In this thesis, an attempt is made to summarize the previous archeological research associated with two feature types in Sweden made from fire-cracked stones: the fire-cracked stone embankment and the burnt mound. The ?lim is to study how trends in interpretation and focus have developed. Furthermore, a compilation of ten excavation reports of burnt mounds between 2002 and 2013 is presented with the aim of determining their purpose, their usage of methods in general and petrography. The result of the summary confirms that there are discernable trends present and the result from the compilation of reports show that the larger scope is prioritized and that there are a number of commonly used methods, but that petrography is not among them.

Heaps of fire-cracked stone is an archaeological site category frequently found in Sweden. The heaps were constructed by piling a massive amount of deposited fire-cracked stones and occasionally they contain artefacts, for example, grindstones, ceramics or bones from both humans and animals. The heaps are sometimes also constructed with complex inner stone patterns in forms of e.g. circles and spirals. The heaps have been found all over Sweden, but the largest concentration is associated with the county of Uppland, north of Stockholm in eastern Sweden. In general, the structures have been linked chronologically to the Bronze Age (1800 B.C.–500 B.C.), although the heaps might be one of the least understood features of Scandinavian prehistory, as a result of their complex and varying content and spatial location. The remains are thoroughly debated, and the interpretation of them varies, ranging from graves to household indications, from sacral to profane, from piles of waste to markers of claimed land. The interpretations of the fire cracked stone heaps have mainly been made by comparing the contents of the heaps with finds from the surrounding archaeological landscape.                  In this study, the heaps will be analysed by using a landscape perspective by which they will be examined in relation to dynamic high-resolution shoreline reconstructions, vegetation and local topography. By examining the heaps by applying a high-resolution landscape model, suggests that their placement patterns are strongly connected to past shorelines. The analysis has in turn resulted in a non-prejudicial dating method for the heaps. The shoreline model was in the next step tested by a comparison to 118 published 14C-dates associated with fire-cracked stone heaps by using Kernel Density Estimations (KDE). The main result of the study is that the high-resolution shoreline model, in combination with KDE, provides an effective dating method for heaps of fire-cracked stone, which in the extension suggests an alternative motive for the construction of the heaps.