The purpose of this paper was to analyze fishbones from the Pitted Ware Culture settlement named Hemmor. in Dalbo, När parish on Gotland. The fishbones are unburnt and derive from one specific culture layer (c:6) in trench one VI:7, and radiocarbon dated to 2600-2300 BC cal. In this paper I wanted to answer these following questions:1. What kind of fish species did they eat in Hemmor?2. How was the different fish species represented in the material?3. What kind of fishing methods did they use to capture the fish?4. Was the settlement named Hemmor used through the entire year? The methods I used were both quantitative and qualitative. The identification of the different fish species was made by using modern reference material. All fragments were counted and weighed in order to estimate how the different fish species were represented at the settlement. To estimate season of catch and age , 10 vertebrae of cod was randomly picked out from the material. The fish species represented in the material was : cod, herring, pike, perch, flatfish and whitefish/ salmon. The most common fish species in the material was cod. The fishbone material from Hemmor was compared with three other Neolithic settlements in the Baltic sea region. The results were similar for two of the settlements while one differed some from the others. The fishing methods based on the archeological findings at the excavation site, showed that the people at Hemmor could have used fish-forks, harpoons, fishhook sand fishing nets. The fish species in the material indicate that the Hemmor settlement was probably used throughout the year, which also was indicated from the 10vertebrae of cod, since it was caught during both summer and winter. Some of the other fishes indicated that the people in Hemmor also fished during the spring and fall.

This essay provides an overview of the findings from the Pitted Ware settlement Kärja (RAÄ-nr Västerhaninge 28:1, L-nr L2014:4173) on southeast of Södertörn, East Middle Sweden. The archaeological materials from the settlements are analyzed with anthropological theories regarding kinship and exchanges, combined with a social-constructive perspective of conventional categorizations and chronology. This perspective is also used to analyze cup marks on sites with Pitted Ware Culture, which are discussed as a Neolithic phenomenon.

Den gropkeramiska kulturen är förknippad med kustlandskap och ett osteologiskt material bestående av fisk och säl, men kulturen fanns också vid inlandets insjöar där fisk och bävern istället är framträdande i det osteologiska materialet. Vindförbergs udde är en av flera gropkeramiska inlandslokaler belägen i Dalarna, det som utmärker Vindförberg från andra omkringliggande lokaler är lokalens höga och branta placering i landskapet. Syftet med uppsatsen är att tolka vad för slags lokal Vindförbergs udde varit, varför bävern är framträdande i gropkeramiska inlandslokaler, och hur inlandslokaler skiljer sig från eller liknar kustlokaler. För att svara på frågorna har en osteologisk analys av stenåldersmaterial från Vindförberg gjorts, och en komparativ metod har tillämpats där det osteologiska materialet jämförs med två kustlokaler i Hälsingland, Gästrikland och en inlandslokal i Dalarna. Diskussionen har fokuserat på Vindförberg som lokal och bävern som ett betydande djur, utifrån de frågeställningarna har likheter och skillnader mellan samtida inlands- och kustlokaler presenterats. Resultatet tyder på att Vindförbergs udde kan ha nyttjats året om, där både slakt, konsumtion och verktygstillverkning försiggått. Bävern är framträdande i materialet från Vindförberg och andra inlandslokaler, i samband med bäverns och sälens vattenlevande levnadssätt kan en tolkning av att bävern varit substitut för sälen göras. Likheter mellan gropkeramiska inlands- och kustlokaler kan ses i lokalernas placering i landskapet och kontakter med andra grupper. En tydlig skillnad är det osteologiska materialet där faunan skiljer sig åt. / The pitted ware culture is associated with coastal landscapes and an osteological material consisting of fish and seals. However, the culture also lived alongside inland lakes where fish and beavers were prominent instead. Vindförbergs beak (Vindförbergs udde) is one of several pitted ware culture sites in the inland located in Dalecarlia. What distinguishes Vindförberg from other surrounding premises is the beak’s high and steep location in the landscape. The purpose of this study is to interpret what kind of locale Vindförbergs beak was, why the beaver is prominent in inland pitted ware culture sites, and how inland sites differ from or resemble coastal sites. To answer these questions, an osteological analysis of stone age material from Vindförberg has been carried out, and a comparative method has been applied where the osteological material is compared with two coastal sites in Hälsingland, Gästrikland and one inland site in Dalecarlia. The discussion is focused on Vindförberg as a site and the beaver as a significant animal, and based on the paper’s research questions presents similarities and differences between inland and coastal sites. The results indicate that Vindförberg’s beak may have been used all year round, where both butchering and toolmaking were taking place. The beaver is prominent in the material from Vindförberg and other inland locations. Based on the aquatic lifestyle of the beaver and the seal, an interpretation can be made that the beaver was a substitute for the seal. Similarities between the inland pitted ware culture sites and the coastal sites can be seen in the location of the sites in the landscape and contacts with other groups. A clear difference is the osteological material where the fauna differs.

