The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine whether there was an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age or not. To explain this focus has been put on the roman goods. The contexts in which the roman artifacts are found indicate that they can be tied to what might have been an elite on Gotland during Roman Iron Age. They might also have been used as means of expressing wealth and prestige. Because the roman artifacts found on Gotland most often are drinking utensils they are also associated with drinking rituals. Drinking rituals are thought to have been very important events in which wealth, political influence, and status could have been expressed. Roman artifacts found in graves also indicate that they might have owned by some kind of elite, because they have been placed together with other status objects. The thesis does not exclude other events or phenomena that took place during the Roman Iron Age. The Iron Age society as a whole is also studied; this is meant to give a broader understanding of the people being researched.

This paper concerns a comparative analysis between two pre-Roman burial ground and the cremated individuals buried there, Skogome cemetery in Bohuslän and Smörkullen cemetery in Östergötland. The comparative analysis consists of several parts that concern both cemeteries inner and outer burial customs, and the osteological analysis of a total of 18 cremated invidvidulas. By studying the different parts separately, it has been possible to identify similarities and differences between the two contemporary cemeteries. There are great similarities between the cemeteries, differences were mainly observed in the osteological material relating to the amount of bone in each burial. The smaller amounts of bone in the graves of Skogome also holds a higher degree of fragmentation, but can not be explained by a higher combustion rate than the skeletal material from Smörkullen. This may indicate differences in the management of the individual’s remains after the cremation at the two sites. According to Borgström (1973) all agegroups probably buried in the cemetery Smörkullen, which also was observed trough the osteological analysis of the graves from Skogome. No gender assessments have been conducted since the methods have shown a need to further development in order to be applied on cremated individuals (Franzen 2011). Thus, questions about the gender distribution of the two grave fields remain unanswered. Mortality, health and gender assessments within of the two populations may be performed if the remaining graves from the burial grounds were further studied. The osteological analysis showed similar skeletal lesions of degenerative changes in the vertebraes in the two skeletal materials.The larger proportion of the graves contained no today preserved archaeological artefacts. The artefacts that occur are mainly different tools and costume details. The discussion has been an attempt to interpret these similarities and differences in order to identify if they could have a ritual, traditional or functional background. A clear distinction has been difficult. The analysis requires larger archaeological contexts, and further comparisons before this can be done. Local differences have been observed, but the great similarity between of the two burial grounds reflects the pre-Roman Iron Age expression in the mortuary traditions of the two populations.

A phenomenon during the late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age which in its simplest form could be called ‘a culture of the Baltic Sea’ is an idea which many archaeologists have favoured. However, the term ‘a culture of the Baltic Sea’ is not the most ideal to use when discussing the Baltic Sea during this time in prehistory, as the term is rather simplifying from what would be the more diverse truth. The term entails that there should have been a cultural homogeneity across the Baltic Sea as it most certainly was not. This thesis complicates this otherwise simplified term and calls the cultural phenomenon ‘a cultural hybrid of the northern Baltic Sea area’ (i.e. the northern part of the Baltic Sea including its neighbouring gulfs). A cultural hybrid, in this sense, allows there to be cultural differences within an area. These differences are accepted by the people within the cultural hybrid which in turn allow people to live among each other, rather than to become a social obstacle making the people separate into smaller and more homogenous cultural groups. This assumed existence of a cultural hybrid is put to the test as a hypothesis. To answer the hypothesis, the cultural hybrid is studied from the perspective of the tarand-graves (an Estonian originating grave type erected and used around the shores of the northern Baltic Sea area during 500 BC–500 AD) which in turn is interpreted according to ritual practice theory. The hypothesis is proven to be true which makes it possible to apply the concept of cultural hybridity, and its connection with tarand-graves in the northern Baltic Sea area, to the Åland Islands. Although the islands have a very promising geographical position in the middle of the northern Baltic Sea area, interestingly, no tarand-graves have been registered there. Grave field Ec 6.6 on the western side of the Åland Islands becomes the object of study mainly due to grave 14, which placed on that particular grave field, carries a high tarand-grave potential. The material is partly collected from two field visits to Ec 6.6 and partly from an excavational report from 1949 of the same grave field. The result shows that the Åland Islands, as well as Ec 6.6, have a very high likeliness of being hosts for tarand-graves.

