Parish Find Location 
Grötlingbo?

Find Location 
Unknown

Find Context Classification 
Unknown

Present Location Classification 
Gotlands Museum Magasin Visborg

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6390259

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
695514

Material 
Sandstone

Height 
73

Width 
28

Thickness 
11

Lindqvist Type 
A (ca. 400-600)

Lindqvist Shape 
Kerb stone

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
The stone is located on a pallet in Gotland Museum’s warehouse along with several other pallets that include sandstone blocks that likely originate from the Roirhage section of the Barshalder grave field in Grötlingbo. It is even possible that they come from at least one specific Migration Period grave, No. 43/67 (Bhr 1967:43), that was excavated by Gustaf Trotzig in 1967, the stones of which were said to have been stored in Gotlands Fornsal (Lamm/Axboe 1989, pp. 453–457, figs. 42–43; Rundkvist 2003, pp. 58, 209–211). The stone blocks that formed the circular edge chains of the grave were hewn in a variety of shapes and sizes. A kerbstone from grave 43/67 that was pictured in Jan Peder Lamm and Morten Axboe’s publication (1989, Tafel XXII, figs. 42–43) which displays stonemason marks has been found on one of the pallets of sandstone blocks in Gotlands Fornsal. Jan Peder Lamm included GP 284 within his catalogue as a kerbstone (Lamm/Nylén 2003, 200), but he did not specify its find location.
CJL/HS

Measurements, Material and Condition 
The sandstone block appears to be complete and measures 73 cm in length, 28.5 cm in width, and is 11.5 cm thick. The stone has a slightly curved, but uneven, outer narrow side that was roughly hewn with different sized chisels. The two short ends are even less finished. While showing evidence of different sized chisels, some areas appear to have been intentionally broken off. The surface of the broad side is uneven and was not hewn flat. There are some scratches and marks which are the result of having come into contact with other stones. There is no decoration on the stone and it is not hewn to the same finished state as the other kerbstones that are included within the picture stone tradition.
CJL

Description of Ornament and Images 
Although Jan Peder Lamm described the marks on the one long outer narrow side as a herringbone pattern, the pattern is not systematic and appears to be only an unintentional result of the hewing to shape the stone.
CJL

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
Lamm’s categorization of GP 284 as a kerbstone, and its likely provenience from a Migration Period grave, places it chronologically within Lindqvist’s (1941/42 I, p. 22–35, 110) Early Group of monuments, ʻAbschnittʼ A (circa AD 400–600). While the lack of decoration on the broad side of the stone and the simple trimming on the outer narrow side would seem to place it within Lindqvist’s (1941/42 I, p. 33) group 8 kerbstones, the unfinished state of the hewing distances this stone from the picture stone tradition.
CJL

References 
Lamm/Nylén 2003, p. 200.

Title
GP 284 Unknown Find Spot

Gotlands Museum ID 
GFC11032

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
359