This candidate thesis concerns the “all but forgotten” material from the bronze age site named “Raä 977, Hansbo 1:3, Vojmsjön, Vilhelmina”. During 1975-76, an archaeological dig was carried out by Västerbottens museum led by Ulla Walukiewich in an attempt to preserve the information the site held, before it was destroyed by the erosion brought on by the recently regulated sea “Vojm” (Vojmsjön). The archaeological dig yielded a stunning amount of finds, samples and information previously unknown. Amongst these finds where a large amount of quartzite scrapers, arrowheads and other stone tools, typologically dated to BC 1500- BC 1000. Two groups of three structures each, interpreted as “hearths” were also discovered. The dig was carried out in extreme detail for this time and provided 54 soil samples originally intended for phosphate analyses by “spot-tests” and coal samples for carbon dating. The site was documented in a grid of 33*33 cm and was dug in an artificial stratigraphy of 3cm layers. Because of these samples and the high resolution of the recorded data it is now possible with new technology and archaeological/environmental archaeological methods to extract even more information from this site, and that is what this paper intends to present. This new information that might be altering the interpretation of the site as a “settlement site” and hopefully shine light on the purpose of the site and to what extent the site have been utilized as well as the extent of the site itself. Hopefully this will enable a more accurate rendering of the activity’s preformed on site, and the lives of the people that once inhabited it, by comparing the result of the analysis presented below and previous research done in the area.

Boplatsvallar, often translated as semi-subterranean settlements, is an ancient monument with a diffuse definition. Defined as –embankments that partially or completely surround a often lowered/dug down surface- this category of ancient monuments is also made up of a former category which traditionally was interpreted as winter settlements from the late Stone age in Sweden. This view of the ancient monuments carried over, to a certain extent, to this new definition. Should this be the case, that this category of ancient monuments are remains of winter settlements,  used recurringly over an extended period of time, then they should exhibit similar signals in regards to the distribution of the anthropogenically altered soil chemical and soil physical properties at the sites.The area around Lillsjön, Anundsjö parish in Ångermanland, have four boplatsvallar located separately in the regional area. This means that they can be considered single contexts suitable to test the aforementioned hypothesis.The result of the intra-site study indicates that the sites have been used differently. Two of the sites exhibit a more local distribution of the heightened values of phosphates and magnetic susceptibility, distributed close around the ancient monument itself. The other two sites have a distribution of heightened values spread over a larger area around the ancient monuments, where one of the ancient monuments shows no particular difference from the background values at the site.This results thus suggests that there is a difference in how these boplatsvallar have been used prehistorically.

På senare år har miljöarkeologi genomgått en signifikant utveckling, men det är inte helt tydligt på vilket sätt den kommersiella sidan av arkeologi har följt med i utvecklingen. Det huvudsakliga målet med denna studie är att utforska hur miljöarkeologin tillämpas inom den svenska uppdragsarkeologin. Studien utvärderar krav och föreskrifter gällande miljöarkeologi inom uppdragsarkeologi genom att studera lagar, och relevanta texter författade av Riksantikvarieämbetet och Länsstyrelserna. Studien utforskar också hur ofta miljöarkeologi appliceras inom det uppdragsarkeologiska arbetet genom att studera ett urval arkeologiska undersökningar där de enskilda Länsstyrelsernas krav och utredarnas (arkeologernas) val av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder sammanställs och jämförs. Fortsättningsvis utforskar studien vilka uppdragsarkeologiska undersökningar som använder vilken typ av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder genom att studera rapporter från Västerbottens län publicerade mellan åren 2010 och 2024. Resultaten visar på att miljöarkeologi är ett krav från Länsstyrelserna när det är ansett att vara en del av god vetenskaplig kvalité. Kraven på miljöarkeologi skiljer sig åt mellan de olika länen. De miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder som används inom uppdragsarkeologi, både i jämförelsen mellan olika län samt i sammanställningen av olika uppdragsarkeologiska undersökningar inom Västerbotten, visar på ett begränsat urval av möjliga metoder. Val av miljöarkeologiska analysmetoder har dock blivit mer varierat, samt tillämpats oftare, på senare år. De underliggande orsakerna till resultaten beror sannolikt på större systematiska problem inom den uppdragsarkeologiska sektorn.