This is a study of collaboration on Viking Age and Early Middle Age rune stones. For this study, a method for surface structure analysis by laser scanning has been employed. The aim with this method is to distinguish between individual rune carvers in rock by their cutting techniques, as witnessed by the cut marks. The probability of the existence of individual cutting techniques is supported by neurophysiological and psychological kinetic research on individual motor
performance.
Conclusions of stylistic and runological studies of regional or chronological issues concerning rune stones often include a reservation for the possibility of individual variation. Attributions and dating are closely related to individual, chronological, regional and functional variation. Technical analysis of the cutting techniques have come to be regarded as a hypothetical but unachievable means to distinguish between individuals. One of the complicating factors is individual variability, due to aging, increasing skill, sickness, fatigue or change of tools. The method has been developed and tested by analyses of a recently cut reference material and on the Sparlösa Monument from 9th c. AD, a rune stone where it is known that a part of the inscription has been added at a later occasion. The usefulness of the method is discussed in terms of hit accuracy in classification, individual variability and how sources of errors such as weathering and treading may effect the variables that are used to characterise the cut marks.
Author(s): Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt
Series: Theses and Papers in Archaeology, B:9
Publisher: Stockholm University
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 116
1. Introduction
Rune stones
Context
Conscious manipulation and unconscious marks
Field work and laboratory analyses
Terminology
2. Background
Quality and professional carvers
Carving technique
Chronological, regional and individual variation
Rune carving during the Viking and Early Middle Ages
3. Scientific Studies of Stone and Petroglyphs
Carving techniques and groove shapes
Discerning different craftsmen
Surface-weathering research
Antiquarian intervention
Analyses of original colour
Provenance analysis and choice of material
Readings and interpretations
Dating of petroglyphs
4. Surface Structure Analysis
Methodological issues
Equipment and sampling
The study material
Similarities and differences in cut marks
Method studies
The limitations of the method
Other methods and areas of application
5. Applications
Presentation of Papers I-V
Crosses on rune stones
A comparison between two rune stones
Rune stones of sandstone
A new find from Visingsö
Regional differences in carving technique
Rune stones indicating several carvers
6. Rune stones - ancient Nordic Tradition or Christian Acculturation?
Stone sculpture from the Early Iron Age to the Early Middle Ages
Rune stone carvers' models
Stone master signatures
Rune carvers and the mission
Runic literacy
7. Discussion and conclusions
The investigation
Workshop, school, guild
Rune stone workshops - work and learning
Summary and conclusions
Problems for future research
References
Appendix A: Catalogue
Appendix B: Data
Appendix C: Mean profile diagrams
Appendix D: Discriminant Analysis
