussion about its final location is well documented by letters kept in ATA, dating to between 1928 and 1936 (ATA dnr 3816/28; 5391/28; 2757/33; 1798/34; 1799/34; 4131/34; 4289/34; 3779/36; 3388/36; 3874/36). Lindqvist (1941/42 II, p. 70), summarizes as follows: “Since time immemorial, the picture stone, lying with its obverse facing upwards, served as a bridge in a cow pasture to the north-east of the church and west of the path to Väte. The stone was discovered by kand. Nils Tiberg, and in 1936, on behalf of the National Antiquarian and through the intervention of County Antiquarian M. Stenberger, it was set up in the pasture.” The first mention of the stone can be found in Wennersten 1898, p. 94.

The slab had been re-used as bridge over a ditch, about 250 m north-east of Hejde church, in a moorland next to the farm ʻTass gårdʼ, just west of the road Hejde-Väte. Therefore, the stone is also referred to as ʻHejde Tassʼ. As the moorland called Prästänge (ʻPriest’s meadowʼ), the cow pasture where the stone was found and still is located belonged to church-owned land (på prästgårdens mark – ʻon property of the parsonageʼ), Lindqvist names the stone Hejde prästgården. In 1936, the stone was re-erected in the southern part of Prästängen, circa 175 m south of the find spot, 35 m west of the road Hejde–Väte, and 65 m north of the intersection, facing the road. Several photos of the stone, documenting the old and the new location, as well as maps and sketches, are kept in ATA (Run- och bildstenssamling, under “Hejde sn. Tass”) and GF.

Measurements, Material and Condition ⓘ
The picture stone is completely preserved but very weathered and abraded, so that its typical mushroom-contour has almost disappeared. Lindqvist (1941/42 II, p. 70) describes it as follows: “Limestone slab, up to 30 cm thick and 2.4 m high. The width of the head is 100 cm. The obverse is damaged to such an extent that probably no traces of decoration can be traced anymore. In the same way, the narrow sides, which appear to be rounded to both sides, obviously suffered from vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The reverse is rough and unworked. The obverse features grinding grooves, five of which run across the stone’s root and base, one at right angles to the two at the very bottom, and one next to the right edge of the stone’s body”. Thus, there are 7 grinding grooves in total of which, however, only the two horizontal grooves on the base and the almost vertical one near the right edge are visible today. As the slab is buried about 74 cm deep in the ground, the other four grooves are hidden. Furthermore, traces of cart-wheels can be seen on the surface. The grooves and the cart-wheel traces are depicted on a sketch by Ture Carlsson from 1928 and on a drawing by Olof Sörling (no date). In 1938 (ATA dnr 4444/38), the upper edge of the stone’s head was repaired with cement.

Description of Ornament and Images ⓘ
No traces of carvings can be perceived.

Interpretation of the Imagery ⓘ
No interpretation

Type and Dating ⓘ
Tall mushroom-shaped late-type picture stone, Type C/D or E according to Lindqvist’s typology (1941/42 I, p. 44). If no decoration or inscription is preserved, those monuments can only be roughly dated to between the 8th century and around AD 1100.

The grinding grooves cannot be used for dating picture stones, as they represent secondary features, produced after the creation of the stone, and in all probability after the period when the slab was used as memorial stone and raised in the landscape. Arne Philip (1986, pp. 9–12) counted 15 Gotlandic picture stones with grinding grooves (slipskåror or sliprännor). There is at least one more stone, GP 72 Endre Bäcks, which is almost completely covered by 15 deep grooves. On Gotland, those grinding grooves on stones and rocks are extremely common and have been interpreted in various ways (Munthe 1933; Mårtensson 1936; Swanström 1995; Gibson 2013). Their frequent interpretation as prehistoric calendars (Henriksson 1983) is not compelling, cf. the critical views of Lindström (1997). Similar grooves can be encountered in many places throughout Europe. An unwieldy abundance of literature has been published about their dating and their function (gathered and summarised by Eitelmann 2005, pp. 189–194 and Schels, 2010, pp. 141–161). Especially when found on medieval and early modern church buildings, gravestones, and conciliation crosses, those grooves and cups could be the result of grinding to make stone meal, presumably for use in religious folk medicine. Probably, the medieval Gotlanders regarded the picture stones as efficacious relics and powerful media of ancient times and therefore used them for folk religious purposes (Oehrl 2019a, pp. 41, 105–106; Oehrl 2020a, pp. 88–89).
GP 75 Endre skolan

References ⓘ
Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 70, fig. 406; Philip 1986, pp. 11–12, bild 7.

 ⓘ
Fyndplats
Bildstenen påträffades 1936 såsom en bro i Hejde Prästänge, nordost om kyrkan i Hejde och nära gården Tass. Samma år restes bildstenen cirka 175 m söder om fyndplatsen.

Nuvarande lokalisering
Samma lokalisering som efter resningen 1936.

Beskrivning
Stor svampformig bildsten (period C/D), 2,4 m hög och 1 m bred över huvudet. Bildytan skadad av slitage från människor och vagnar och av sliprännor. Inga bilder bevarade.

Datering
Kan inte dateras med säkerhet, tillhör perioden 700-900-talen.

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 178 Hejde prästgården

Fornsök ID ⓘ
L1977:9902

RAÄ ID ⓘ
Hejde 2:1

Jan Peder Lamm ID
130

Lindqvist Title ⓘ
Hejde, Pfarrhof


Last modifed Oct 23, 2024

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Identifier: GP0178-3D
ID: 4710
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