Jag har i mitt kandidatarbete arbetat med ljud och akustik i gamla kyrkor. Gamla byggnader och hus har alltid fascinerat mig. Det finns en sorts tyst berättelse i äldre byggnader. Jag känner en vördnad inför gamla hus och de som ritat och byggt dem. De berättar om sin tid och om saker vi glömmer bort. De bär på ett minne. Arbetet ledde till ett ljudverk där jag med hjälp av ljud har velat förmedla en rumslighet, samt teckningar och broderier. Jag skulle vilja påstå att hörseln är det mest rumsbildande sinne vi har. De hjälper oss att orientera oss och skapa minnesbilder. Ett ljud kan dessutom, liksom en doft, förflytta oss till andra tider och platser. Med hörseln kan vi avgöra ett rums storlek och karaktär. Hörseln gör tystnaden uthärdlig. Total tystnad finns egentligen inte naturligt och kan kännas otroligt obehaglig. Vi är vana vid en tystnad som med sitt rika innehåll av ljud berättar om omgivningen. Jag har gjort inspelningar i flera medeltida stenkyrkor, jag framkallade ljud med min röst och min kropp. När jag själv skapade ljud i kyrkorummet kändes det i kroppen. Min röst fick en monumental klang och blev någon annans. Min röst blev rummets röst.

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The castle Vivesholm is located about two miles north of Klintehamn on the west side of Gotland. The castle was built around year 1395 and burned down in the end of the 14thcentury. Around the 17th and the 18th century the castle was re-used. However, the emphasis on its use is during the middle ages. This paper aims at getting an insight in the animal husbandry at Vivesholm by analyzing the osteological material. The analysis revealed that bones from sheep/goat were more common than bones from cattle. This means the inhabitants most probably eat meat from smaller herbivores more often than meat from cattle. Pigs have also been consumed at the castle but not in the same extent as sheep/goat and cattle. Hunting as well as fishing hasn’t had a significant role for the inhabitants of Vivesholm, at least not in terms of bones found from e.g. game and fish. The inhabitants of the castle probably had its own stock but also a supply of meat products from elsewhere. Further aim with this paper was to illustrate the use of the house foundations at Vivesholm. For this, the result from the osteological analysis was compared with the archaeological finds. The analysis revealed that Vivesholm probable were built to be in use for a long period, but when the castle was burned down in the end of the 14thcentury, the castle had an abrupt end. The different foundations, both within and outside the dyke, have been interpreted into a smithy, a storehouse, a house for cooking and a lodging house. Inside the northern parts of the castle there was a place for butchery and most of the osteological material comes from this place.

The intent with this paper is to investigate the medieval habitation in central Old Uppsala. This time-period has over the years been neglected. Therefore I wish to summarize and ana-lyze the medieval habitation to see what can be said about its continuity, and also to investi-gate why it is located in certain areas. Due to the amount of source material I have limited my investigation area to the central Old Uppsala. It is possible that this limitation will affect the result of the research but without the limitations the investigation area would have been too large to handle. The source material has been collected from excavation reports and the summarized. My theory is material culture and material agency. It is the material culture that I analyze. The result of the investigation is that it is possible to see a continuity of the habitation in the area but that it’s hard to get an exact date on many of the structures. One of the reasons for this is because of how the medieval time period have been handled by archaeologist. As to where in the landscape the buildings have been placed there seem to be some places that have been avoided and others that have a long continuity of buildings over time. / Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centrum

