The discovery of the Billingr and Skrauti runestones

The Älleköpinge stone is a red-grey granite block dating from the 900s or early 1000s. While the text is brief, it holds a linguistic rarity: it features the names Billingr and Skrauti, which had never been recorded in any other runestone before this discovery.

For centuries, the stone sat hidden in the southern wall of Älleköpinge Church, used as a foundation stone. It remained in this secondary position until July 1965, when an excavation of the church foundations by L. Cnattingius brought it back to light.

The inscription is arranged in a vertical row bounded by frame lines, without any extra decoration. The carver used a mix of normal and short-twig runes, with the main characters reaching heights of 18 to 22 centimeters. The text simply states that Billing raised this stone after Skröte.

After restoration by the Kristianstad Museum, the stone is now on public display. It stands in the square in Åhus, positioned in front of the town hall.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons