GP 211 Klinte Hunninge III

Context and Discovery
According to Lindqvist (1941/42 II, p. 80), the picture stone GP 209 Klinte Hunninge I was “[…] found in the 1860s during the tillage of a field in Hunninge (Lättstain), a farm belonging to Loggarve, where it is supposed to have been lying together with [Klinte Hunninge] II. From there, the stone [no. I] was transferred to the park in Klintebys, where it still stood in July 1941”, while [stone no. II] “[…] was transported to the outer edge of Klinteberget, just northeast of the church, where it remains to this day” (ibid. 81). GP 211 Klinte Hunninge III “[…] was found at the edge of a small gravel pit just southwest of the estate of Arvid Lerberg to the north of the highway Klinte-Visby […] and was donated to [Gotlands Fornsal]” (ibid.). The find year is not given by Lindqvist. Regarding Klinte Hunninge IV (Klintebys), he notes that “[i]n 1934, this picture stone has been for an unknown number of years in the garden of Klintebys, where it leans against the wall of the local park. It appears natural to suppose that this stone came from Hunninge, also, but no details about its origins could be established” (ibid.). Therefore, Lindqvist calls the stone ʻKlinte sockenʼ (parish, Klinte Kirchspiel), while Jan Peder Lamm listed it as ʻKlinte Hunninge IVʼ. Later, the stone was re-erected, several meters in front of the wall, anchored in the ground with small stones and concrete.

According to a report by Ture Carlsson and a letter by David Rosvall to the National Antiquarian from 1930 (ATA dnr 4546-30, 4794-30), picture stone no. III was registered by Carlsson in the same year and taken from Lerbergʼs garden (see also Svenska Dagbladet 1930-12-15). Carlsson also notes that no. IV was said to have been discovered ‘one year ago’ at the very same spot. He also mentions that in previous times two more stones (i.e., nos. I and II) had been found at approximately the same place. From there, as Rosvall assumes, they both were transported to a field, afterwards re-used as bridge stones, and a lifetime later placed in Klintebys park. In the 1965 inventory about the monuments in Klinte parish (ATA), it is noted that the stones nos. I, II, and IV probably originated from land owned by Klintebys farm, which, however, was situated in the area of Hunninge gård (farm), where they had been re-used as bridge stones over a ditch, before they were transferred to the park in Klintebys (“Sägas flyttats från Klintebys ägor å Hunninge, där de uppgivas ha legat som brostenar över diken”). In the 1927 inventory of monuments in Klinte parish (Förteckning över Klinte sockens fasta fornlämningar) kept in ATA, I and II are mentioned as still being situated in Klintebys park.

Consequently, the object biography of the four stones is confusing and their original find spots are impossible to determine. Stone no. I was transferred to Gotlands Museum after the publication of Lindqvistʼs book, no. II is still standing on Klinteberget, no. III is kept in the museumʼs storage in Visborg, and no. IV is still standing in Klintebys park.
GP0209
GP 210 Klinte Hunninge II (Klinteberget)
GP 212 Klinte Hunninge (IV) (Klintebys)

Measurements, Material and Condition
The fragment represents the left part of a mushroom-shaped picture stoneʼs neck and a small part of its head including the headʼs left corner. “Limestone slab, 10–12 cm thick. The obverse is almost flat, it probably is naturally smooth, but weathered. The surviving piece of the left narrow side is 44 cm long and dressed at right angles towards the obverse, with a 2.5 cm wide step between head and body. The reverse is rough. The fragment represents 55 cm of the height and 43 cm of the width of the original stone” (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 81). The decoration is distinctly carved “[…] with about 2 mm wide lines with rounded bases and background fields that have been chiselled up to 1 mm deep” (ibid.). It is still very well-preserved.

