GP 201 Hemse Annexhemman I

Context and Discovery ⓘ
Find year 1867. Four fragments, matching in twos, that presumably are all part of the same picture stone. They were sent to SHM in 1868 along with a bronze armlet and the note that they had been found in the preceding year about two ells below ground during gravel extraction on a piece of arable land belonging to ‘annexhemmanet’, just south of the church, by the farmer Carl Andersson in Svie in Alva parish (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75). In P. A. Säve’s Samlingar V, it is erroneously indicated that the finding place is Svie in Alva parish (Säve 1872, p. 806).

During restauration of Hemse church in 1896, the remains of an older wooden church was found used as a floor in the present stone church. Some of the planks had been carved with runestone style ornament, including a winged dragon. The suggested dating of the stave-church is c. 1100 or possibly later. The wooden planks from Hemse have been partly reconstructed as a church at the Historical Museum in Stockholm (Lagerlöf/Stolt 1969, p. 181–191; Trotzig 1982, p. 277; BeBR).

Four other picture stones have been found in the parish: two more E-stones from the Annexhemman (GP 203–204), one type C/D in the churchyard (GP 202), and a B-stone from Hemse Lindvide (GP 200).
LKÅ
GP0203
GP0204
GP 202 Hemse kyrka
GP 200 Hemse Lindvide

Measurements, Material and Condition ⓘ
Sandstone slab. The find includes four fragments, which fit together in two pairs. The greatest dimension for the smaller fragment (with runes) is 25 cm, for the larger one (with figures) 32 cm. Thickness 6.5 cm (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75; GR I, see G 57).

The obverse is hewn flat and polished, as is the surviving part of the upper narrow side, at right angles towards the obverse, up to a width of 4–4.5 cm, where it is roughly chamfered towards the back. The reverse, which – regarding the top fragment – is flaked off for the most part, appears in the main to have been left naturally smooth (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75).

Remains of the original colouring have survived: black in the background fields, red on all the remains of elevated areas, i.e., on both the figures and the inscribed ribbon, partly also in the runes (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 76).
LKÅ

Description of Ornament and Images ⓘ
The decoration is made up of grooves, carved about 3 mm deep and with V-shaped cross section, which define the figures’ contours, after which the background field was sunk to almost the same depth and then polished. The figural shapes created in this manner have a number of narrow, very shallow grooves of up to 2-mm width with rounded bases. The runes are formed by g. rooves generally 2 mm deep, 4–5 mm wide, and with rounded cross section, the bases of which betray clear traces of the precision with which the chisel was moved while being struck consistently and lightly. Also, only in the runic inscription do drilled holes occur. In the inscribed ribbon, there is clear evidence that the writing originally had been sketched out with a point (of a knife) (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75).

According to Lindqvist, the stone appears to have had the same cist shape as GP 15 Ardre I and GP 16 Ardre II. Judging by the pair of fragments featuring a runic inscription which preserves a 25-cm-long segment of the upper narrow side – from the recess at the right corner posts up to the top of the stone – Lindqvist meant that GP 203 Hemse Annexhemman II has the same unusual curvature of the stone’s top side (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75).

The larger pair of fragments features parts of two people, both turned right, each of which is holding an object in his left hand in front of him. The one in front probably wields an axe, the short blade of which is partly lost, however. The other figure possibly holds a sickle. Behind him, there is a roundel with a large cavity in its centre (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75f.).
LKÅ
GP 15 Ardre kyrka I
GP 16 Ardre kyrka II
GP0203

Interpretation of the Imagery ⓘ
Hemse Annexhemman I seems to belong to a small group of picture stones featuring short processions of people carrying some kind of tools or other objects. This group includes GP 341 Sanda kyrka I and GP 3 Alskog kyrka, where there are small processions with three individuals carrying undefined attributes. A similar procession can possibly be seen on GP 91 Fröjel Bottarve (Andreeff 2001, p. 24). The interpretation of Hemse Annexhemman I is largely dependent on the interpretations of the Sanda stone, as the latter is more complete and has attracted more discussion (see, e.g., Staecker 2004, p. 57–58). The procession has been interpreted in a number of various ways, for example as a ceremony for taking possession of land (Sw. landnam; Lindqvist 1941/42 II 75f., 1962, p. 76), a cadastral act (Nylén 1978, p. 60f.), an agricultural rite (Lindqvist 1962), as the gods Ođinn, Thor and Freij (Nylén 1978, p. 60f.) or as the three holy kings (Oehrl 2020, p. 149). It has also been suggested that the men bring forth fertility or power symbols to a sitting god (Arrhenius 1961, p. 152, p. 154; Böttger-Niedenzu 1982, p. 75f.). The fragments of Hemse Annexhemman I are small, but according to Staecker the attributes are the same as on the Franks Casket and, thus, the round object might represent the guiding star. He admits, though, that the find context does not support this theory, as the fragments were found in a field together with objects indicating an old burial ground which cannot be connected to a Christian tradition (Staecker 2004, p 58). The three stones GP 341 Sanda kyrka I, GP 3 Alskog kyrka and GP 91 Fröjel Bottarve also have birds in connection to the scene with the procession, leading Oehrl to the proposal that the processions have some relation to the psychopomp (Oehrl 2020, p. 149).
LKÅ
GP 341 Sanda kyrka I
GP0003
GP0091

Runic Context and Comments ⓘ
The drawing by Olof Sörling (ATA) is interesting, as there are thin sketch lines of additional runes between the deeply carved ones. The runes l and f are indicated. There may possibly be traces of a faint t-rune between k and a in kairalf. The sketched but not deep-carved runes can be discerned in the photo by Harald Faith-Ell in 1933 (ATA), but it is not clear that there is an f. If Sörling is right, it appears as if the carver had forgotten an a-rune in the sketch carving, and thus had to move l and f further to the right when he inserted the missing a-rune. Sörling has also indicated two upwards branches on the left side of the f-rune, implying that the next rune should have been an o, probably in the word ok (and). This may indicate that at least two people were commemorated on this stone, even though only one name is preserved. von Friesen, who examined the stones in 1934, has no note about these sketch lines. However, as mentioned above Lindqvist noticed that the inscription was sketched with a pointed tool, although he did not mention any additional runes (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 75). The reason why the carver altered the inscription may be that he had forgotten the ʀ-rune in kairalfʀ. In addition to the inscription being altered in relation to the sketch, the i-rune in kairalf was squeezed between a and r in kairalf, in a way indicating that it had been forgotten and had to be inserted.
LKÅ

Type and Dating ⓘ
Type E. Probably a cist stone. 11th century.

Thorgunn Snædal includes the stone in her Ardre-group, consisting of grave monuments shaped as picture stones, with runic inscriptions along the edge and decorated with pictures and ornament in the central parts of the stone (Snædal 2002, p. 67; 2004, p. 33). The group as a whole has been dated on runological grounds to 1000–1150 by Snædal, but she adds that stones where large proportions of the carving surface are covered by pictures may possibly be older than those with Middle Scandinavian runestone ornament (Snædal 2002, p. 67, p. 100).
LKÅ

References ⓘ
P. A. Säve 1872, p. 806; Pipping 1901, p. 5 note 2, p. 45 (with note 4), p. 59; Lindqvist 1941/42, I p. 59, p. 77, p. 88, p. 90, II p. 75f., Figs. 172, 179, 419; Plassmann 1959, pp. 242f.; Snædal 2002, p. 68; 2004, p. 33.

mer grejer

Find Context

The Stone

Carvings

Detailed Information

Svensk sammanfattning

Identification

Links

Export

More media

Plane	Position	Flip