This thesis analyses the carbonised remains of the great hall building in Gamla (old) Uppsala, Sweden, which burnt down sometime between 7th to 8th century AD. It is easily assumed that the people of Gamla Uppsala, who lived in one of the most important central places in Iron Age Scandinavia, had both the economy and power to build a most spectacular hall. Previous research on halls has focused on architectural changes as well as the power and rituals such buildings might have represented. However, no previous Swedish archaeological studies have discussed the quality of construction wood as an indication of a well-built hall building. Wood can rarely be analysed in-depth as it is most often decomposed, or only a few charred pieces remain from the constructions. The hall in Gamla Uppsala provides an unusually large amount of charcoal remains. Therefore, an anthracological analysis is used in this thesis to discuss the quality of the hall construction based on the choice of timber. The purpose of this thesis was to identify what kind of wood the builders used to construct the great hall, how much timber and time it would take to build the 50 m long hall building and if the required timber could be found in the area surrounding the hall. The purpose was also to try to identify whether the construction wood was of good quality. The results show that the large timbers were of scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and the wattle walls were made of juniper branches (Juniperus sp.). The great hall required at least 6250 scots pine trees, which is 4–5 hectares of clear-cut logging. As the landscape at Gamla Uppsala mainly consisted of large open fields, there were not enough trees that would grow locally to get this amount of timber for the hall. Junipers would, however, grow in the open landscape, and the builders would have gathered a minimum of 3600–5300 branches for the wattle walls. It would have taken around four months or less to build the hall, not including the time it would take to prepare the building material. The identified construction materials suggest that the timber was carefully chosen for the great hall building in Gamla Uppsala. / I denna uppsats har förkolnat virke analyserats från hallbyggnaden på kungsgården i Gamla Uppsala, som brann ner någon gång mellan 600- och 700-talet e.Kr. Det är lätt att anta att människorna i Gamla Uppsala, som då bodde i en av järnålderns viktigaste centralplatser, hade en tillräckligt stor social och ekonomisk makt för att bygga en spektakulär hallbyggnad. Tidigare forskning om hallbyggnader har fokuserats på arkitektoniska förändringar samt på den sociala makt och de rituella ceremonier som hallbyggnader ofta är förknippade med. Det finns däremot inga arkeologiska studier i Sverige som har fokuserats på virkeskvalitet från byggnader med sådan dignitet som hallbyggnaden i Gamla Uppsala. Möjligheten att utföra djupare analyser på arkeologiskt trä är sällsynt då det ofta hunnit förmultna, eller endast utgörs av några få förkolnade bitar av ursprungsvirket. Hallen i Gamla Uppsala har efter branden en ovanligt stor mängd förkolnat virke som bevarats i gott skick. Genom vedartsanalyser på de arkeologiska trälämningarna kan kvaliteten på hallbyggnaden diskuteras baserat på val av virke. Syftet med denna uppsats var att identifiera vilka vedarter som användes för att konstruera hallen, hur mycket virke som krävdes, hur lång tid det skulle ta att bygga den 50 m långa hallbyggnaden och om virket kunde hämtas i närområdet kring hallen. Syftet var också att försöka identifiera om konstruktionsvirket var av god kvalitet. Resultaten av analysen visar att majoriteten av virket var av furu (Pinus sylvestris), medan flätverksväggarna var gjorda av ene grenar (Juniperus sp.). För att bygga hallen krävdes minst 6250 tallar, vilket skulle motsvara 4–5 hektar avverkad skog. Eftersom landskapet vid Gamla Uppsala huvudsakligen bestod av stora öppna fält kunde det inte ha funnits tillräckligt med träd som växte i närområdet för att samla in den mängd virke som krävdes för konstruktionen av hallen. Ene var tillgängligt i närområdet i det öppna landskapet, och byggarna behövde minst 3600–5300 grenar till flätverksväggarna. Det skulle ha tagit cirka fyra månader eller mindre att bygga hallen, frånsett den tid det skulle ta att förbereda byggmaterialet. Virket verkar ha valts ut noggrant för hallen på kungsgården i Gamla Uppsala.

This thesis aims to provide adequate analytical information on the spade shaped iron bars of Norrland and central Sweden. While their significance has been thoroughly debated for decades, analytical research on them has been confined to cases of single artefacts or theoretical interpretations of their value, meaning and origin. In this study a comprehensive approach is taken into consideration. Based on X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and metallographical analysis this thesis seeks to facilitate new interpretations on quality, production centres and usage based on analytical results. Aiming to settle some of the long lasting questions regarding the artefacts while producing results which can further the discussion by raising new questions, previously unasked.