Description of Ornament and Images
Above the horizontal border, a row of three raised triangles can be seen as well as on each side of them the hoof of a horse with clearly marked notch [i.e., hair] (representing the horse’s hind legs in the large image of horse and rider). The distance between the hooves’ tips is 18 cm. Below the horizontal border (see IX), one perceives (apart from more raised triangles) part of a ship with a straight sternpost that is abruptly cut off at the lower edge of the sail. The ship has a sail with rhombic pattern (but without surrounding frame) on a wide mast that is supported by a stay attached high up on the stem. This stay reaches the mast at a point just below the sail’s upper edge, while its counterpart to the other stem was attached slightly lower. In the ship’s stern, behind the rudder attached to the starboard, sits a man with clearly recognisable nose, beard, and neck hair, holding a shield. In front of him sits another man above whose head a sword(?) protrudes diagonally backwards. This man, too, has a shield. The shields’ lower edges are at about the same level as the railing. In front of the mast, there probably is the tip of another sword(?), which is pointing diagonally up and back just as the one mentioned before.

The last-mentioned element, the sword tip in front of the mast, is not at all discernible in the photo of the painted stone published by Lindqvist himself (1941/42 I, fig. 132; cf. ATA run- och bildstenssamling B3:44a [photo by H. Faith-Ell 1937]). In the photos of the unpainted carvings (ibid. fig. 133; cf. ATA 1718:32, 1751:25b) as well as on the original stone surface, it can only be guessed at and remains speculative. The sword rising above the head of the foremost crewman seems like part of the headgear – at least according to the paint (cf. Oehrl 2019a, fn. 2124, considering a horn-like headdress in profile). In fact, however, the “sword” and the figureʼs head appear to be separated from each other. A photo taken in 1930 only incompletely depicts the outlines of the raised elements as well as the carved lines traced with white paint (ATA run- och bildstenssamling, photo belonging to dnr 4546-30).

Interpretation of the Imagery
Regarding the eschatological interpretation of the ship motif in the iconography of the Viking Period Gotlandic picture stones see in particular GP 390 Stenkyrka Lillbjärs III.
GP 390 Stenkyrka Lillbjärs III

Type and Dating
Tall mushroom-shaped late-type picture stone, i.e., Type C/D according to Lindqvistʼs typology. Those monuments can only be roughly dated to the period between the 8th century (or rather around AD 800) and circa 1000. Lindqvist, however, assigns Klinte Hunninge III to his ʻAbschnittʼ D, which he separates from the monuments of ʻAbschnittʼ C (1941/42 I, p. 50). According to Lindqvist, the Type C stones are dating to around AD 700, the small group of Type D monuments, however, to the second half of the 8th century (ibid. p. 121). In the case of Hunninge III, he regards the border decoration as decisive. The horizontal border, representing wing-shaped or tendril-like elements, corresponds, as Lindqvist states (ibid.), to decoration in Salinʼs Style III, indicating a date of origin after AD 750. The unusual pattern of the vertical border is traced back by Lindqvist to ancient Roman conventions, which may have been reintroduced during the Carolingian Renaissance, which means around AD 800 (ibid.). Furthermore, Lindqvist holds the view that the unusual location of the sailing ship in the upper part of the stoneʼs body indicates the influence of the Type C monument GP 209 Klinte Hunninge I on the masonry of Hunninge III that therefore must have been carved later (ibid.). Lindqvistʼs conclusions are considered not convincing.

Varenius (1992) assigns the ship depiction of Hunninge III (Lindqvist 1941/42 I, p. 68: Segelfahrzeuge vom Hunningetypus) to his group 2 (enkel rigg), which he dates to the period between the 7th and the 9th century. According to Imerʼs chronological reassessment of the Gotlandic picture stones of Type C/D, Hunninge III must be dated to circa AD 750–900.
GP0209

References
Lindqvist 1941/42 I, pp. 50, 68, 70, 73, 121, fig. 132–133; II, p. 81; Oehrl 2019a, pp. 227–228, 242, pl. 275c.

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