Vol. 24 2019 EARLY MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA
vol. 24 2019 EARLY MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA: NEW TRENDS IN RESEARCH PRUSSICA EARLY MEDIEVAL SCANDINAVIA: NEW TRENDS IN RESEARCH PRUSSICA Fundacja Centrum Badań Historycznych Warszawa 2019 QUAESTIONES MEDII AEVI NOVAE (2019) SIGMUND OEHRL STOCKHOLM PAGAN STONES IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES MEDIEVAL VIEWS ON THE PAST (THE EXAMPLE OF GOTLAND, SWEDEN) INTRODUCTION It is a well-known phenomenon that pagan stone monuments were re-used in the construction of Christian churches. Roman spolia are quite frequent in late antique and medieval sacral buildings: Medieval builders pragmatically used – and thus “recycled”1 – tombstones, votive stones, altars, and other monuments of antiquity, and this raises the question to what degree religious or ideological/political intentions played a role in this practice of re-usage. When an antique idol, for instance, remained well visible, was mounted upside down, used as a step of a staircase, or even intentionally damaged or mutilated, it might be suspected that this was prompted by a certain symbolism – such as the overcoming and degradation of heathen idols, which in medieval times were regarded as the devil. In the case of representative picture and epigraphic stones, which do not feature evidently pagan elements, the connection to the glory and authority of the Imperium Romanum and the propagation of a certain continuity may have been a paramount motive. Scholars frequently work on these phenomena,2 but Scandinavia plays no role in this discussion, as there are no antique stone monuments in the 1 A. Esch, Wiederverwendung von Antike im Mitelalter. Die Sicht des Archäologen und die Sicht des Historikers, Hans-Lietmann-Vorlesungen, VII, Berlin 2005, p.
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