The timeframe of the south Scandinavian rock art tradition extends from c.1700/1600 to 300 /200 BC. The chronological boundaries of the rock art phenomenon thereby coincide roughly with the timeframe of the Nordic Bronze Age, and rock art figures have come to be understood and interpreted as a Bronze Age phenomenon. It is argued that a dominant Bronze Age narrative has come to direct the discourse and fieldwork alike towards a focus on the origin , rather than the use, of rock art. The rock carver’s intention with the image, explicitly or implicitly, has come to equate with its meaning. The aim of the thesis is to approach rock art figures from a different perspective, with the aim of understanding how south Scandinavian rock art has been used and interpreted over time. The question of what archaeological evidence the use of rock art may have left behind is taken up, and the archaeological excavations carried out at rock art sites in southern Scandinavia​ are summarized and discussed. The survey shows that finds and features date to some extent from the Bronze Age, yet most of the dateable evidence comes from periods after the tradition of creating new images had ended, especially the Early Iron Age. This phenomenon is of particular interest given the explicit uses of the past-perspective of the thesis. It is argued that some of the rock art sites were still being used during later prehistoric periods. Other examples of later period´s uses of rock art sites are presented and discussed, such as runic inscriptions on rock art panels as well as the use of rock art and cup-mark sites during historic times. ​ A study of the chronological development of the rock art tradition in the Himmelstalund-region in the county of Östergötland is also presented, based on recently developed ship chronologies of rock art. The study shows that the earliest ship figures, which are found in the Himmelstalund area, were probably made in the Bronze Age period I/II. Yet the majority of the dateable ship figures date from the Bronze Age period II–III, after which the number of dateable ships declines in period IV, a development becoming even more prominent in period V-VI.  Another theme discussed in the thesis is archaeology’s own uses of rock art and how this has affected the interpretations of the material. The thesis shows it is feasible to combine a discussion on the prehistoric use of rock art sites and images with a critical view of interactions between archaeological and antiquarian practice and the source material. It has also shown the potential for a broadened discussion, where we regard the use of rock art, during the Bronze Age as well as during later periods, as integral and essential to rock art research​.

Les outils lithiques sont nombreux aux âges des métaux, mais encore peu étudiés. Dans les activités de mise en forme des métaux, ils sont représentés essentiellement par les supports de frappe, les abrasifs, les brunissoirs, les outils d’aiguisage et les outils de broyage. Certains sont également fabriqués en métal (supports de frappe) ou en céramique (abrasifs, outils d’aiguisage). Les formes contemporaines de ces outils sont trop différentes pour permettre une comparaison directe. Il est donc nécessaire de travailler à partir de la fonction des outils, déduite de l’analyse de leur structure. Les supports de frappe liés à la mise en forme du métal sont facilement identifiables. Ils permettent de restituer de façon plus ou moins précise les objets qu’ils ont servis à fabriquer. Les abrasifs sont difficiles à relier à un matériau, mais leurs traces d’utilisation sont caractéristiques des profils des objets. Les brunissoirs sont caractéristiques du travail du métal, surtout la tôle. Les outils d’aiguisage sont essentiellement conçus pour l’entretien des lames, mais il est possible d’identifier certains outils utilisés pour le travail de taillanderie. Les outils de broyage sont également utilisés pour la cuisine. Mais on peut distinguer les exemplaires utilisés pour le broyage des matériaux (terre, dégraissant). L’étude de la pierre permet également de reconstituer les sources d’approvisionnement en matériaux et de reconstituer les axes d’échanges et d’exploitation du territoire. / Lots of lithic tools are present in Metal Ages, but few are studied. In metal production, they are especially constitued by strike supports, abrasives, burnishers, sharpening tools and crushing tools. A part of them are in metal ( strike supports) or in ceramic (abrasives, sharpening tools). Contemporary forms of these tools are too different to permit a dierct comparison. It is necessary to work on the function of the tools, deduced from the analysis of these structure. Strike supports used for metal working are easily identifiable. They allow to reproduce more or less precisely the objects that they were fabricated with. Abrasives are difficult to relate to a material, but the traces of use are characteristic of the profile of the objects. Burnishers are characteristic of metal working, especially sheet metal. The sharpening tools are mainly designed for the maintenance of the blades, but it is possible to indentify some of the tools used for edging.Ê The crushing tools are also used for cooking. But we can distinguish the models used for grinding materials (earth, degreaser). The study of the stone also helps reconstitute the sources of axes of trade and exploitation of the territory.

