Re-Interpretations of Gotlandic Picture Stones Based on the Reflectance Transformation Imaging Method (RTI): Some Examples

Abstract

The picture stones 1 from the Isle of Gotland in the Baltic Sea are a unique source for the study of Germanic history of religion. These stone slabs, which have been inspired by late antique sepulchral monuments and iconography, 2 were raised from the Migration Period until the end of the Viking Age. Even when most of the figures on the Gotland picture stones are still enigmatic, it is clearly proved that their iconography includes mythological and heroic motifs which in certain cases can reliably be interpreted against the background of Old Norse literature. The later picture stones, which offer an abundance of figurative depictions and narrative scenes, were dated by Sune Lindqvist, in his most relevant book Gotlands Bildsteine, published in 1941-1942, to the 8 th century (type C/D according to Lindqvistʼs classification). 3 Recent research, however, has attested that monuments of that type were still being erected in the 9 th and 10 th centuries, 4 the period of the earliest known scaldic and Eddic poetry. Thus, there is a chronological overlap of both sources, the written sources from Iceland and the iconographic sources from the Baltic isle of Gotland. As a result, it can, in favourable cases, be reasonable to connect these disparate traditions in order to interpret the carved pictures.