My intention with this paper is to study the stone cists on Gotland from the Late Neolithic period. They are often interpreted as representing the domestic life and agriculture, as well as having a strong connection to house and home of the people. Furthermore, these graves show continuity from the proceeding Stone Age culture and provide evidence for an overlap with the Early Bronze Age. This will be discussed, while also exploring the meaning of the grave goods in them and Late Neolithic artefacts that are spread across the island.

Through this thesis I aimed to further investigate how we can adapt our western and modern views of masculinity and femininity in an ancient population, here on the Pitted Ware population from Ajvide on Gotland. A questionnaire survey was used to compile the modern view of masculinity and femininity. This modern view was then compared with patterns which had become visible through statistical processing of the burial gifts found on Ajvide. The thesis is mainly focused around the concept of gender, but age and status have also been discussed. Through several performed correspondence analysis, it became clear that the current view of male and female differed from the one that became visible in the archaeological record. Grave gifts that in the survey, for example, was estimated to be typically feminine turnes out to be more common in mens' graves. This means that the use of burial gifts as a method, for example in gender assessment or as an indicator of identity is inadequate. The study of the interaction between material culture and gender and gender roles require further development.

The subject of this thesis is animal bones found in the Pitted Ware Culture site of Ajvide in Eksta parish, Gotland, Sweden. The site has been excavated since the 1980s and along with 85 graves and 7500 artefacts about 2500 kg of animal bones has been collected. Previous studies have often focused on specific areas or species, but the aim of this work has been to get a wider perspective of different areas within the Ajvide site. A total of about 20 kg of animal bones from ten different areas in Ajvide have been analysed with osteological methods. The analysis has shown that there are some differences between the areas considering amount of bone material found and the present species. The material consists of almost exclusively unburnt fragments and fragmentation is high in all areas. In the deeper layers fish is the most common species while fragments of pig are the most common considering every layer and area analysed. The difference seen between the areas most likely depend on how the sites were used by the people in the Pitted Ware Culture and discussions are made on how some of the areas could have been used for more ritual purposes while others possibly have been used in the everyday life.

As humans we function with a biological side and a psychological side. Both of these sides have their needs. We need to put food in our stomach to stop feeling hungry and we need to give things meaning. In a Human Behavioral Archaeological perspective, which focuses a lot on the economical aspect of the animal and the human, the animal was killed for food. But, how was the animal perceived in a cultural perspective, what was the meaning of this animal? This is the question that will have its answer in this thesis. The animal handling of the Pitted Ware culture  will be analyzed from an animistic point of view - meaning, that human, animals and object can have a soul or a personality. This makes the world seem more fluent. The sharp lines between culture and nature, life and death, human and animal get wiped out and we see a world view the modern Western human is not used to. As much as the animal was a prey, it also was a being with a purpose in the Pitted Ware culture. On the Pitted Ware sites at Jettböle on the Aland Island and at Ajvide on Gotland, the seal was the most prominent animal in both the economic and cultural sphere. The clay figurines of Jettböle show some sort of worship of the seal. Among many of the anatomical parts of the animal and human body, the head seems to be of most importance. Even differences within the same culture appear. At Ajvide, there is a clear burial tradition of the deceased humans, whereas at Jettböle, there is not. And as much as the seal is of dominance at Ajvide, the swine comes in at a close second, whereas at Jettböle, there is almost no swine at all.

