Parish Find Location 
Hogrän

Find Location 
Incorporated into a farm building which belongs to Tomsarve farm, Hogrän parish.

Find Context Classification 
Farmstead

Coordinate Find Location (lat) 
6377515

Coordinate Find Location (long) 
698173

Parish Present Location 
Hogrän

Present Location 
On the farm, lying in the garden.

Present Location Classification 
Farmstead

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6377515

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
698173

Material 
Limestone

Height 
88

Width 
138

Thickness 
11

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)
C/D (ca. 700-1000)

Lindqvist Shape 
Tall stone

Iconographic Keywords 
circle 
whorl 

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
The stone was found and reported in 1930, but it is not found in “Gotlands Bildsteine”. At the time of its discovery, the stone was in use as a step in a farm building, about 10 m S-SSW of the residential building of Tomsarve farm (gård no. 1). The 1930 find report, which is held in ATA, states that the stone was going to be removed from the staircase to protect it. However, the 1976 inventory states that the stone was mounted on three small cobblestones in the farm’s garden, reused as a flower table. That is how it can still be found today.

Measurements, Material and Condition 
The fragment is roughly in the shape of a semicircle, with one of the corners broken out. It is 1.38 m wide and 0.88 m high at the highest point. The limestone slab is about 11 cm thick. It was noted in the 1976 inventory that the surface of the stone (which is positioned horizontally as a tabletop for flower tubs and therefore at the mercy of wind and weather) is weathered and overgrown with lichen. Today, it is not only overgrown with lichen and moss, but mostly black in color.

Description of Ornament and Images 
The 1930 report states that there is “en tydligt framträdande bild av ett solhjul” (ʻa clearly emerging image of a sun wheelʼ) on the stone. Today, the surface is so overgrown and covered with black patina that it is difficult to find any traces of it. Clearly visible, however, are at least two grinding grooves, one along the entire edge of the break and a small remnant of another, much narrower one, parallel to the first. The grooves differ somewhat in shape from the other grinding grooves found in the material (see IX), more angular, less U-shaped in profile.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
The type is difficult to determine. The almost semicircular shape of the fragment seems to indicate the head of a tall Type C/D monument. Thus, the stone could be dated to between the 8th and the 10th century. That it represents a Type E runic picture stone dating to the 11th century or around AD 1100, without any remaining traces of the runic inscription and ornamentation, is less likely. However, the ʻsun wheelʼ observed in 1930 (see VI), i.e., obviously a large roundel with whorl decoration, clearly speaks against the interpretation as a late-type picture stone. This motif indicates a type A monument dating to the period between AD 400 and 600. Such a strongly convex upper edge would be unique among the Type A stones, with the only possible comparison the dwarf stone GP 374 Stenkyrka Tystebols I.

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, 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. The medieval Gotlanders probably 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 374 Stenkyrka Tystebols I
GP0072

References 
No references

 
Fyndplats
Bildstenen omtalas första gången 1930, då den användes som trappsteg till ett uthus på gården Tomsarve.

Nuvarande lokalisering
Ligger som blomsterbord i trädgården på Tomsarve.

Beskrivning
Bildstenen är svår att typbestämma. Formen tyder på en svampformad bildsten (period C/D) men enligt uppgift från 1930 fanns ett tydligt solhjul på stenen, vilket snarare tyder på period A. Bevarad höjd 88 cm största bredd 138 cm. Innehåller flera sekundära slipskåror och sliprännor.

Inskrift
Ingen inskrift.

Datering
Kan inte dateras med säkerhet.

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 205 Hogrän Tomsarve

Fornsök ID 
L1976:145

RAÄ ID 
Hogrän 7:1

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
381

ATA
K-Samsök