GP 256 Lärbro Stora Hammars IV

Context and Discovery
The stone was part of a large assemblage of ancient monuments called ‘Daggängsmonumentet’ that includes several picture stones. The site consists of three large cairns and five tall picture stones; the stones were found lying upon or besides the cairns (GP 253–GP 257 Lärbro Stora Hammars I–V, see GP 253 Lärbro Stora Hammars I, GP 254 Lärbro Stora Hammars II, GP 255 Lärbro Stora Hammars III, GP 257 Lärbro Stora Hammars V). Originally, the picture stones had stood upright next to the cairns (Lindqvist 1941/1942 II, 83–86; Lindqvist 1948, 19–23). The cairns contained large amounts of burnt and unburnt animal bones, ashes, charcoal and some small finds like a grinding stone and an arrowhead. No traces of burials were documented. About 30 to 70 m away, there are some more cairns, probably burials, and some foundations of ancient buildings.

For the detailed description of the site and the cairns, see GP 253 Lärbro Stora Hammars I.

The stone GP 256 Lärbro Stora Hammars IV was found at Cairn 2. Sune Lindqvist describes the find situation as follows:

‘Cairn 2
This [cairn] also consisted of cobbles. Its length was 7 m in northeast-southwest direction; the width was 6 m, the height 0.6 m. Between the cairns Nos I and II, the edge of a long limestone slab jutted out. This was, as was established later, the long edge of picture stone No. III that was lying in the ground, with its obverse facing downwards and its head pointing towards the southeast. Originally, its obverse was facing southeast, just as those of picture stones Nos I and II. The earth the stone was lying in was blackened by charcoal ash down to a depth of 15 cm and for an area of 2.5 by 1 m. In the layer, small pieces of charcoal were observed. The picture stone’s root had been supported by a package of small stones.

At the northeast edge, at a distance of 0.5 m from No. III, the large fragment of the body of picture stone No. IV was lying with its obverse facing down. It was covered by a 10–15 cm thick layer of soil. Under the stone, the earth was blackened with ash, and numerous pieces of charcoal as well as an unburnt animal bone were found in it. Under the stones, a layer of ash and charcoal – 3 m long, 2 m wide, and 35 cm deep (even deeper in its centre) – extended southwest. The stones found among the ashes were burnt, and thus it seems that a pyre had been burning here. Above this layer, several unburnt animal bones (a) were observed. Further southwest, a larger amount of unburnt animal bones (b) was located in the same layer, but they were all scattered at random. At the cairn’s western edge, a limestone block, 60 cm thick, 1.5 m long, and 1 m wide, lay on the ground that demarcated the charcoal layer in this direction. On top, this block was rather smooth. Both its shape and size were such that one might feel tempted to call it a sort of altar. During the reconstruction of the cairn, three pieces of picture stones were recovered, one of which certainly was part of No. IV, namely its west side. The two other pieces – which were fitting together – possibly belonged to the left side of the head of the same picture stone’ (Lindqvist 1941/1942 II 83–84).

Nordin states that ‘no traces of human funerals were observed in these three cairns. The unburnt animal bones as well as the ashes, however, seem to indicate that a funeral meal was held here, possibly in connection with a sacrifice in Cairn 2’ (Lindqvist 1941/1942 II 84).

In 1923, the fragment GP 256 Lärbro Stora Hammars IV was brought to the Bunge Museum as a deposition of the SHM.
MH
GP 253 Lärbro Stora Hammars I
GP 254 Lärbro Stora Hammars II
GP0255
GP 257 Lärbro Stora Hammars V

Measurements, Material and Condition
Fragment of the middle part of a picture stone.

‘Limestone slab, on average 10–17 cm thick. The obverse is smooth by nature, but quite curved, the narrow side is hewn smooth slovenly, at right angles towards the obverse. The reverse is raw and unworked. The width of the body can be measured at the top on the surviving fragment as 92 cm; the original total width is calculated on the level of the sail’s upper edge as about 98 cm.

The decoration was sketched out in fine lines that for the most part have survived. These sketch lines were not always observed when the background fields were chiselled. In many places, the limits are unclear, but the pattern of the border probably was reconstructed correctly’ (Lindqvist 1941/1942 II p. 87).

Today, the stone is in much worse condition than it was at the time of the discovery. The stone is badly weathered.
MH

Description of Ornament and Images
Fragments of a tall stone with probably several figurative image fields, framed by a regular braided ribbon pattern.