In this paper, I analyze body position and orientation based on material from nine grave fields belonging to the Pitted ware culture (3300-2400 BC) on Gotland, Sweden. The archeological sites consist of Ajvide, Fridtorp, Grausne, Gullrum, Hemmor, Ire, Visby, Västerbjers and Västerbys. The aim of the thesis is to generate information, through the use of Correspondence Analysis, about the individuals and similarities and differences in an attempt to discern possible structures in ritual practice. The subject of the thesis is discussed with a focus on ritual based on Pierre Bourdieu's (1977) theories relating to practice and habitus. The analysis shows that specific body positions were preferred, which expressed minor variations between the archaeological sites. At the same time, it was possible to discern specific practices that were more frequent in certain areas. The dead were most often arranged either in a supine position or on their sides with knees straight or flexed, in a crouched position. The placement of the body in flexed position expressed a distinct differentiation linked to the degree of contraction of the knee- and hip joint, which show that there existed guidelines or standards in the practice of body position. The result also indicated age and gender differentiations expressed through skeletal position and orientation, which were expressed differently within some of the populations. The study has identified both regional and local patterns in ritual practice in relation to body position and orientation. Possible interpretations relating to similarities and differences in the material are further discussed in the thesis in order to identify a ritual context.

The Pitted Ware culture on Gotland presents a multitude of material that allow archeologists to re-construct and visit the socio-economic structure of a middle-neolithic settlement in the Baltic sea. I will be analyzing the archaeological material in accordance to the ocean, and to what we can interpret as ritual and cosmological variables at the site through ritual theory, and with a method of comparative analogy and research. How maritime aspects of divinity manifested itself to the PWC, ontology and belief system could perhaps reveal how the cognitive, collective mind of one culture evolved and made connections to otherworldly entities. Often in the form of ancestral worship, which will be one of the main issues that will be analyzed and discussed throughout, in addition to mortuary ritual. / Den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland demonstrerar ett extensivt material som tillåter arkeologer att rekonstruera och besöka den socioekonomiska strukturen hos en mellanneolitisk kultur i Östersjön. Jag kommer att analysera materialet i relation till havet, och försöka utgöra havets rituella och kosmologiska kopplingar till lokalen genom ritualteori och en analogisk, komparativ metod. Sättet som maritima aspekter av gudomlighet manifesterade sig inom den Gropkeramiska kulturen på Gotland, dess ontologi och trossystem kan möjligtvis avslöja hur det kollektiva, kognitiva sinnet hos en kultur utvecklades och skapade kontakter till utomvärldsliga ting. Ofta i form av förfädersdyrkan, som tillsammans med begravningsritualer kommer vara ett centralt ämne genom hela uppsatsen.

<p>The Pitted Ware Culture site Korsnäs in Södermanland, Sweden presents a, for the region, unique amount of preserved organic material suitable for chemical analyses. Human and faunal skeletal material has been subjected to stable isotope analysis with the aim of examining whether the diet of the Korsnäs people correlates with the seal-based subsistence of Pitted Ware Culture groups on the Baltic islands. Further, the relationship between the faunal assemblage and the human diet has been studied, and the debated question of whether the Pitted Ware people kept domestic pigs has been addressed. Ten new radiocarbon dates are presented, which place the excavated area of the site in Middle Neolithic A, with a continuity of several hundred years. The results show that the diet of the Korsnäs people was predominantly based on seal, and seal hunting was probably an essential part of the Pitted Ware Culture identity. Based on the dietary pattern of the species, it is argued that the pigs were not domestic. The faunal assemblage, dominated by seal and pig bones, does not correlate with the dietary pattern, and it is suggested that wild boar might have been hunted and sacrificed and/or ritually eaten on certain occasions.</p>