Church lot rock actually ancient runestone

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 24 (UPI) -- An archaeologist says a rock used to mark a parking lot at a church in Sweden is actually a 1,000-year-old runestone.

Stockholm County Museum runic expert Lars Andersson said a rock used to help mark the lot's boundaries is thought to date back to the Viking Age in Sweden, The Local said Friday.

Andersson said in a museum statement the discovery of runic inscriptions on the rock thanks to rainy weather was akin to a "religious experience."

"To read something that nobody else has read for 1,000 years is almost a religious experience," he said.

The rock was found last fall at the church outside Stockholm when the religious site had a nearby area excavated in order to lay some cables.

The Local said the rock, now thought to be a gravestone, was then used as a parking lot border as mud and earth covered up the inscription clues to its true history.