The main aim of this study is to determine whether the monastery in Ny Varberg has been used as a hospital during its active years. The second aim has been to investigate weather the buried individuals at the monastery at Ny Varberg exclusively are deceased monks. Only individuals from the monastery's active years has been included in this study. A total of 16 inhumated individuals was analysed. Both men, women and children was shown to be present, as well as wide spread of children and adults. Diseases as osteomyelitis, osteoarthritis, sinustitis a possible presence cribra orbitalia as well as other diseases was found. The diseases found at Ny Varberg speaks for a normal distribution of skeletal alterations that we as humans, obtain during life and its endurances. The fact that I, among the buried individuals Ny Varberg, could confirm the presence of women and children implicates that monks hasn't been the only group of individuals buried here. A variation in the muscle patterns among men speaks for a possible occurance of two different groups of men, possible monks and laymen. Regarding the use of the monastery as a hospital, several things points us in a different direction. Signs of disease, mainly leprosy, tuberculosis and other contagious diseases, would be expected if the monastery was used as a hospital during it's active years. These diseases haven't been found. The monastery's orientation in the city and the presence of a S:t Jörgen-chapel located close by, contributes to the interpretation regarding the use of the monastery. The conclusion that the monastery probably hasn't been used as a hospital during it's active years has been drawn. The distributions regarding age, sex and nature of the pathologies, tells us that the monastery probably was used as a monastery. This doesn't exclude the fact that they may have taken mercy upon certain cases, provided care for the monastery's benefactors or have let their laymen and families rest on their burial grounds. It is in my opinion that further studying remains before we in the fullest can pronounce the use and the character of the monastery in Ny Varberg. Further study will be profitably in the study of the individuals buried at the monastery i Ny Varberg. / "Osteoporos och osteoartritis, då och nu", Finansierat av KK- stiftelsen och i samarbete med Sabine Sten

Dietary patterns has varied throughout history, both due to resource and cultural limitations. In this thesis, a study was conducted to establish the dietary patterns of eight individuals from an early Midieaval gravesite in Rambodal, Östergötland, in order to explain why they were buried there. This was done through stable isotope analysis on collagen extracted from bone and tooth on the buried individuals. The analysis showed that these indviduals had a diet that was mainly based on freshwater fish. This suggests that these people may have been christians, due to the fact that fish was not regarded as meat and therefore you did not have to abstain from it during periods of fasting. Fish also has a strong idealistic position in Christianity. However, the positions of the buried individulas does not correspond with catholic burial traditions. One explanation for this could be that these individuals were orthodox Christians, possibly from Finland or Russia.

In the wake of a heightened interest in the Swedish Middle Ages, the need for knowledge has increased as well. The Swedish Middle Ages was an era when the country truly began to grow closer to the European sphere of culture. The forces behind this transformation are largely to be sought among the social elite, the budding aristocracy of Sweden. The process of becoming “Europeans” brought with it great changes to Sweden, not the least in terms of the political arena. What was it that was so sought after by the Swedish aristocracy? What ideals and values lay behind the feudally inspired system of government and the chivalric code of conduct among the elite? In a general sense, the object of this investigation has been to try to understand and explore the ideological underpinnings of the new system of government and the new social order. In order to achieve this, I have used the Swedish chivalric chronicle known as Erikskrönikan as the source material for the investigation. It is believed to have been a propaganda piece for the Swedish aristocracy of the early 1300 hundreds and is, as such, a phenomenal source for researching the ideals and values of the Swedish aristocracy of that time. Thus, the purpose of this essay has been to investigate ideological underpinnings of the Swedish power elite of the first half of the 14th century by analysing their idealized self image and conception of society, as they appear in Erikskrönikan’s depiction of duke Erik and a few other key characters. Included in this is also an ambition to contextualize the results of the investigation by attempting to reconstruct the ideology for which Erikskrönikan is an expression. The intention has been to contribute a new perspective to the already extant research concerning the understanding of the new type of society brought forth in medieval Sweden.  The theoretical premise of this investigation has been a functional understanding of the concept of ideology. In this essay ideology is regarded as a system of ideas which expresses a given groups world views and norms, which reflects the social conditions of the group, and which is a declaration of that group’s interests and aspirations. The methodological basis has been a qualitative analysis of the text, where the depiction of selected characters from the text has been the main object of investigation. The focus has been on identifying which characteristics are portrayed as ideal and which are portrayed as are anti ideal within the text. On an analytical level this investigation has included the use of the concepts “manifest ideology” and “latent ideology” as tools of analysis. In this way it has been possible to uncover the ideals and values of the aristocracy, as expressed in Erikskrönikan, both in terms of what is articulated explicitly and what is implied. In terms of results this investigation has rendered them in abundance. Among the most revealing and relevant findings are: the emphasis put on the vassal system, the chivalrous virtues and the staunch declaration about the superiority of elective kingship. These are all examples of recurring themes which are communicated with a clear didactic intent. Furthermore, I have also been able to show that the code of chivalry was not considered a varnish to cover the blemishes of an imperfect society, but a way of relating to reality and to the surrounding world. The tangible functions of the code of chivalry in society can be understood as having been of two kinds: on the one hand, the code of chivalry was a way of reigning in and channelling the destructive potential of the use of violence; and on the other hand, the code of chivalry was a way for the aristocracy, indeed the Swedish chivalry, to communicate and reaffirm their social standing, both internally and externally.

