Parish Find Location 
Stenkyrka

Find Location 
Stenkyrka church

Find Context Classification 
Church

Coordinate Find Location (lat) 
6411166

Coordinate Find Location (long) 
709898

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 
Tofta Formation (90%)

Height 
32

Width 
22

Thickness 
7

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)

Lindqvist Shape 
Unclear

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
There is no information about the find circumstances of this fragment available. All that can be said is that it may have been found in Stenkyrka church after Lindqvist’s book was published. In “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). 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). Many of the new finds from the church were discovered during a large-scale restoration, which was carried out in 1954/55 according to plans by the architect Rolf Bergh. This is probably also the case with stone no. 23.

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, built during the thirteenth century. The tower with its portal was erected 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).

Measurements, Material and Condition 
The fragment of an about 12 cm-thick limestone slab, which has the shape of an irregular rectangle, preserves a small part of the monument’s original lateral edge, while the other three edges are broken edges. The piece measures approximately 33 cm x 17 cm. Whether the preserved edge, which probably represents one of the lateral edges of an early-type picture stone, was slightly concave cannot be determined. The broad side is relatively even but somewhat rough. The preserved narrow side is hewn at right angles to the obverse; there may have been a narrow chamfer in between them, but it is heavily abraded.

Description of Ornament and Images 
Running close to the edge is a groove that seems to have made up the only border decoration on the monument. The groove is somewhat weathered or abraded, but still visible. It was secondarily coloured.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
The small fragment represents a small part of the lateral edge of an early-type picture stone, i.e. Type A according to Lindqvist’s typology, dating between AD 400 and 600. The simple border decoration consisting of a single groove is typical for stones of the Pavalsgruppe (Lindqvist 1941/42 II, pp. 26–27).

References 
No references

 
Fyndplats
Bildsten påträffad troligen 1954-55 i kyrkan, men oklart var.

Nuvarande lokalisering
Gotlands museums magasin på Visborgsslätt.

Beskrivning
Litet fragment av en tidig bildsten (period A), vars sidor är 33 och 17 cm. Spår av kantdekor.

Inskrift
Ingen inskrift

Datering
Kan inte dateras med säkerhet, men tillhör perioden cirka 400-600.

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 412 Stenkyrka kyrka 23

Gotlands Museum ID 
C10992

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
251

ATA