This dissertation discusses Roman imperialism and runic literacy. It employs an interdisciplinary terminology. By means of terms new to archaeology, the growth of a specialized language, a technolect, is traced until it enters the realm of literacy. The author argues that there is more than one way for literacy to appear in prehistoric cultures. The ’normal’ perception is that literacy grows out of a need to keep records of a growing economic surplus. The ’other’ way for a culture to become literate is that someone else forces literacy upon it. This has been the case in many parts of the world subject to Western imperialism. The onslaught of Roman imperialism caused the invention of runic literacy in Northern Europe during the Early Roman Iron Age. The invention of the runic script should thus be seen as a preemptive reaction to the threat of Westernization. A comparison is made with a number of Early Modern Period cases of newly invented scripts caused by the arrival of literate Westerners in West Africa. The invention and introduction of the runes may well have been a dictated shift in literacy, seeking to break away from Latin. A number of dictated shifts in literacy from Early Modern Period America and Modern Period Asia are studied in comparison. The interaction between Germanic and Roman affinities was accentuated by the Roman army’s recruitment of Germanic men. These came to dominate the Roman army. This gave rise to a Germanic kleptocracy, a criminal rule in the post-Roman world. The role of runic literacy changed in the post-Roman aftermath of the Migration and Vendel Periods as the kleptocratic elite found it increasingly difficult to support a lavish lifestyle that included runic literacy. As a result, there was a decline in runic literacy in Northern Europe until the economic revival of the Viking Period. By then, it was clear that the North was soon to be integrated into the Christian West.

Houses with a stone foundation represent a new type of building on Gotland in the middle of the Roman Iron Age. At the same time there are other changes, for instance the number of visible graves decreases, and the farm and its land are emphasized by the stone enclosures that meander in the landscape. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how these changes in the source material can be understood in terms of changes in society and in people's way of looking at their world. Graves from the Roman Iron Age are studied in relation to their grave-goods, their appearance, and their connection to settlements and other graves. Objects of gold in the graves are compared with gold in deposits, and one can establish that different types of artefacts are found in different contexts. The settlements are also viewed at various levels, from the individual house and its artefacts to the structure of the cultural landscape. The hill-forts on Gotland are discussed and an overview of the Roman Iron Age in the rest of Scandinavia is given. The analysis of the graves reveals that the decrease in number in the middle of the Roman Iron Age can, at least in part, be explained by the a lack of a superstructure. At the same time precious artefacts such as Roman objects become more frequent, and so do the number of graves containing weapons. By studying the outline of the settlement pattern, one can conclude that the stone enclosures should not be interpreted merely as prehistoric fences, but that they should be recognized as a more complex phenomenon. In addition they link farms together into larger groups, and they connect the farmsteads to older graves. The interpretation that is put forward is that the stone enclosures, which link together farms and ancestors' graves, were an expression of how the society was organized around the family and kin. In this respect the stone enclosures "embodied" the social structure. In the analysis of the "forts", it is suggested that fortifications on flat ground belong to the period that precedes the changes in settlement, and that they constitute central places for the community. The forts on hilltops are on the other hand in many cases contemporaneous with houses with a stone foundation, and comparisons are made between hill-forts and stone enclosures. One interpretation that is put forward is that the maintenance of the social order in the local communities demanded new strategies, due to circumstances both on Gotland and in the surrounding world. Stone had a great part in this strategy, because it could preserve the farm and the enclosure-communities for the future. The stone enclosures linked the past graves to the present, and through the stones' permanence one built for the future. Some of the changes in the archaeological material can thus be interpreted as an attempt to prevent changes in the society.