The aim of this essay is to question and analyze problems surrounding the current research within the field of spikes.The latest breakout was in the early 50's,since then there haven't been any major research projects and no interpretation have been made.Not only does this  essay bring a contribution to the research of spikes but also question what has earlier been established through interpretations.The focus of this essay is on the spikes found on the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea,these are currently stored at the Museum of Gotland.What was the main area of use that these spikes had and in which context are they found? Although only 27 finds will be analyzed during this essay ,the goal is to get a greater understanding of the usage of these finds and how this will contribute to the archaelogical sites.

The Middle Ages in contemporary time – Salve City; a reconstruction in the Between Land is an essay dealing with the reconstruction of medieval Kalmar. The Salve City is a melting pot of such diverse fields as archaeology, pedagogies, reconstruction, historical tourism, regional development policy et cetera. Together, these parts form a space for research and mediation, business and pleasure, a place where commercialism and historical tourism can function alongside with history enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Both pros and cons of the use of a reconstructed part of medieval Kalmar are debated. / Medeltid i samtid – Salvestaden en rekonstruktion i mellanlandet, är en uppsats om återskapandet av det medeltida Kalmar. Salvestaden är en smältdegel av vitt skilda områden så som arkeologi, pedagogik, rekonstruktion, historieturism, regional utvecklingspolitik med mera. Alla dessa delar bildar tillsammans en plats för forskning och förmedling, nytta och nöje, en plats där kommersialism och historieturism samsas med eldsjälar och entreprenörer. Nyttan med en återuppbyggd del av det medeltida Kalmar är omdiskuterad på både gott och ont.

During the 12th to the 16th century the Scandinavian region went through a cultural change, from Germanic to Latin culture. This change effected a wide variety of areas for example law, piety, clothing, religion and system of writing. It is the change in the system of writing this essay will examine i.e. the change from runes to the Latin alphabet. The medieval runic Europe (including the Nordic countries and the north Atlantic islands) has a great variety in their numbers of runic material but in total there is about 2800 of them. Most are from the Scandinavian countries Sweden and Norway. The runic alphabet and the Latin alphabet coexisted during the Nordic Middle ages but the Latin alphabet became dominant over time.The runic alphabet changed during the 11th and 12th centuries from 16 runes to 28 (as many letters as the Latin alphabet) and was in continues use during the whole time period. The question is why it survived for so long? How come the runic alphabet did not die out sooner given the introduction of the Latin alphabet and the influence from Latin countries (i.e. Western Europe)? Earlier research has largely focused on the Viking age carvings and has not problematized the change from an historical point of view or from a cultural perspective. This essays goal is to explain that change by categorizing the inscriptions according to their theme and content in order to identify runic usage as a cultural belonging, be it a passive or active choice. I will also discuss the literacy level (or to be precis the runeliteracy) of the Scandinavian countries. Who could read the runes and in what context where they used?