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 
80

Width 
37

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)

Lindqvist Shape 
Tall stone
Kerb stone

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. 28.

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 preserves almost the entire convex upper edge of an early-type picture stone including the right corner, while the left corner is broken off. The limestone slab is 87 cm wide, which should correspond approximately to the entire original width of the picture stone, and about 37 cm high. A short piece of the original right lateral edge is preserved as well. This edge seems to be slightly concave. The preserved narrow sides are hewn at right angles towards the obverse, a chamfer cannot be determined. The stone’s face is rather rough.

Description of Ornament and Images 
The rather rough and completely untreated surface has no ornamentation. The piece almost looks like a kind of unfinished workpiece.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
The fragment represents the convex upper edge of a tall Early Type picture stone (Lindqvist’s ʻAbschnittʼ A, circa AD 400–600). As there are no carvings on the stone and the exact shape and proportions of the monument cannot be reconstructed with certainty, it is not possible to assign it more precisely to a subgroup. In principle, this fragment could well represent a stone slab of the kerbstone type (ʻRandsteinʼ in German or ʻkantstenʼ in Swedish). According to Lindqvist, those slabs usually formed a kerb which surrounded a grave mound, probably with a large erected Type A picture stone on top of it (1941/42 I, pp. 31–33).

References 
No references

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

Nuvarande lokalisering
Gotlands museums magasin på Visborgsslätt.

Beskrivning
Övre delen av en tidig bildsten (period A), 37 cm hög och 87 cm bred. Ingen bevarad dekor, men formen visar bildstenens typ.

Inskrift
Ingen inskrift

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

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 418 Stenkyrka kyrka 28

Gotlands Museum ID 
GFC10999

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
256

ATA