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

Height 
27

Width 
23

Thickness 
14

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
There is no information about the find circumstances of this fragment(s) 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. 26. The stone represents a fragment of a picture stone broken into two parts. The two parts have each been given an inventory number (GF C10995 + C10996) and therefore are also listed here under two different numbers (GP 415 and GP 416). In Jan Peder Lamm’s list, one of the two pieces is erroneously listed twice (nos. 254 and 348).

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 flooring 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).
GP 416 Stenkyrka kyrka 26

Measurements, Material and Condition 
Altogether, the roughly rectangular limestone slab, composed of two matching pieces, measures 0.48 x 0.23 m and has a thickness of about 0.14 m. It preserves the upper left corner and a 0.48 m long section of the upper slightly convex edge of an early picture stone. A short piece of the left, slightly concave outer edge is preserved below the corner. The other two sides are broken edges. The surface is relatively smooth and even, but somewhat ‘hilly’ and slightly weathered. The smaller piece (GP 416), which preserves the left corner of the monument, has the inventory number GF C10996 and measures 0.24 x 0.18 m, while the larger one (GP 415) is number C10995 and measures 0.27 x 0.23 m.
GP 416 Stenkyrka kyrka 26

Description of Ornament and Images 
A wide border running along the slightly convex upper edge has survived. Due to weathering, it is not easily recognisable, but the very thoroughly carved pattern of chiselled fields and slightly raised lines can still be easily determined using oblique light. It represents a framed double border in whose fields mirrored spiral patterns (running dog) are placed.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
Early type picture stone, “Abschnitt” A according to Lindqvist’s typology, dating between AD 400 and 600. The double border with the mirrored spiral pattern corresponds exactly to the picture stones of the Brotypus (GP 43 Bro kyrka I and GP 44 Bro kyrka II; Lindqvist 1941/42 I, p. 26–27; cf. Hauck 1983a, pp. 541–542).
GP 43 Bro kyrka I
GP 44 Bro kyrka II

References 
No references

Title
GP 415 Stenkyrka kyrka 26

Gotlands Museum ID 
C10995

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
254 + 348