Runic inscription

sni(r)iR : (u)s----

The runes are of the same type as runestone U 4 on Borgberget and runestone U 5b, the new find from 2015 that was also found in a cultivation mound in northern Svarta jorden. The type of runes are short twig runes or so-called Swedish-Norwegian runes.

Facts

Red sandstone.
The fragment measures: 25.5 x 13.3 cm.

History

It was found in 1936 by E. Karlsson on Björkö "in a stone pile" (a cultivation mound) in the northern part of the Black Earth.

What is called the Black Earth is the area where the city of Birka was located in the years 750-980. Today there are open meadows/pastures with several large and unexplored cultivation mounds.

On a visit in 2015 to a small excavation in the area, my friend Roger Wikell and I decided to take a closer look at these stone collections, the cultivation cairns. Our theory was that they mostly consisted of remains from the ancient town.

We immediately saw an unusual number of red sandstone fragments in the surface and some had clear marks of having been used as a whetstone / sharpening stone... and it was then and there that we found the second runestone fragment of red sandstone, the one I'm calling runsten U 5b.

The picture was taken just a few minutes after the new find in 2015, runestone U5b. It was half underground and had thin carved runes that are hard to see.
 

It is likely that not only the remaining parts of these two runestone fragments remain in Birka's cultivation mound, but much more, perhaps completely unexpected finds. In addition, the farmers put the stones on unusable land, on mountains during the day or other things we don't know about until we move the stones. 

On the day when it has been decided to carry out an archaeological investigation of one or more of Birka's cultivation mounds, I am one of the first to offer my help carrying stones.

Links

Upplands runinskrifter > på sidan 9
(Good information but only in Swedish)

Runor >  Riksantikvarieämbetet

Google map > Show approximate location of find in 1936

kalle@runristare.se
If you want to be of help or have a question.
 

ALL RUNESTONES

Ekerö municipality

ADELSÖ >
has 5 known runestones

BIRKA >
has fragments from 9 known runestones

MUNSÖ >
has 3 or 4 known runestones

EKERÖ >
has 11 known runestones

FÄRINGSÖ >
has 27 known runestones

LOVÖ >
has 8 known runestones