I Gamla Uppsala har det förekommit arkeologiska utgrävningar i omgångar i flera år och decennier då platsen är känd för att ha varit bebodd så långt bak i tiden som järnåldern. Den senaste utgrävningen utfördes i samband med bygget av en järnvägstunnel som är en del av Ostkustbanan. Arkeologiska utgrävningar har delvis syftet att ta reda på hur folk har levt på en plats dvs. vilka grödor som odlades, vilka redskap som användes osv. För att få fram information från förhistoriska boplatser använder arkeologerna sig av olika metoder. En av dessa metoder är makrofossilanalys. Makrofossilanalys går ut på att fröer av bland annat sädesslag och ogräs extraheras, kvantifieras och artbestäms. Denna metod har legat till grund för detta projekt i syfte att funktionsbestämma tre hus från en järnåldersboplats i Gamla Uppsala. Metoden visade sig vara väldigt användbar i detta projekt då resultatet i viss utsträckning har kunnat användas för funktionsbestämning men det blev uppenbart att metoden enbart ger antydningar och fungerar bäst i kombination med andra metoder exempelvis fosfatanalys i en kombination med en tolkning av det övriga arkeologiska materialet. / There have been several excavations in Old Uppsala over the years and decades since the area has been inhabited since the Iron Age. The most recent excavation took place in connection with the construction of a railway tunnel, which is a part of the East Link project. The object of an archaeological excavation is to obtain information about the way in which previous civilizations lived in a specific location, what kind of crops were cultivated, what kind of tool were being used, and so forth. In order to obtain information about prehistoric settlements, archaeologists use a variety of different methods. One of these methods is called macrofossil analysis. By using macrofossil analysis, seeds and cereals, in the shape of macrofossils, can be extracted from soil samples. By analysing macrofossils, it is possible to obtain information about buildings and thereby establishing their purposes, for instance residence, barn, and so forth. In this thesis work, macrofossil analysis was used as a way to establish the different functions of three buildings from an Iron Age settlement in Old Uppsala.

Examensarbetet har dels haft en övergripande skala i form av utarbetande av program utifrån de reella utmaningar som platsens olika aktörer står inför, och dels ett gestaltande genom tillägg. Utmaningarna som projektet har sökt finna svar på utgår från fyra aspekter. • Upplandsmuseet och Riksantikvarieämbetet som driver Gamla Uppsala museum, visar områdets långa historia med fynd från järnåldern, har i en rapport identifierat att byggnaden är ritad för permanenta utställningar vilket gör det svårt att förändra den och kunna förmedla det snabbt växande kunskapsläget. • Riksantikvarieämbetet och Länsstyrelsen som har hand om skötseln av gravhögarna har identifierat stora problem med erosion då besökare tenderar att röra sig i specifika mönster och man försöker finna sätt att mana till mer varierad rörelse. • Min personliga observation/reflektion är att området dessutom är svårförstått och orienteringen oklar. • Därtill saknas en skyddad plats under tak för rast och vila för rekreationsområdets besökare.

When the Iron spirals investigated in this paper saw the light again no one looked at them as nothing more than decoration. It was first during the 2011 excavation in Old Uppsala that the symbolism of the items no longer could be ignored. The spirals of Old Uppsala lay along the walls of the great hall, which stood upon one of the human constructed plateaus in the area. The hall had been burned down and then cleared of all lumber. Then the iron spirals had been placed in the positions and then everything was sealed with a layer of clay. A study of the artifact began with the purpose to contextualize and interpret the iron spiral. Several others iron spirals were investigated and compared. The others comparing context were found in boat graves or boat contexts. With a new perspective on the spirals as active agents I soon realized the symbolic value of the artifact. The spiral contexts were clearly sym-bolic and connected with the belief about the Hall and Ship symbolism. Several evidences indicated that the hall in Old Uppsala was meant to look as a boat and the iron spirals helped the hall doing so as well as reinforce the symbolism of the ship. The hall and the ship stood for power and structure on land respectively on water. The spiral symbol itself may well be a symbol connected with law, power and structure. / Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centrum

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

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