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[[File:Grabstein von Niederdollendorf, Rückseite. Cropped.jpg|thumb|The side of the Niederdollendorf stone conjectured to depict Christ.]]
The '''Niederdollendorf stone''' or '''gravestone''' is a carved [[Franks|Frankish]] [[stele]] from the 7th century CE, named for the town [[Niederdollendorf]], (now Königswinter) where it was found in 1901 in a Frankish graveyard. The stone is a notable both as an exemplary work of Frankish sculpture and as a possible early example of [[Christianisation of the Germanic peoples|Germanic Christian]] material culture.<ref name=ODLA>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Niederdollendorf stone |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity]] |last=James |first=Edward |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-3362 |access-date=13 June 2024 }}</ref>
==Discovery and location==
A Frankish graveyard was discovered about 400m north of the boundary of Niederdollendorf in 1901 during construction work. No proper excavation took place other than the sporadic uncovering during this work and therefore the inventories of many of the graves have been lost. The graveyard (in use between the latter half of the 6th century and the 7th8th century) consisted of burials with oriented slabs and, in some cases, with grave goods buried within. The specific grave the Niederdollendorf stone belonged to had no grave goods and was dated to among the later of the gravegraveyard's burials.<ref name=Bohner>{{cite journal |last=Böhner |first=Kurt |title=Der fränkische Grabstein von Niederdollendorf am Rhein |journal=Germania |volume=28 |date=1944–50 |pp=63–75 |doi=10.11588/ger.1944.45947}}</ref>{{rp|63-64}}<ref name=Ristow>{{cite book |last=Ristow |first=Sebastian |chapter=Persönliche Glaubenshaltungen in der Archäologie: Problemfälle aus Spätantike und Frühmittelalter |title=Persünliche Frömmigkeit: Funktion und Bedeutung individueller Gotteskontakte im interdisziplinären Dialog |editor1-first=Wiebke |editor1-last=Friese |editor2-first=Inge |editor2-last=Nielsen |location=Münster |publisher=Lit |date=2011 |pages=167–183 }}</ref>{{rp|172}}
The stone is currently on display at [[Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn]].<ref>{{cite website |title=DerDie fränkischeSammlungen Grabsteindes von NiederdollendorfLVR-LandesMuseums |url=https://wwwlandesmuseum-bonn.niederdollendorflvr.de/Frankischer.Grabsteinde/museum/sammlung/Sammlungen.pdfhtml |access-date=1225 September 2024 |website=Kreis de HeimatfreundeLVR-LandesMuseum NiederdollendorfBonn }}</reFref>
==Appearance and interpretation==
The stone measures 42.5 cm by 22‒25 cm by 16‒19 cm and was carved from [[Lorraine]] [[limestone]]. It was made in the 7th century and reused later (around the 8th century) as a gravestone. The original purpose is unknown, so the common reference to it as a "gravestone" is slightly misleading.<ref name=Friedrich>{{cite book |chapter=The Enduring Power of Images |title=Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2023 |first=Matthias |last=Friedrich |pages=37-104 |isbn=9781009207768 }}</ref>{{rp|45}}<ref name=Bohner/>{{rp|64-65}}<ref name=Ristow/>{{rp|172}}
On one broad side, a spear-wielding man is shown standing on an [[Interlace (art)|interlace]] pattern. Rays extend from his head and he has a circle on his torso. Incised lines extend out from the chest and feet.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|53}}<ref name=ODLA>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Niederdollendorf stone |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity]] |last=James |first=Edward |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662778.001.0001/acref-9780198662778-e-3362 |access-date=13 June 2024 }}</ref> German archeologist {{ill|Kurt Böhner|de}} was the first to conjecture that this image is a depiction of [[Jesus]], an interpretation that since has since been widely adopted.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|47}} Such conjecture reads the interlace under-foot as a serpent, representing evil trampled on by Christ. The rays, resembling hair, are read as a halo. No consensus has been found for an interpretation of the circle, which has been read as a Christian ''[[bulla (amulet)|bulla]]'', a [[torc]], and as somea kind of necklace, or perhaps some feature from a Roman torso plate. Böhner read the incised lines as a stylised [[aureole]], an interpretation which has not been sustained by later scholarship.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|52-53}} The spear is usually read as representative of a Germanic syncretisation of Christ, reconceptualising the triumphant Christ within a Germanic warrior culture.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|62}}
