Parish Find Location 
Kräklingbo

Find Location 
On the property of the farm ʻSmiss gårdʼ in Kräklingbo parish.

Find Context Classification 
Private Property

Present Location Classification 
Gotlands Museum Magasin Visborg

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6390259

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
695514

Material 
Limestone

Limestone Type 
fine reef debris limestone

Geological Group 
Klinteberg Formation (30%)

Height 
27

Width 
24

Thickness 
7

Lindqvist Type 
B (ca. 500-700)
C/D (ca. 700-1000)

Lindqvist Shape 
Dwarf stone

Iconographic Keywords 
ship 
man 

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
No information is preserved about the find circumstances in the archives; Lindqvist only notes the following sentence (II, p. 82): “Fragment of a picture stone, found by the farmer Karl Gardell and donated to GF by Lektor M. Klintberg.”

Measurements, Material and Condition 
“Limestone slab, 6–7 cm thick. The obverse is even, the 24 m long straight segment of the left narrow side is hewn at right angles towards the obverse, with a narrow chamfer in between. The almost square fragment has a maximum height and width of 27 cm” (Lindqvist 1941/42 II. p. 82). Only the left side of the square preserves the stone’s original edge.

Description of Ornament and Images 
“Decorated with 2–3 mm wide, chiselled lines with wedge-shaped cross section as well as with chiselled background fields about 1 mm deep. Inside of the 5.5 cm wide border, which is filled with a simplified ‘twisted-cord’ pattern, part of a boat can be seen that probably had its stem rise up at an almost right angle to the keel (the originally acute-angled tip of the stem is damaged). From the upper, outward-curved terminal of the stem, a stay(?) is attached that disappears behind the nearest corner of the sail, the area of which (inside an 8 mm wide frame) probably has a chequered pattern of about 22 mm wide squares. Of the surviving piece of the ship’s railing, two triangles that point upwards probably were left when the background field was sunk (and represent crewmen)” (Lindqvist 1941/42 II. p. 82). The carvings are painted by Lindqvist (II, fig. 67; cf. ATA Run- och bildstenssamling photo B3:91b, taken by Faith-Ell in 1937).

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
Even though only a small part of the monument is preserved, its dimensions, the simple ship depiction (belonging to Lindqvist’s [II, p. 66] Rikvidetypus) and the typical step pattern (probably to be regarded as simplified twisted cord pattern) indicate a middle-type picture stone, which means a Type B dwarf stone, dating to between AD 500 and 700. According to Vareniusʼ (1992, p. 62, appendix 2) typology, the ship belongs to group II (Skepp med enkel rigg), dating to the 7th to 9th century.

References 
Lindqvist 1941/42 I, p. 66, fig. 67; II, 82, fig. ; Guber 2011, p. 132 cat. no. 45; Oehrl 2019a, p. 228.

 
Fyndplats
Bildstenen påträffades på ägorna till gården Smiss i Kräklingbo socken.

Nuvarande lokalisering
Gotlands Museums magasin, Visborgsslätt

Beskrivning
Fragment av en svampformig bildsten (typ C-D), 24 x 27 cm. Delar av ett skepp, med rigg och segel samt troligen rester av två besättningsmän.

Datering
Dateringen kan inte anges närmare, men den tillhör perioden 700-900-talen.

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 216 Kräklingbo Smiss I

Gotlands Museum ID 
GFC1876

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
157

Lindqvist Title 
Kräklingbo, Smiss I

ATA