During an excavation at Old Uppsala 571 raw garnets was found. In comparison with similar fragments from other sites in Sweden my aim was to prove a completely domestic production of garnets for cloisonné work. I have chosen to look at the archaeological sites of Old Uppsala, Valsta, Slöinge and Paviken and more closely at the material from Old Uppsala and Valsta. My theoretical framework has been to look at the garnets own agency in the contemporary society. Garnet cloisonné was a popular jewellery form during the Merovingian period on the continent although it came to an end in the early 7th century. It was during this time in Scandinavia a new sort of garnet, technique and paste was introduced and the garnet cloisonné was profoundly used for the gear of the elite and ritual objects. I believe to have showed that from the 7thcentury and onwards the whole production was domestic but further investigation of the garnets, mostly of a chemical nature, is required. / Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centrum

Andersson, J. 2008. Bildstenarna och den muntliga traditionen på Gotland under yngre järnålder. The Picture Stones and the Oral Tradition of Gotland During the Late Iron Age. Högskolan i Kalmar ht 2008. This is a study of the picture stones of Gotland and the oral tradition connected to them. This study consists of two main parts; in the main part the discussion focus on the oral tradition and the continuity of the same, where the memory plays a significant role. It also contains a discussion of the physical environment and its influences of the oral tradition. The second part concentrates around the picture stones, the variation of the scenes and the numerous of them.  Keywords: oral traditions, picture stones, late iron age, Gotland, Nordic mythology.

This paper reviews the osteological material from birds which are found in the boat graves from Valsgärde in Sweden. Based on my own work with boat grave number 13, I have studied the avian bone material to find out what kind of bird species there are in the grave. Birds have a significant meaning in many religions from all around the world and are symbolic for different kinds of beliefs. Although many written sources from the past indicate the cultural importance of birds, there is still little zooarchaeological research done in the subject of bird findings in graves. The boat graves from Valsgärde is from the Vendel period about 550–800 AD. My interest with the species analysis is that it furthermore will lead to discussions about interpretation of the graves. I want to examine questions like what birds of certain species can tell about the individual that the grave belongs to. For example, findings of predatory birds often refer to wealth, due to fact that it’s difficult to raise them in captivity. This is an interesting fact that should be consider when a grave is examined, because it reveals many more questions. Also, I want to examine how birds at that time were used in everyday life, and if there were any other practices concerning birds like for example hunting.

For many years Swedish archeologists have stumbled upon domestic cat remains in the Viking age graves. Most of the graves in this paper come from southern Sweden and Mälaren Valley where many finds have been studied. The questions are how much of the cats is left in the grave material, what kind of grave goods were deposited with the dead, if cats are usually buried either with men or women and what the combinations of all the different animal species that cats were buried with can tell us. The theory in this work is concerning human - animal relations between the vikings and their cats with the weight on antropocentrism. The point of the mentioned theory in this paper is to provide answers to what cats could mean in the viking burial ritual context. 17 grave fields have been analysed for this work with the biggest part of them located in the Mälaren Valley regions (14 grave fields), and 3 in southern Sweden. The result of this study implies that cats in the analysed Mälaren Valley and southern Sweden graves were buried with wealthy people like aristocrats and merchants. They were also seen as exotic pets during their lifetime. The cats were usually buried with other animals like dogs, horses and chickens which all propably had a status of sacral animals during viking age. Cats' remains condition is also brought up as the felines were found either as partial or full/ almost complete skelettons. Analysis results also imply that cats were buried as often with men as with women and there are also rare cases of child burials with these animals.

Late Iron Age burials in Courland have primarily been used as signifiers of ethnical identity for larger groups of people, mainly based on later written sources. Based on gender theoretical perspectives, the burials can be understood as communicating different and varying, socially constructed identities. Dress pins are discussed as markers for a female identity among people of higher social standing. After the introduction of cremation burials, the need to communicate this identity through dress pins seems to disappear and women, as well as men, are buried with penannular brooches. A child’s grave indicates that this identity might have been adopted when the child reached a certain age and was considered to have reached social adulthood. / Vēlā dzelzs laikmeta Kurzemes apbedījumi galvenokārt tika izmantoti, lai izsekotu etnisko piederību lielākām cilvēku grupām, un balstās galvenokārt uz vēlākiem teksta avotiem. No dzimumu teorētiskā viedokļa apbedījumus var analizēt arī no dažādu un atšķirīgu sociāli konstruētu identitāšu skatu viedokļa. Rotadatas tiek apspriestas kā sieviešu identitātes izpausme no sabiedrības augstākajiem slāņiem. Pēc ugunskapu ieviešanas šīs identitātes izpausme ar rotadatām izskatās, ka pamazām izzūd, un gan sieviešu, gan vīriešu apbedījumos tiek atrastas pakavsaktas. Bērna apbedījums analīzes materiālā uzrāda, ka indivīda identitāte tika iegūta, kad bērns sasniedza noteiktu vecumu, kas tika pieņemts par sociāli pieaugušo vecumu.

