completely disappeared due to extensive cultivation, and only the runestone is left in
place. Runestones affiliated with cemeteries are decorated with crosses at an unusually
high degree ( 75 per cent), and these runestones might cast an interesting light on the
relationship between pagan cemeteries and Christianity (see e.g. U 661 ; Figure 46. 3 ).
It is possible that these stones served as a consecration of the cemetery or a part of
it. Christians could then be buried there until a real churchyard was available. That
runestones actually could serve as gravestones is shown by two Pr 5 stones in eastern
Uppland with the inscription ‘Here lies.. .’. They are both found at church sites, a
location that is more frequent for the later stones than for the early. In the province of
Öland a unique inscription on a bridge runestone in style Pr 3 , raised by a wife to the
memory of her husband, ends with ‘... he is buried in the church’.
Many runestones have been built into the walls of medieval churches, dating from
the twelfth to the fourteenth century. There is an ongoing discussion if this should
be interpreted as an ideological act – to move the ancestors to the church – or if
the runestones were regarded as nice flat stones, ideal to use in the building. The
fact that several of the pillars in the chancel of Uppsala Cathedral rest on runestones
Figure 46. 3 Runestone U 661 , Håtuna parish, Uppland. Drawing (from U) from the beginning of the
eighteenth century by Peringskiöld. The inscription read: ‘Gervi and Gulla raised this stone in memory
of Anund, their father. He died in the east with Ingvar. May God help Anund’s spirit.’ This is one of
the so-called Ingvar stones, raised by two daughters in memory of their father. The stone, placed at a
grave-field, is carved in ‘Bird’s-eye’s-view’ style and decorated with a cross.
–– chapter 46 : Runestones and the Christian missions––