The essay deals with the phenomena “multiple individual burials”, which implicates a burial with two or more individuals, during the Boat Axe Culture (2800-2300 BC) in Sweden. The focus of this essay is the burial from Bergsvägen in Linköping, east Sweden. The burial is described as unique because of its well-preserved skeletons and grave goods, but the question is how unique is it in comparison with other multiple individual burials? This matter is analysed in the essay by a comparative analysis, and multiple burials are also compared with single burials to understand why some individuals of the community were buried in multiple individual burials while others were not. Maybe they died at the same time and multiple individual burials were practical or maybe they had high or low status within the community. The purpose of this essay is to understand the relationship between the individuals in the multiple individual burials. The later part of the essay deals with the burial from Bergsvägen as a unique culture heritage, and how it is interpreted in an exhibition in the Museum of Östergötland, Linköping.

This paper analysis the Viking age double graves on Birka. It has long been known that slaves have been a part of many societies. They have existed, yet not seen. They have been forgotten and overlooked for centuries, by the people of the past but also of today. The wish for this paper is to make these people a little more visible in the thoughts of scholars and the public alike. People are remembered by the things they leave behind. What do you do if you do not own something worthy to be remembered by? What do you look for? This is a comparative study where graves that have been labelled as double graves and those that has not, but share characteristics, will be analysed. The purpose of this study is to try and show, a different perspective, a different approach to analyse double graves that has not necessarily been interpreted as such.

The aim of this essay is to discuss the double graves existence, content and meaning during the Swedish Iron Age. Being buried in pairs seems to have been relatively rare. Is the double grave a family grave or was one of the individuals a human sacrifice? The focus of this essay will be to discuss the possible relationship the people in the double graves may have had, but also to see how rare the grave type is with the help and inspiration of theories by Sarah M. Nelson. Are the graves family style graves such as husband and wife or parent and child? Are there any other possibilities for the existence of double graves? The most common interpretation of the double graves is that they are family graves. I will try to answer these questions by examining four Iron Age burial grounds in Sweden. I do not rule out that double graves may be family graves, however, if they were family graves, why are they so uncommon and where is the rest of the family? Why is it only two people in the grave? This makes me question if the double graves are something else but pure family graves. It is more likely that the double graves have been the results of accidents or disease where two people lost their lives at the same time.