In the archaeological research about the Baltic Sea island of Gotland during Roman Iron Age, 0–400 AD, two different approaches are visible: One that sees the community life on Gotland as different from the one on the main land with a relative stabile development, based on the family and kin, where no higher elite separate itself. The other perception emanates from the changes in southern Scandinavia, where an elite steadily grows and finally isolate itself as an aristocracy with unlimited power over others, the development on Gotland is no exception. This paper is about describing, investigating and explaining these two points of view. By using a selection of written sources the paper tries to answer three questions: What archaeological argumentations are there for that Gotland should be particular? What support the views that the island was a part of an over-regional development when it comes to struggle for power? What lies behind these very diverse positions among archaeological scholars? Two scholars, Kerstin Cassel and Frands Herschend, represents the two opposite standpoints and the three questions are to be answered by a comparison with two of their main archaeological works. This comparison, based on the other written sources and my own understanding, will show that the two different views on the gotlandish development can be traced to, more than anything, the two writers pre-understanding of their own scientific argumentations.

The aim of this thesis is to make a comparison between solitary graves and graves in grave fields from the Roman Iron Age on Gotland, Sweden. Differences in burial customs, morphology, dating, gender, age, grave-goods and social status are compared between 19 solitary graves and graves in three different grave fields in different parts of Gotland. An attempt is made to explain these differences and to discuss which functions the solitary graves had. Discussions about whether it is possible to distinguish social status and gender with the help of grave-goods are also made in connection to the determination of status and sex.

The thesis examines c. 280 forms and motifs derived from a reconstruction of 93 gold stater types struck within 7 geographical regions across southeastern England, c. 80 BC - AD 45. The thesis highlights the emerging presence of an iconographic repertoire across southern Britain during the late pre-Roman Iron Age. Gold staters remain an important aspect of this phenomenon which is demonstrated to have manifested itself in other media, particularly metalwork. That this new art form supplemented, but did not supplant, existing types of non-representational La Tene style art is suggested by the presence of other types of object that continue to be decorated in this fashion throughout the first century AD. In the absence of any other type of established or coherent methodology Erwin Panofsky's (1993, 1972) method of iconographic analysis is adopted in order to provide a framework for the analysis. Whilst retention of Panofsky's three 'Acts of Interpretation' can be justified, a post-structuralist critique of Panofsky's method exposes fundamental theoretical shortcomings with regards the interpretation of meaning. In contrast to preceding interpretations of iconographical data, inferences are made upon the basis of lan Hodder's (1995, 1986) 'context of use' of other types of comparable forms and motifs within the archaeological record. The iconological content of staters is interpreted in terms of a transition, c. 20 BC - AD 10, from the expression of corporate or public ideals in a 'tribal periphery' to the manifestation of personal or private concerns in the southeastern 'core'. This divergence coincides with the emphasis placed upon the relative 'monetary' or 'political' roles performed by coinage within these regions. From the context of the forms or motifs illustrated on staters it is concluded that such images were appropriated by members of a minority social elite to legitimise and maintain their position at the apex of a social hierarchy.

The island Öland is rich in prehistoric archaeological finds. The ringforts at Ölandwere constructed during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period. Contact withthe Roman Empire is known from finds of gold and of objects of Roman character.This essay compares style of architecture and structure of the ringforts withconstructions of some buildings and places in contemporary European cultures. Theresults indicate that the society in which the ringforts in Öland were built, were incontact with Celtic and Roman societies during the Roman Iron Age and theMigration Period.

The roman coins on the islands of Bornholm, Öland and Gotland have shownarchaeologist and historians that a connection between Scandinavia and the RomanEmpire existed. But what did the roman coins mean to the inhabitants of these islands?This essay will study the coins found on the islands and the context in which they havebeen found. The aim for this essay is to understand in what context the coins werefound and what they meant for the inhabitants. The essay also strive towardsconducting a discussion around theories, speculations and facts to form an idea of whatthe coins may have meant to the inhabitants.

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Denna uppsats undersöker begravningsurnor som deponerats under romersk järnålder i grav A7000 i Broby bro, Täby Socken, Sverige. Materialet som undersöks är en del av forskningsprojektet; Broby bro – en plats där världen passerar. Teorierna kring begravningsritualer från denna tidsperiod har genom lipidanalyser samt elementanalyser förfinats. Av de fem kärl som undersöks har fyra, F16007, F16152, F16195 och F16263, definierats som begravningsurnor. F16137 är fortfarande oidentifierad. Fokus har lagts på att undersöka relationen mellan fynden och även att fastställa om F16195 och F16263 kommer från samma urna. Resultaten visar att F16195 är en gravgåva till F16263.