Runolog Magnus Källström i färd med att undersöka runstenen.
Runologist Magnus Källström examining the stone. Photo: Torun Zachrisson
 


The special and complex script was carved into the stone sometime during the years 1050-80. The runic characters were written down by antiquarian Peringskiöld in the 17th century, which means that virtually the entire text is already known. Hearsay said the stone was located somewhere around Bogesunds brygga and antiquarian Richard Dybeck searched for it in the 1870s without finding it.

“On the last stop of the day on the excursion with the students, the sun was shining in the right direction and suddenly it was there at the edge of the burial ground, the rune stone U 170 from Bogesunds brygga, which had been missing for 300 years,” says Torun Zachrisson, archaeologist and researcher at Stockholm University.

The inscription on the rune stone is the oldest evidence for the place name Ekerö.