Sune Lindqvist describes the imagery as follows:
‘The scene shown on top of the fragment shows a horseman with a shield that probably was decorated with a whirl pattern. Under the horse’s belly, the horseman’s foot and probably a swastika (or triskelion?) can be seen. In the corners between the front- and hind legs of the horse, there perhaps also are figures, but they cannot be specified. In front of the horseman stands a woman, holding in her outstretched hand (with clearly distinguishable fingers) the (at least at one end) distinctly convoluted handle of a cauldron (or a vat?). The lower limits of the vessel are unclear. Above the handle is a vague figure, perhaps a slice of bread with a hole in the middle (then one probably would have to imagine this slice of bread as lying inside the vessel). Behind the woman’s back probably are the lower end of her hair braid and – some distance away – obviously the lower part, separated into two feathers, of the wing (or two wings). The indentation at its lower section that figures in OS’s drawing probably is an inclusion of harder material in the stone that was removed only insufficiently. Behind the horseman presumably is a slim woman handing over a wreath.

The intersecting lines of the sail probably were chiselled without discontinuations, and thus, the surface structure at the intersections runs in two directions, which explains the fact that they look different than the other segments of the bands (no obvious dots in the centre of these little squares).

Whether the rope that appears at the right edge of the sail, just below halfway up, is attached there by means of an eyelet or a loop, or whether it must be imagined as running behind the sail to a fastening point a considerable distance higher up, cannot be decided for certain on this stone. The ship’s stem post appears to be designed as an inwards-turned animal’s head’ (Lindqvist 1941/1942 II p. 87–89).

Today, the stone is in much worse condition than it was at the time of the discovery. Thus, the first drawings and documentation made by Gabriel Gustafson, Olof Sörling and Fredrik Nordin, and compiled and provided by Sune Lindqvist, are essential sources for the reading of the images (see More media). Still, many details remain doubtful. Sigmund Oehrl states that no details are to be discerned any more (Oehrl 2019a, 221) and revokes his own earlier interpretations (for these, see Oehrl 2010a, 25).
MH

Interpretation of the Imagery
The horseman and the greeting woman is a well-known motif on the Gotlandic picture stones. Since early research, the motif is assumed, on the basis of Old Norse literature, to depict the arrival of a slain warrior in Valhǫll – a valkyrie offers a welcome drink to the mounted newcomer (see GP 390 Stenkyrka Lillbjärs for a more detailed account and references). What is interesting here is that the woman seems to bear wings. Valkyries are sometimes described or depicted as winged, both in poetry and in the iconography of the picture stones (cf. Oehrl 2010, Oehrl 2019a, Oehrl 2020), or they are accompanied by birds. The valkyries’ affinity to birds, especially swans or ravens/crows) seems to be an ancient feature (Egeler 2011). The winged woman would thus underpin the interpretation of a valkyrie.

The large ship it is probably connected to ideas of travelling to the afterworld (see GP 390 Stenkyrka Lillbjärs for a more detailed account and references).
MH
GP 390 Stenkyrka Lillbjärs III

Type and Dating
Probably once a tall mushroom-shaped late-type picture stone, belonging to ʻAbschnittʼ C according to Lindqvist (1941/42 I, p. 44). Lindqvist dates those stones to around AD 700. He assigns this stone to his ʻLärbrogruppeʼ (ibid. pp. 44, 47). Lori Eshleman (1983) argues that the stones of this group had been strongly influenced by the art of the Carolingian Renaissance and thus must be dated to the period between AD 790 and 840. Current research, however, tends to date the Type C/D stones roughly to between the 8th century and the 10th century (Rundkvist 2012; Imer 2001). Varenius (1992, appendix 2), based on his analysis of the ship’s rigging (group IV „segelskepp med skotnät), dates it to the 10th century. Lisbeth Imer counts this stone to her group 1D (Imer 2001, 103).
MH

References
Lindqvist 1941/1942 I fig. 83, II, pp. 83–89 fig. 442–443; Lindqvist 1947; Eshleman 1983; Imer 2001, p. 98; Lamm/Nylén 2003, no. 187; Rundkvist 2012; Oehrl 2010a; Oehrl 2019a, Taf. 19, p. 34, 214, 221–222; Oehrl 2020.

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