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 
94

Width 
44

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)

Lindqvist Shape 
Tall 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. 30.

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 elongated, roughly rectangular fragment preserves a large part of the original lateral edge of an early picture stone. It is 94 cm long and approximately 44 cm wide. The original narrow side is preserved along almost the entire length of the fragment, while the other sides represent broken edges. The narrow side is hewn straight at a right angle to the stone’s obverse, the edge is only slightly and irregularly chamfered. The narrow side is almost straight, and only a slight concavity can be observed. The face of the limestone slab is relatively flat but has some unevenness.

Description of Ornament and Images 
Two parallel grooves run along the edge as the only border decoration. No other carvings can be found on the preserved surface. The grooves were redrawn secondarily with black paint.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
The fragment represents a tall Early-Type picture stone, ʻAbschnittʼ A according to Lindqvist’s typology, dating to circa AD 400–600. Due to the fragmentary condition and the lack of further decorative elements, a more precise classification is not possible.

References 
No references

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

Nuvarande lokalisering
Gotlands museums magasin på Visborgsslätt.

Beskrivning
Fragment av en stor tidig bildsten (period A), bevarad längd 94 cm och bredd 44 cm. Kantdekor.

Inskrift
Ingen inskrift

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

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

AA

Title
GP 420 Stenkyrka kyrka 30

Gotlands Museum ID 
GFC11002

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
258

ATA