GP 410 Stenkyrka kyrka 21

Context and Discovery
The fragment was found in Stenkyrka church, where it had been re-used as building material. More information is not available. In his book “Gotlands Bildsteine”, Sune Lindqvist (1941/42 II, pp. 115–118) lists nine picture stones from Stenkyrka church. By contrast, the list put together by Jan Peder Lamm in 2003 contains no fewer than 40 new discoveries (Lamm/Nylén 2003, nos. 238–276, 425, 426). Many of the new finds from the church were discovered in the course of a large-scale restoration, which was carried out in 1954/55 according to plans by the architect Rolf Bergh. Most probably, Stenkyrka kyrka 21 was also found on this occasion.

The earliest church at this place was probably a wooden building that was replaced by a stone church in the first half of the twelfth century. The foundations of the first stone church were discovered beneath the floor of the current church, which was built during the thirteenth century. The nave was erected shortly after the dedication of the choir in 1255, the new tower between 1280 and 1310 (on the building’s architectural history, see Roosval 1911, pp. 84–86; 1914, pp. 1–52, esp. 21–24; Lagerlöf/Svahnström 1991, pp. 239–243). The unusually large number of stones found not only in the church, but in the entire parish, is an indicator of the political and religious position that Stenkyrka probably already held even before the first church was built (see Roosval 1914, p. 5).

Measurements, Material and Condition
The triangle-shaped fragment represents the right corner of an early-type picture stone’s head. Both the preserved part of the slightly convex upper edge and the surviving part of the slightly concave right lateral edge are 36 cm long. The lateral edge is clearly chamfered. The limestone slab is about 12 cm thick. Its surface is flat but rough, and it shows traces of weathering. The carvings are abraded and partly hard to discern at all.

Description of Ornament and Images
A border consisting of two grooves is running parallel to the surviving parts of the upper and right lateral edge. In the corner of the image field, very faint remains of an animal figure can be observed, which is almost invisible to the naked eye but easily documented by using digital illumination tools and 3D applications such as depth-mapping. The whole figure is chiseled in, not just outlined. The four-legged animal features an elongated but massive body, a long tail, a bent neck and an elongated head, indicating a cow or more probably a horse. Two longish elements protruding from the animal’s head may represent ears or horns.

Interpretation of the Imagery
A very close parallel on the stone GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7 and its iconographic connections (picture stone from Häggeby in Uppland and the Migration Period gold bracteates) strongly suggest that the depicted animal represents a horse with artificial horns, and that there was a counterpart in the monument’s left corner, forming a facing pair. The depiction of two facing horses can be associated with similar images on several Type A picture stones, which on the basis of the Häggeby picture stone and medieval literary sources are commonly interpreted as depictions of ritual horse fights – GP 78 Eskelhem Larsarve II, GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7, GP 99 Garda kyrka 3, GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I, GP 554 Väskinde kyrka 5, and probably also the Type B stone GP 578 Alva Änge. The topic of horse fights (called hestavíg in Old Norse literature) and horse sacrifice in the iconography of the (early) Gotland picture stones has often been discussed, see in particular GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7 and the following literature: Gjessing 1943, pp. 29–30; Lindqvst 1955, pp. 41–43; Ellmers 1970, pp. 243–245; Lamm/Nylén 2003, p. 26; Althaus 1993, pp. 87–89, 192–193; Lamm 1999; Beck 2003, pp. 96–97; Guber 2011, pp. 55–56; Pesch 2015a, p. 357; Oehrl 2019a, pp. 62–63.
GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7
GP 78 Eskelhem Larsarve II
GP 99 Garda kyrka 3
GP 132 Hablingbo Havor I
GP0554
GP 578 Alva änge

Type and Dating
The fragment represents the right corner of the head of a tall early-type picture stone, i.e., Type A according to Lindqvist’s typology, dating between AD 400 and 600. The style of the animal figure is almost identical to GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7, and also its placement, the stone’s shape and the simple border decoration are comparable. Consequently, it could be argued that both monuments originate from the same workshop or even the same stone mason.
GP 198 Hellvi Ire 7

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