A Historical Find

A while back Rolf Norlin at the Hammarby farm was ploughing one of his fields near Småhamra when he suddenly hit a big rock. A closer look at the rock gave him the surprise of his life. He had just found a never before seen runestone from the Viking Era. He contacted a local archaeologist ( I know him as well), whom I guess was very excited. The runestone is in remarkable good condition. You can easily read the runic inscription although a part of the stone is missing. I don't have an exact translation, but the inscription reads something like: Gunnar and Ulf and Sighjälm had this stone raised after Halvdan their father. There's also a cross and a religious reference, saying something like May God protect his soul. I have never before seen that on a Haninge runestone. One reason for the superb condition of the inscription is probably that the stone has been buried in the field for nearly one thousand years. The experts from the Swedish National Heritage Board will visit the site for the first time later today and I wanted to beat them to it! The two people in the photos are my brother in law, who as it happens visited this area two days ago without seeing the runestone. The other person is Sune Nilsson, whose maternal grandparents lived in a house just meters away from the stone.