Resource management have been, and still are essential for humans, partly because of the constantly changing environment. The landscape provides basic material for survival and therefore it becomes important to understand the different stages of environmental influences and developments in parallel to the increasing complexity of Bronze- and Iron Age societies. Investigating the causes for human interactions with the environment and the following consequences for the biodiversity provides crucial information about organized systems for a sustainable resource management in our modern society. Finding archaeological traces of “hävd” (claimed land) and other types of manifestations in the landscape stress the fact that land becomes a more valuable resource from both a social and practical view. Over a longer perspective the process of going from a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary agricultural one also becomes a process of going from a collective to a private managing of resources. This project aims to investigate that development.

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abstract: What causes social systems to resist change? Studies of the emergence of social complexity in archaeology have focused primarily on drivers of change with much less emphasis on drivers of stability. Social stability, or the persistence of social systems, is an essential feature without which human society is not possible. By combining quantitative modeling (Exponential Random Graph Modeling) and the comparative archaeological record where the social system is represented by networks of relations between settlements, this research tests several hypotheses about social and geographic drivers of social stability with an explicit focus on a better understanding of contexts and processes that resist change. The Valencian Bronze Age in eastern Spain along the Mediterranean, where prior research appears to indicate little, regional social change for 700 years, serves as a case study. The results suggest that social stability depends on a society’s ability to integrate change and promote interdependency. In part, this ability is constrained or promoted by social structure and the different, relationship dependencies among individuals that lead to a particular social structure. Four elements are important to constraining or promoting social stability—structural cohesion, transitivity and social dependency, geographic isolation, and types of exchange. Through the framework provided in this research, an archaeologist can recognize patterns in the archaeological data that reflect and promote social stability, or lead to collapse. Results based on comparisons between the social networks of the Northern and Southern regions of the Valencian Bronze Age show that the Southern Region’s social structure was less stable through time. The Southern Region’s social structure consisted of competing cores of exchange. This type of competition often leads to power imbalances, conflict, and instability. Strong dependencies on the neighboring Argaric during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and contributed to the Southern Region’s inability to maintain social stability after the Argaric collapsed. Furthermore, the Southern Region participated in the exchange of more complex technology—bronze. Complex technologies produce networks with hub and spoke structures highly vulnerable to collapse after the destruction of a hub. The Northern Region’s social structure remained structurally cohesive through time, promoting social stability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Webpage with data tables and R code / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2020

The purpose of this essay is to study the evolution and differences of motifs on bronze age objects associated with men and women, the differences in plastic ornamentation and the differences in grave goods in five danish oakcoffin burials from II-III, and fourtythree swedish cremation graves from period IV-VI. The methods used for the motifs and plastic ornamentation are an iconographical one and for the grave goods I have chosen to make a chart. The spiral motifs on beltplates and the ships on the bronze razors, for example, have played a significant part in bronze age life. The same could be said of the plastic ornamentation on the horse headed razors from period II-III. The grave goods from the danish oakcoffin burials could possibly be seen as something connected with sunpriestesses. The few gravegoods coming from the swedish cremation graves could be viewed as a consequence of larger villagers appearing during the late bronze age.