This paper deals with village history around millstone quarry Eastern Utsjö in Malung, Sweden, in the hope of finding deposits that could date the quarry, in that the quarry in the current situation is dated only by the millstone fragments outside the resort. My purpose was to conduct a discussion on the quarry alone can be dated by deposits outside the resort. I have used FMIS RAÄ:s fornsök and a lot of literature to identify village history. The results showed that it is not possible to date the millstone quarry from village history, but through deposits outside the resort of Malung, which have been found around Mälardalen, Sweden through archaeological excavations, and derived from the millstone quarry Eastern Utsjö, can put an age on the quarry.

This dissertation deals with the long-term dynamics and fluctuations of settlements on Gotland for the period from AD 200 up until early modern times. The settlement structure on Gotland is most often described as very stable and consisting of solitary farms, established in the Iron Age. A contrasting view is presented by analyses of a vast source material from different periods. The source material consists of both physical remains, noted in the Swedish national Archaeological Sites Information System, FMIS and large scale historical maps, as well as other written sources. For the first studied period, the locations of some 2 000 houses are known, since they were constructed with sturdy stone walls and are thus preserved. The source material for the following periods is scarcer, but some hundred Viking Age sites are identified, mainly by the find places of silver hoards. By retrogressive analyses of historical maps, from the decades around the year 1700, and other written sources, later periods are analysed. All available data are gathered in geodatabases, which enables both generalised and detailed spatial and statistical analyses. The results of the analyses show a more varied picture, with great fluctuations in the number of farms; the existence of villages is also clearly indicated in a large part of the settlements. The villages are centred on kinship and the lack of strong royal power or landed gentry meant they were not fixed in cadastres, as fiscal units, as villages were on the Swedish mainland. Two peaks, followed by major dips, were identified in the number of settlements and thus in the population. The first peak occurred during the late Roman Iron Age/Migration period, which was followed by a reduction in the Vendel period of possibly up to 30-50%. After this, a recovery started in the Viking Age, which culminated during the heydays of Gotland in the High Middle Ages, with population numbers most probably not surpassed until late in history. This upward trend was broken by the diminishing trade of Gotland, the Medieval agrarian crisis, The Danish invasion and later events. All this resulted in a decline, probably as great as after the Migration period.

This dissertation investigates how a symmetrical approach to archaeology can be applied to identify the properties and effects of the non-living, abiotic materials. And to reconfigure the relationship between humans and non-human objects, bridging the divide between what has been termed ‘cultural’ and ‘natural’ and thus placed in different ontological realms. This is examined by studying the practices surrounding “boulder graves”, from the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age (approx. 1000 – 0 BC) in Kättsta, Ärentuna parish in Uppland, Sweden. The boulders tend to be studied from an anthropocentric point of view, in which they are seen primarily as passive objects, interpreted only for what they represent. The objective of this research, however, is to gain new insights into the agency of boulders, and how they contributed to the practices carried out adjacent to them. The dissertation is based on a case study where a thematic analysis is performed, focusing on the properties and characteristics of boulders, their affordances, the distribution of finds and their interrelations, and the effects their relations generated. The results show that the boulders themselves contributed in human-stone relations and were vital in the formation of the grave-like features they became part of. It is argued that a symmetrical, non-anthropocentric approach to these features will broaden our view on materialities in the past, affording ontological as well as ecological implications.

In archaeological research, the province of Uppland has often been viewed as the northern ‘periphery’ of the Nordic Bronze Age region. At the same time, many researchers have also emphasized the distinctive and ‘independent’ regional character of Uppland and northern Mälardalen. Throughout the twentieth century, Late Bronze Age contacts between Uppland and areas to the east – especially Finland, the Baltic countries and Russia – were much discussed and played an important role in the creation of Mälardalen as a distinctive Bronze Age region. This dissertation examines how images of the Late Bronze Age in the Mälardalen region, more specifically Uppland, have been formed from the late nineteenth century until today, and how views on eastern contacts have affected interpretations of Bronze Age Uppland. The study consists of three parts: 1) A critical discussion on political dimensions of archaeology and archaeological concepts of contact, interaction, similarity and difference, with a special focus on Bronze Age research. 2) A historical examination of representations of the Late Bronze Age in Mälardalen and Uppland, including a discussion about contacts with northern Sweden and a case study of Broby, a Late Bronze Age site near Uppsala. 3) An analysis of debates on contacts between Mälardalen and areas further to the east, through case studies of bronze axes, so-called Mälar celts and Ananino celts, ceramics and inhumation burials. In the analysis, special focus is placed on the Volga-Kama region in Russia and archaeological research in Russia and the Soviet Union. The study shows that discussions on contacts and interaction between ‘East’ and ‘West’ have, in many ways, been affected by the changing political situation during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Knowledge about archaeological research in Russia and the Soviet Union has been very limited among archaeologists in Sweden. In order to further investigate the character and importance of eastern contacts during the Late Bronze Age, more collaboration and exchange between researchers in the different countries is needed. Furthermore, in order to better understand eastern contacts, it is also necessary to investigate in greater depth the relations between Mälardalen and northern Sweden.