One critic of this interpretation is Michael Friedrich, who instead reads the figure as a (perhaps deliberately) religiously ambiguous appropriation of Roman imperial symbols of power, complainingcomplains of the absence of "any distinct symbol or signifier that might enable us to clearly identify Christ or even presume a Christian frame of reference."<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|64}} Neither the interlace nor the rays around the figure's head are unambiguously a serpent or a halo. If the interlace is interpreted in this way, though the triumphant Christ is often depicted in Christian iconography as atop a serpent, the motif is common to Germanic sources as well.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|62}}<ref name=Ristow/>{{rp|175-176}} Friedrich instead reads the figure as a (perhaps deliberately) religiously ambiguous appropriation of Roman imperial symbols of power.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|64}} Another critic [[J. M. Wallace-Hadrill]], who favours an identification of the figure with [[Odin]], said of the stone that if it is Christian, it is "a parody of Christianity by and for men still essentially pagan".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wallace-Hadrill |title=The Frankish Church |first=J. M. |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=1983}}</ref>{{rp|20, 29}} German prehistorian {{ill|Herbert Kühn|de|Herbert Kühn (Prähistoriker)}} also identified the figure with Odin, an interpretation which was in vogue in Germany during the Nazi era.<ref name=Ristow/>{{rp|173}}
The other broad side has been described as "one of the best-known examples of Frankish sculpture".<ref name=ODLA/> It depicts a man with a sword or [[scramasax]] and what is perhaps a comb. A circular object near his legs is perhaps a canteen. Three serpent heads menace him from both sides. The comb and the serpents, respectively common pagan grave goods and grave symbols, haveare causedthe main reasons that this side tohas beso interpretedoften asbeen athought depictionto ofshow a pagan (or only semi-Christianised) Frankish warrior in his grave.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|45}}<ref name=ODLA/> Böhner saw the figure in this light, further contextualising the comb within the pagan Frankish association of hair with power. However, in more recent scholarship, Sebastian Ristow has contested this interpretation, allegingon the grounds that itassociations islike basedthese onwere aby faultyno understandingmeans ofexclusively Christianpagan, Germanicand would have been carried into later Christian culturecultures.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|47}}<ref name=Bohner/>{{rp|67}}
The narrow sides and top are decorated with a serpent and various geometric figures.<ref name=Friedrich/>{{rp|45}}
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|A narrow side of the stone, depicting a serpent.
|File:2018 Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Grabstein aus Niederdollendorf.jpg
|The side of the stone conjectured to depict a dead Frankish warrior.
|File:Niederdollendorf Friedenstraße Nachbildung Grabstele.jpg
|A reproduction of the stone in Friedenstraße (in front of the Protestant church), Niederdollendorf, erected in 2016.
}}
==See also==
* [[Hornhausen stones]]
* [[Landelinus buckle]]
* [[Moselkern stele]]
* [[Stuttgart Psalter]]
==References==
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==Further reading==
* Böhner, K. "Der fränkische Grabstein von Niederdollendorf am Rhein", ''Germania'' 28 (1944–50), 63–75.
* Böhner, K. s.v. "Niederdollendorf." in Hoops, ''[[Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde]]'', (RGA). 2nd edition. 21:153–62153–162.
* Brast, W. "Der Bildstein von Niederdollendorf" ''Festschrift zum Hundertjährigen Bestehen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 1869-1969''. Zweiter Teil: Fachwissenschaftliche Beiträge (1970).
* Kühn, H. ''Die vorgeschichtliche Kunst Deutschlands''. Berlin (1935), 186
* Redlich, C. "Der Bildstein von Niederdollendorf" ''Die Kunde N.F.'' 25 (1974), 157–163.
* Ristow, S. "Persönliche Glaubenshaltungen in der Archäologie: Problemfälle aus Spätantike und Frühmittelalter," in ''Persünliche Frömmigkeit: Funktion und Bedeutung individueller Gotteskontakte im interdisziplinären Dialog'', ed. W. Friese and I. Nielsen. Münster: Lit (2011), 167–183.
* Zehnder, G. (ed.) ''100 Bilder und Objekte. Archäologie und Kunst im Rheinischen Landesmuseum''. Bonn (1999).
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[[Category:1901 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Archaeological discoveries in Germany]]
[[Category:KönigswinterEarly Germanic art]]
[[Category:Early Christian art]]
[[Category:Germanic Christianity]]
[[Category:Jesus in art]]
[[Category:Early Germanic artKönigswinter]]
[[Category:Odin in art]]
[[Category:Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn]]
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