The Govan Stones are monuments preserved in early medieval Britain. Serving as sarcophagi for important figures such as royalty or wealthy nobles, they only exist in places where both Norse and native British cultures are present. They have been found in Cumbria, central Scotland and parts of Yorkshire.
With art and decor that is a combination of Celtic and Norse styles, they seem to have been used to highlight the importance of the dominant elite. Perhaps the newly arrived Scandinavian dynasties used them to consolidate their power and tie their power to the Celtic kings who came before them trying to appease their newly conquered subjects.
Stone monuments of Govan near the church.
They were built to honor the rulers of Strathclyde during a period when Celtic and Norse leaders were vying for control of the kingdom.
The Govan Stones is a collection of 31 recumbent gravestones, hogback stones and one remarkable sarcophagus from this period in history when Norwegian-instigated war changed the political landscape of Britain.
Govan is known as an industrial powerhouse that has built an incredible number of the world's largest ships over the past 150 years.
It is believed that the church at Govan may have been central to the kingdom of Strathclyde.
The most impressive monuments in the Govan collection are 5 massive sandstone blocks, commonly known as hogbacks (pig backs).
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Huge hogback monuments are in the Govan collection.
The solid stone blocks are not, as the name suggests, representations of pigs, but stones that are designed to make the tombs of the dead look like mighty Norse-style buildings.
Hunting scenes are often depicted on the gravestones.
Hogbacks are found exclusively in the Viking-inhabited areas of northern Britain - Scotland, Cumbria and Yorkshire - and Govan's examples are by far the largest.
Although the beasts carved into some hogbacks may have reflected the pagan beliefs of the Vikings, the fact that all of these stones were found in the churchyard suggests that the settlers converted to Christianity.
Even more impressive than the hogback is the monolithic sarcophagus found buried in the courtyard of Govan Church in the 19th century, without a body inside.
The largest sarcophagus of Govan Church.
Scientists believe that the relics of St. Constantine, the son of the Pictish king Kenneth Macalpin, who died in 876 AD, ironically, fighting against the Vikings, were probably kept here.
The sarcophagus of this Christian martyr, carved with hunting scenes and the same weaving seen on other stones, was to take an honorable place inside the church.
Previously, the graves were lined with slabs, but they were mostly buried in wooden coffins or millet in a shroud, whoever the deceased was. After the Roman sarcophagi were seen during the pilgrimage, it was decided to bury noble people in the sarcophagus.
Other tombstones in the collection, while not as impressive as hogbacks or sarcophagus, are also notable for the fact that they are indeed only found in Govan and Dumbarton, sites that had the Royal Association during the kingdom of Strathclyde.
Govan ceased to be important at the beginning of the 12th century, when Glasgow became one of the centers of the newly ascending kingdom of Scotland.
This massive change in the old order meant that the Old Kingdom was largely lost to history and only fragmentary records remained.
The gravestones at Govan were reused in the 17th and 18th centuries by local authorities such as the Rowand family and William Bogle, whose name is inscribed on one of the ancient stones.
The current Old Govan Church was only built in 1888 and is no longer used as a parish church.
Church of Govan.
The smallest hogback, which weighs about 500 kg, was removed from the church and taken to London, he first left Govan in a millennium.
There were 45 stones, but the number was lost in 1973, and the neighboring Harland and Wolfe shipyard was destroyed along with part of the church's estate. These 15 stones were considered lost, probably destroyed after they were mistaken for rubble.
However, in 2019, 3 stones were rediscovered in the cemetery by a 14-year-old volunteer who participated in his first archaeological excavations. Now expanding the excavation site in an attempt to find the rest of the lost stones.
