Parish Find Location 
Rute

Find Location 
St. Valle, Rute parish. Found in a medieval house foundation (RAÄ Rute 23:2).

Find Context Classification 
Medieval Construction

Parish Present Location 
Rute

Present Location 
Re-erected next to the find spot, where a pile of stones of a medieval house can still be seen. The monument is placed a few meters to the south-east of the remains of the house foundation, some meters north of a small road, which in approximately 200 m. in westerly direction meets the street which leads from Rute to Valleviken. There is a modern farmhouse approximately 40 m north-east of the stone.

Present Location Classification 
Farmstead

Coordinate Present Location (lat) 
6413069

Coordinate Present Location (long) 
734582

Material 
Limestone

Height 
190

Width 
115

Thickness 
14

Lindqvist Type 
C/D (ca. 700-1000)
E (ca. 1000-1150)

Lindqvist Shape 
Tall stone

Runic Inscription or not 
No

Context and Discovery 
The stone was found in 1940 during excavations performed at a medieval house foundation called Munkkällaren (monk’s cellar) (RAÄ Rute 23:2) in St. Valle, Rute parish, near Valleviken (ATA Dnr 4111/41; GF Koncnr 529/41). The large stone slab was re-used as part of the floor covering, lying in front of the eastern entrance of the house, face upwards. The building was used as a farmhouse until the 18th century. Many stones from the building are still visible at the spot. A small fragment of another picture stone was found in the cellar of the stone house, bearing the depiction of a ship and a man with horned headgear (GP 339 Rute St. Valle 2).
GP 339 Rute St. Valle 2

Measurements, Material and Condition 
The slab has a height of about 2.60 meters from the root to the top of the head. Currently, approximately 1.90 meters are visible above ground. At the visible base, the stone is 1.15 m and at the neck 0.70 m wide. The head of the stone is about 0.85 m wide, and the entire slab is approximately 0.12–0.14 m thick. In the middle, the slab was broken into two parts and fixed with concrete after its discovery. Otherwise, the picture stone is almost completely preserved, only small parts of the head’s lateral edges seem to be broken off, in particular, at the left side. As the stone was used face-upward in the floor, it is heavily polished by footsteps. In addition, the entire stone is overgrown with lichens and moss, and parts of the image side are chipped off. The rock seems to be a very coarse-grained reef debris limestone with large fossil fragments such as corals and stromatoporoids. Weathering preferentially affects the outer boundaries of the biogenic components, resulting in a gradual disintegration of the rock – not an optimal case for a picture stone.

Description of Ornament and Images 
No discernable remains of the ornament and images are left.

Interpretation of the Imagery 
No interpretation

Type and Dating 
The picture stone belongs to Lindqvist’s ʻAbschnittʼ C/D (or even E), its mushroom shape is clearly preserved. As no images and no ornaments are left on the surface, the monument can only be roughly dated to the 8th to 11th centuries.

References 
Oehrl 2019a, p. 229, pl. 276a; Oehrl 2017a, p. 8, fig. 7.

 
Fyndplats
Hittad 1940 vid en medeltida husgrund kallad Munkkällaren i Stora Valle, Rute socken. Partiet framför ingången var belagt med kalkstenshällar. Bildstenen var återanvänd som golvbeläggning här och påträffades mitt framför ingången.

Nuvarande förvaringsplats
Stenen är återupprest bredvid resterna av husgrunden, några meter från vägen och ca. 40 meter från ett sentida hus.

Beskrivning
Svampformad bildsten av ungefär 1.90 m höjd över marken. Ytan är blanksliten, vittrad och skadad. Inga rester av dekoren och bilderna finns bevarade på stenen.

Datering
700-talet eller mellan omkring år 800 och 900-talet e.Kr. (vikingatid).

Tolkning
Ingen tolkning.

SO

Title
GP 337 Rute St. Valle 1

Fornsök ID 
L1976:5668

RAÄ ID 
Rute 23:1

Jan Peder Lamm ID 
385

K-Samsök
ATA