The phenomenon of burying people in boat graves is a well-known aspect of the Vendel period. Although these graves are relatively rare, they appear in places like Valsgärde, Vendel, Ultuna, Tuna in Alsike and Badelunda. The 19th - and early 20th-century excavations at the grave fields at Valsgärde and Vendel, in particular, provided a new perspective on the iron age cultures which preceded those of the Viking age. These grave fields are the main focus for this thesis. I will examine the relationship between the family groups in each grave field and also study what roles they once had in life during the Vendel era. Their material culture has been examined by conducting a comparative study between boat grave 7 from Valsgärde and boat grave I from Vendel. Both tombs are dated to about 675 AD and show an archaeological material that is relatively similar. By comparing and interpreting the common find material a clear interaction was made visible. The nature of this silent interaction that is reflected through the common archaeological material culture have been addressed by using the theory Peer polity interaction, which has served as the thesis theoretical framework. Peer polity interaction aims to explain change in society and material culture. It sees the primary driver of change as the relationships and contacts between societies of relatively equal standing and has played an important role for the study and its conclusions. Furthermore it has also been found that the groups had different ways of expressing their elite status and that they probably also held various occupations during the Vendel era.

The background of the study is that humans’ relationship to the nature and animals is not universal and is based on critical archeology and reflexive thinking. Previous researchers have interpreted the animals in graves as food offerings or a communication meal, where the horse is highlighted as a prominent symbol of power, prosperity, alliances, and aristocracy. Researchers have also compared animal style ornaments with Icelandic Sagas, and they connect humans and animals to transformation, metamorphoses, and hybridity. The interpretations in this context are based on the animals´ contemporary function and modern views. By studying the materials more closely, it turned out that the bones of humans and animals have been mixed in the graves. In the animal style ornamentation, there are often mixtures between humans and animals, and so also in the Icelandic Sagas. This indicates that the ancient humans intended to recreate mixtures between humans and animals in the materials. The study also links to the anthropological terms totenism and animism, to show that humans’ relationship to animals differs, and that it is not always the same as the modern view.

The dissertation describes the names related to justice and places in the landscape where justice was administered, applying an interdisciplinary perspective with place names as the chief source material. One aim is to collect and describe place names in Skåne designating or indirectly associated with meeting places and districts of the court, and to study the named places. The study covers many different periods, but especially the Middle Ages and the transition from the Late Iron Age to the Middle Ages. The analysis raises questions such as: Was there continuity in judicial sites between prehistoric and historic times? How old are the hundreds (härader)? Is there a spatial link between judicial sites and other central functions such as cult, markets, or rulers’ estates? The work is permeated by material-based onomastic research in combination with current perspectives in text research, historical geography, and archaeology. Nine case studies are conducted to describe the interaction between place, linguistic expression, and meaning. The study demonstrates the existence of a large corpus of names reflecting the early administration of justice. Most of the many field names which contain ting ‘court’ and galge ‘gallows’ can be related to the actual administration of justice. The medieval sites where courts assembled and people were executed stand out in particular, but in many cases these have prehistoric roots. Both unbroken continuity and the reuse of earlier places of assembly may be assumed. Close to sites with names indicating the administration of justice there are also landscape features with names that grant epic and mythical status to the locale. The special quality of these places was handed down, incorporated in larger narratives, based on changing ideas and circumstances in different periods. The landscape of the hundred courts (häradsting) is archaic, magnificent and mythical, and shared, qualities that contributed to the maintenance and legitimation of judicial practice. A division into a general, public judicial sphere and a more limited and exclusive sphere can be seen. In the medieval exercise of justice this division is manifested in two different judicial districts – härad and birk – but the phenomenon can be traced back to the Late Iron Age. The study also problematizes a traditional image of the names of the hundreds.

<p>This thesis rewievs present day research on the settlement of Östra Aros in central Sweden. The thesis deals with the period from late Iron age to about 1270 AD, when the Swedish archdiocese moved to the already existing early-medieval settlement of Östra Aros, thus becoming the medieval town of Uppsala. The basis of the thesis is the study of a variety of source materials, such as artefact studies, runestones, topography and the prehistoric and early medieval hinterland. The thesis centers on archaeological excavation data and dating of settlement structures, particularly focusing on the settlements establishment. Through a critical review of primarily the written record and the archaeological data, the settlements characteristics and functions are discussed, emphasising when and if the settlement could be described as a town, central- or trading place.</p>

This essay concerns the osteological cremated skeletal remains from Broe, Halla parish, Gotland of  The Late Iron Age. The focus of this essay is to determine the position of the corpse on the pyre, whether the cremated bones were crushed after or prior to the cremation and if the individual was buried in the pyre. In addition the species, age, sex and skeletal abnormalities of the bones in question will be studied. The result of the research has yielded that the cremated bones did not need to be crushed to result in the small fragment sizes. Crushing of the bones may have happened during the cremation, this conclusion has been drawn through the comparison of a pyre experiment were bone fragmentation is evident with cremated foxes, and dogs in the cremation graves from Broe. The construction of the pyre and the position of the corpse could not be determined through colouring and fragmentation of the bones. The human's were commonly buried in the pyre, and in some cases it is possible that the "grave" in fact is the remainder of a pyre. The species found are dog, horse, cow, sheep/goat and bear. The unburnt human bones in the cremation graves come from children. Of the cremated human’s, ages range from 18-44 to 50-79 occur. Three probable men and two probable women have been estimated, but there is no clear segregation between the sexes on the grave field, which is evident on some medieval church graveyards. Skeletal abnormalities in humans are found on the cranium, more specific senile osteoporosis, and on the dog’s osteophytosis.