Thursday, August 25, 2011

A Historical Find

Documenting the new-found runestone


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.

18 comments:

Dina said...

Wo!!!! How absolutely marvelous to find this gorgeous stone in the field!!
And what a scoop for you, Steffe!
So exciting that the farmers live on top of such history!

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

So cool.

Jack said...

This is an exciting find. Let us know what is learned.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

What a fabulous discovery Steffe, how very exciting to find something that old, I'm going out to start digging..!!

brattcat said...

What a scoop!!!! This is amazing!

Mark said...

You heard it first at Haninge Photo! An exciting find.

B i r g i t t a said...

Vad roligt att få vara med om ett sådant historiskt ögonblick!

Sharon said...

What a fantastic discovery.

ArtandArchitecture-SF.com said...

Phenomenal. How luck for you to be there and be a part of the scene before it is whisked off and put where "mere mortals" aren't allowed to enjoy it.

Mo said...

He's pretty serious about his find

Stefan Jansson said...

It will not be moved. It will be placed by the side of the field. Sune, who you can see in the slideshow noticed the archaeologist and a person from the Swedish National Heritage Board at a cafe yesterday probably after their visit to the runestone.

If you mean Svempa Mo, I'm sure he was at least a bit excited. Runestones are not his speciality but when he heard about it he decided to tag along.

Dina said...

And they get to KEEP it! All the more exciting!

Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.com said...

This is amazing. We saw a runestone in Sweden when we were there. It was covered with lots of writing and was set off in a little roadside parking area.

Stefan Jansson said...

The runestone will be erected sometime in October. First a few experts will have a closer look at it.

Cindy said...

That is the coolest thing ever! Great photos.

CaT said...

oh, how cool!

Scylla said...

Gud vad kul! Den har jag inte hört talas om.

Stefan Jansson said...

Det hade ingen annan heller gjort innan Rolf körde över stenen tidigare i år.