Si le miroir en bronze apparaît dans le pourtour méditerranéen au IVe mill. av. J.-C. les groupes culturels égéens ne semblent l’adopter que tardivement par rapport aux régions limitrophes (vers 1600 av. J.-C.) avec lesquelles ils ont pourtant tissé des liens étroits régulièrement matérialisés par l’introduction de produits manufacturés. L’objet de cette thèse est l’étude des miroirs en bronze et de leurs usages durant le deuxième millénaire (âge du Bronze récent) en Grèce et dans ses îles. Des références aux productions limitrophes (Sardaigne, Sicile, Chypre) sont également considérées dans le cadre d'une histoire générale du miroir protohistorique en première partie.L'analyse prend également en compte le contexte et le mobilier associé quand ceux-ci sont documentés. Ces découvertes, majoritairement réalisées dans des ambiances sépulcrales, offrent des pistes de réflexion sur le statut fonctionnel qui leur était accordé et qui restait méconnu :accessoire du package cosmétique ?instrument lié à des pratiques funéraires particulières ?à des codes de représentation sociale ?Alors qu’aucun miroir de production égyptienne ou mésopotamienne ne semble avoir franchi l'Égée avant le VIIIe s. av. J.-C. les résultats de l’analyse montrent clairement l’adoption locale de traits méridionaux sous forme d’emprunts iconographiques (sphinx, génie, etc.). Le savoir-faire (technologique) est, lui, pourtant fondamentalement local, sous la forme d'un système d'emmanchement tout à fait original en Méditerranée. Malgré tout, ce type d’objet reste rare en domaine minoen et mycénien, ce qui soulève des interrogations. Ainsi, à quels phémonènes est lié l’usage du miroir ?Malgré un corpus demandant à être enrichi par des fouilles non publiées (La Canée, Palaikastro, Zakros, etc.), les miroirs égéens présentent une relative homogénéité techno-stylistique illustrant la diffusion d’un artisanat spécialisé et permettent de proposer une réflexion sur l’existence d’un effet de mode doublé d’un reflet méditerranéen, toutefois exprimé par la résurgence d’un vocabulaire stylistique profondément local. / Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This diploma thesis is focused to the plasma chemical reduction of model corrosion layers prepared on bronze samples. Bronze was the main material for production of the subjects in Bronze Age. First, it was very rare, and therefore was used only for making jewellery and other decorative subjects. Later, the objects of daily use and weapons were produced of bronze. These objects are found and it is necessary to restore him and preserve the cultural heritage for future generations. The research and the optimalization of plasmochemical reduction of model corrosion layers on bronze samples contributes to this. A metallographic grinder was used to create a defined surface, first with the sandpaper P 280 and then after sample 90 degree rotation with the sandpaper P 600. This ensured uniform surface at all bronze samples that is necessary to provide the same corrosion conditions. The grinded samples were washed by ethanol and dried by hot air stream. To prevent contact with the surrounding atmosphere and successive initiation of corrosion, the samples were stored in lockable polyethylene bags. This step was followed by the preparation of model corrosion layers. Hydrochloric and sulfuric acids were chosen as corrosive environments. Petri dish containing 20 ml of the selected acid was placed at the bottom of the desiccator. Samples were placed to the ceramic grate, over the dish, and they were corroded (in vapours of hydrochloric acid for 34 days and in vapours of sulfuric acid for 27 days). The corroded samples were treated using low-pressure hydrogen plasma excited by RF generator. Treatment of samples was carried out in quartz cylindrical reactor (length of 90 cm, inner diameter 9.5 cm) with copper electrodes placed outside. The pressure in the reactor was ranged around 160 Pa at hydrogen flow rate of 50 sccm during the experiments. The continuous and pulse modes (duty cycle of 25%, 50% or 75%) at peak power of 50–300 watts were used for the treatment of 90 minutes duration. The plasma treatment was monitored by optical emission spectroscopy of OH radical using compact Ocean Optics HR4000 spectrometer. Its integral intensity is proportional to the corrosion layer removal. The rotational temperatures of plasma were calculated using selected OH rotational lines, too. The sample temperature during the treatment was measured by thermocouple installed inside the additional non-corroded samples. The reduction of corrosion layer is successful when the maximum of relative intensity of OH radicals is produced and follow gradual decline. The samples which corroded in vapours of sulphuric acid and were treated in pulse modes with duty cycle of 25 % or with delivered power of 50 W has produced no maximum. To the remain samples the maximum although were observed, but reduced corrosion products on the surface were very cohesive. The maximum of relative intensity of OH radicals was observed at all samples corroded in vapours of hydrochloric acid. But there is problem with temperature of sample during experiment. The samples which layer of corrosion product was after experiment incoherent produced the layer of deposit tin. This effect formation at a higher temperature of sample during experiment and therefore with greater deliver energy.

For the better part of the 20th century, Swedish hillforts were seen strictly as an iron age phenomenon, and it was not until the mid-1980’s that we had reliable evidence that hillforts were already constructed during the Bronze Age. At the same time, archaeologists were moving away from the old militaristic studies to make way for studies based on the symbolical aspects of these monumental structures. Unfortunately, as we reached the end of the millennium, the general archaeological interest for hillforts dramatically dropped, causing hillfort research to miss out on the digital revolution as the new GIS technology cemented itself as a powerful tool in archaeological research. Today, nine hillforts have received a Bronze Age dating, why it is now possible to preform high quality research on the material without having to include structures from other time periods. However, the lack of GIS-based hillfort research leads us to seek inspiration from British hillfort research where the incorporation of GIS-methodology has proven successful in analyzing the relationship between hillforts and their landscapes. The purpose of this paper is therefore to continue investigating the symbolical aspects of the Swedish Bronze Age hillforts by investigating how GIS can help us locate and understand visual relationship between hillfort morphology and the surrounding landscape.       The analysis is based on a viewshed-method developed by Jessica Murray in her attempts to analyze if hillforts were constructed to visually relate to certain features of the landscape or the local topography. The resulting viewshed rasters are interpreted from a phenomenological theoretical standpoint since phenomenological aspects give us the possibility to bridge the gap between digital and analogue sensory analysis. The results show that viewshed-based analyses can be successfully complimented by phenomenological theory and that the method has successfully replicated previously observed landscape relationships while also exposing previously unknown visual relationships.

Anotation This study describes results of the processing the excavations obtained during a research of Štítary settlement at Hostivice, distr. Prague-West (Central Bohemia). With the help of ceramic reamains, two residential phases were identified that corespond with the shift between the middle and younger degree of culture. The study was concerned with the existence of separate homesteads. They were not proved. The study looks at the form of the pottery at time when social changes are evident in Central Bohemia. Keywords Central Bohemia - Bronze Age - Štítary culture - settlement - pottery