Parish Find Location 
Sanda

Find Location 
In the churchyard of Sanda church, together with other fragments from a stone building.

Find Context Classification 
Churchyard

Coordinate Find Location (lat) 
6369738

Coordinate Find Location (long) 
693484

Parish Present Location 
Sanda

Present Location 
In the churchyard, southwest of the tower, leaning on a tree.

Present Location Classification 
Churchyard

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6369738

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
693484

Material 
Limestone

Height 
122

Width 
106

Thickness 
15

Lindqvist Type 
C/D (ca. 700-1000)

Lindqvist Shape 
Tall stone

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
According to Per Arvid Säve’s Samlingar (III, p. 417), GP 341 Sanda kyrka I “[…] was found in 1863 in the cemetery, about 40 ells south of the church nave and about two ells below ground. There it had lain among a number of rough building stones that belonged to a rectangular building of about 10 square ells. [GP 344 Sanda kyrka] II and III also were discovered among these building stones. No. I was transferred to SHM in 1927; No. II and No. III are still standing in the cemetery” (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 107) – the latter “[…] leaning against a tree in the west of the cemetery, 50 m south of the tower’s portal” (ibid. 109). The fragments of the large Type A picture stone GP 350 Sanda kyrka IV, however, were discovered in 1902 while grave digging work and in 1956 under the church floor. It is now on exhibition in Gotlands Museum.
GP 341 Sanda kyrka I
GP 344 Sanda kyrka II
GP 350 Sanda kyrka IV

Measurements, Material and Condition 
The slab represents the head of a tall mushroom-shaped picture stone, whose left corner is broken off. Today, it is leaning against a(nother) tree, circa 10 m southwest of the tower, next to the inner churchyard wall. Its obverse is facing north and covered by moss and lichen. The upper edge of the slab is ingrown into the bark of the tree. Lindqvist (1941/42 II, p. 109) described the stone as follows: “Limestone slab, 15 cm thick. The obverse is smooth, the narrow sides are obliquely rounded towards the back. The surviving width is 106 cm; the height now is 122 cm, but in 1863, when |a larger portion of the body’s right side was still preserved, it was 2 ells, 6 inches (about 135 cm). No traces of the decoration have survived. Across the stone, two grinding grooves had been drawn.” These grinding grooves are 0.8 and 0.87 m long and 0.05–0.07 m wide. The deeper of both grooves has a depth of 0.04 m.

Description of Ornament and Images 
No remains of decoration discernable.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
Tall mushroom-shaped late-type picture stone, belonging to ʻAbschnittʼ C/D according to Lindqvistʼs typology. Those monuments can only be roughly dated to the period between the 8th century and around AD 1000. That the fragment originates from an 11th century Type E stone is less probable. Tall Type E stones usually are decorated with deeply grooved ornament and inscriptions, which cannot just disappear by weathering.

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 [C], 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 calendar (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 produce 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).
GP0072

References 
Lindqvist 1941/42 II, p. 109, fig. 487; Philip 1986, pp. 11–14, fig. 7.4.

 
Fyndplats
Påträffades 1863 på kyrkogården, cirka 40 alnar söder om långhuset, bland stenar tillhörande en stenbyggnad vars sidor var 10 alnar.

Nuvarande lokalisering
På kyrkogården, sydväst om tornet, lutar mot ett träd.

Beskrivning
Den övre delen av en stor svampformig bildsten (period CD eller E), bevarad höjd 122 cm och bredd 106 cm. Ingen dekoration bevarad. Två sliprännor rakt över stenen.

Datering
Dateringen oklar, men tillhör perioden 700-1000-talen.

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 345 Sanda kyrka III

Fornsök ID 
L1976:9056

RAÄ ID 
Sanda 34:1

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
214

Lindqvist Title 
Sanda, Kirchhof III

ATA
K-Samsök