Gotlands stenålder

In Scandinavia the general idea of the Bronze Age society is that it was organised as chiefdoms. The model for what they looked like is taken from the anthropological studies of the Polynesian chiefdoms. The aim of my study is to investigate a Scandinavian Bronze Age feature, known as cairns mainly containing fire-cracked stone. This is compared with how people in different Polynesian chiefdoms, looked at similar remain. This is done to get a background for new ways of interpretation of such remains. The method is ethno-archaeological and carried out by studying ethno-historical Polynesian chiefdoms and theories on Scandinavian Bronze Age. For example, in prehistoric Polynesian societies it is shown that refuse heaps or pits for ritual garbage occur on or near the ceremonial place, called Marae. The materials deposited were sacred, and had to be placed on or close to the Marae. Most rituals in Polynesia can be described as long processes with numbers of minor rituals. To me these insights place the Scandinavian remains in a new light. The heaps with fire-cracked stone could possibly be the garbage/refuse left over after one or a number of ritual ceremonies, consciously placed there by the people using the site, and thereafter respected because of its sacredness.

<p>This paper deals with the early mesolithic sites in Gladö, a part of Hanveden situated south of Stockholm. It tries to explain the big amount of sites, why people came to these islands and what they were doing there. The large shore displacement together with the topography of the mesolithic islands resulted in a rapid change of suitible areas for camping. The prime occupation was sealhunting on the ice of the Ancylus lake in early spring. As the archipelago became larger other activities as fishing and birdhunting got more important and people stayed for longer periods.</p>

<p>The aim of this work is to give a broader and more nuanced picture of the use of locks and keys during the Iron Age, in particular the late Iron Age, in the Lake Mälaren region. This has been done by comparing two buildings: the hall on Helgö and the living quarters in the garrison on Birka. Here we can see two very different areas where locks and keys were important parts of the daily life. The study also includes a typology of padlocks based on the findings from the same places as the building study and their surroundings.</p>

<p>The aim of the study was to through empirical studies interpret the relation between three partially investigated house foundations, on an abandoned farm in Langhammars on northern Fårö. This relation focused upon two main questions; the time of use and the spatial distribution of the archaeological finds.</p><p>Trough comparative analysis two of these houses can establish to have been contemporary, the third one is too roughly examined. A discussion about the hypothec idea of two or three contemporary farms was made with a negative result.</p><p>In house 1 smaller processing of tools of flint has taken place near the fireplace in the larger room. A concentration of pottery was also visible near the fireplace, likely to be connected to cooking and eating. The smallest room in the northeast part of the house could have functioned as a storeroom and/or held workshop activities.</p><p>The archaeological finds and the distribution of it, strongly indicates that house 1 mostlikely consisted of a dwelling house and house 2 functioned as a workshop; linked to activities with handicrafts. Furthermore the finds reveal the present of a smithy on the farm, maybe placed somewhere between the two houses.</p>

This paper deals with the early mesolithic sites in Gladö, a part of Hanveden situated south of Stockholm. It tries to explain the big amount of sites, why people came to these islands and what they were doing there. The large shore displacement together with the topography of the mesolithic islands resulted in a rapid change of suitible areas for camping. The prime occupation was sealhunting on the ice of the Ancylus lake in early spring. As the archipelago became larger other activities as fishing and birdhunting got more important and people stayed for longer periods.

The aim of this work is to give a broader and more nuanced picture of the use of locks and keys during the Iron Age, in particular the late Iron Age, in the Lake Mälaren region. This has been done by comparing two buildings: the hall on Helgö and the living quarters in the garrison on Birka. Here we can see two very different areas where locks and keys were important parts of the daily life. The study also includes a typology of padlocks based on the findings from the same places as the building study and their surroundings.

The main purpose of this essay is to examine if it is possible to identify farms of “forest Finnish” people in Sweden, by means of an archaeological analysis, comparing the forest Finnish settlement with known none-forest Finnish settlements. This study is based on material excavated from the farms of Grannäs, and Råsjö, in the Swedish provinces of Jämtland and Medelpad. Both farms are dated to the 17th and 18th century. The study itself is divided into three parts, firstly a general study to get an overview of the material, secondly a study of ceramics as an attempt to discern social status and lastly a study of the animal bone material for analyzing the forest Finns’ livestock and possible hunting habits. The aim of the essay is also to provide a brief discussion regarding forest Finns and ethnicity. The results are ambiguous, but it seems possible to argue that there is a correlation between the ceramic and the amount of livestock. The forest Finns’ hunting habits could furthermore be considered in some ways a cultural act.