In this thesis a ground-penetration radar survey was carried out in four areas, Borgmästarängen, Draken, Urmakaren and Koppardosan in Sigtuna. The aim of this paper is to detect remnants of the Viking Age harbor at those chosen sites. Former research investigations have discovered findings which are related to shipbuilding like clench nails, rivets and boat nails; however, the question remains whether Sigtuna ever had a central harbor, and researchers suggested instead that every town plot had its own mooring. This paper addresses this question by deploying geophysical surveys to increase the understanding of the town’s organization. Furthermore this paper will discuss how the detected structures can be understood in comparison to earlier Viking Age and early Medieval towns, in this case Birka, Hedeby and Schleswig where central harbors have been discovered and investigated.

<p>Abstract: Previous research on the Viking Age trade centre of Birka has suggested the parallel use of two harmonising standard weight units, differing in mass by five percent. As an explanation to this phenomenon, this paper puts forward a hypothesis of a trading fee, embedded in the weights. This is corroborated through a hypothetical deductive study; including a reassertion of earlier results by means of a new method for archaeometrological analysis, using a 3D scanner and Computer-Aided Design. Further, the role of silver, as a preferred unit of payment in Birka, is supported through a spatial analysis of the distribution of Islamic coins and Oriental beads in the provinces of Middle Sweden. Plausible manufacturing sites for the cylindrical lead weights, adhering to the Birka mitqal, are discussed as a possible way of falsifying the hypothesis. The results suggest that a trading fee was extracted, using the Birka mitqal for imports and the Islamic mitqal for exports. The metrological analysis was also expanded to weights from Sigtuna, which proved the Birka mitqal, as well the dual metrics system, continued to be in use there until, at least, the first half of the 11^th century. Finally, a short study on the origins of the Scandinavian/Islamic weight system suggests that the direct influence for the system primarily can be attributed the Volga-Bulgarians.</p>

Abstract: Previous research on the Viking Age trade centre of Birka has suggested the parallel use of two harmonising standard weight units, differing in mass by five percent. As an explanation to this phenomenon, this paper puts forward a hypothesis of a trading fee, embedded in the weights. This is corroborated through a hypothetical deductive study; including a reassertion of earlier results by means of a new method for archaeometrological analysis, using a 3D scanner and Computer-Aided Design. Further, the role of silver, as a preferred unit of payment in Birka, is supported through a spatial analysis of the distribution of Islamic coins and Oriental beads in the provinces of Middle Sweden. Plausible manufacturing sites for the cylindrical lead weights, adhering to the Birka mitqal, are discussed as a possible way of falsifying the hypothesis. The results suggest that a trading fee was extracted, using the Birka mitqal for imports and the Islamic mitqal for exports. The metrological analysis was also expanded to weights from Sigtuna, which proved the Birka mitqal, as well the dual metrics system, continued to be in use there until, at least, the first half of the 11th century. Finally, a short study on the origins of the Scandinavian/Islamic weight system suggests that the direct influence for the system primarily can be attributed the Volga-Bulgarians.

Medieval glasses have for long been a neglected object group in archeological research in Sweden. With that in mind I choose to write about those in my essay. The aim of this paper is to bring the medieval glasses into the archaeological research. I intend to show where you can find medieval glass in Sweden and what kind of glasses have been made. I will also discuss why the archeological research is so limited when it comes to the medieval drinking glasses. The archeological sites for my analysis are Sigtuna, Stockholm, Lödöse and Skanör. My theoretical approach is Material agency and I have looked at what role the drinking glasses could have had during the medieval period. I think my essay will show that you can find medieval glasses in trade or exchange contexts and that the medieval glasses absence in the archeological research has more to do with that previous research is poor rather than that glasses do not exist in the medieval period. / Gamla Uppsala - framväxten av ett mytiskt centrum

Sigtuna is one of the first settlements in Sweden considered to be a proper town. Taking over Birka´s function as a central trading hub when it was founded in the late 10th century AD, Sigtuna was characterized by its early connection to Christianity, and many churches were built there. The foundations of one of these medieval stone churches and its churchyard lie beneath Sigtuna museum’s plot on the block S: t Gertrud 3. However, the full extent of this church and churchyard as well as its foundation date and function is not fully known. The over-arching purpose of this study is to achieve a better understanding of this church’s function. This will be done by geochemically analysing soil samples taken from the museum plot under which the churchyard is located. The first aim of this study is to establish the extent of the churchyard. During excavations carried out between 1990- 1991 in the neighbouring block Urmakaren, archaeologists discovered the remains of King Olof Skötkonung’s minting house along with various finds, notably two lead pieces with imprints of coin stamps. The second aim of this study is to see if traces of these metalworking activities can be detected on the museum plot. The third aim is to see how the church and churchyard related to the minting house on a spatial plane.

Attefall-house: Greater than the sum of its parts? I am exploring how to create a small scale space which is more than just a functional space, a space that also provides an architectural experience. I am using the Swedish Attefall-house as a case study. This small, permit-free construction comes with a frame and it has clearly defined rules and limitations. The smallness of it allows for experimentation and in the normally hard-regulated Swedish building climate, it provides an opportunity to try out ideas without having to be too serious. I am trying to create this sensory experience by fusing function and context together with selected architects’ and artists’ ideas. What happens when these seemingly disparate ingredients combine? Will the whole be greater than the sum of its parts? / Attefallshus: Större än summan av delarna? Jag utforskar hur man kan skapa ett rum i liten skala som är mer än bara ett funktionellt rum, ett rum som också är en arkitektonisk upplevelse. Jag använder mig av Attefallshuset som fallstudie. Denna lilla, bygglovsbefriade, konstruktion kommer med en ram, den har tydligt definierade regler och begränsningar. Dess storlek tillåter experimenterande och, i det normalt hårt reglerade svenska bygglovsklimatet, erbjuder en möjlighet att testa idéer utan att behöva vara för allvarlig. Jag försöker skapa denna sensoriska upplevelse genom en fusion av funktion och kontext tillsammans med ett urval av arkitekters och konstnärers idéer. Vad händer när dessa till synes disparata ingredienser kombineras? Blir helheten större än summan av delarna?

Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera möjliga utfallspåverkande faktorer som möjliggör ett framgångsrikt implementerat utfall avseende social hänsyn i offentlig upphandling i en svensk kontext. Analysen och slutsatserna bygger på en jämförelse mellan två fall där utfallet utgör den gemensamma nämnaren. Underlaget till uppsatsen bygger primärt på intervjuer med tjänstemän och politiker i Sigtuna och i Örebro. De teoretiska analysverktygen som används i denna uppsats är hämtade från Rational choice- och Normativ institutionalism. Tre temafaktorer har använts för att kategorisera likheter och skillnader mellan fallen. Dessa är spelregler, preferenser och resurser. Resultatet visar på att fallen har fler möjliga utfallspåverkande faktorer gemensamma än de har utfallspåverkande faktorer som skiljer dem åt. En troligt viktig möjlig förklarande faktor ligger i att frågan om sociala krav har hanterats på ledningsnivå som en strategisk fråga, snarare än som en juridisk eller teknisk fråga. Fallen kan även förstås som att behovet av upphandling och behovet av sociala åtgärder har växt fram oberoende av varandra innan själva upphandlingsprocesserna och att det är genom aktörernas aktioner som upphandlingsfrågan och den sociala frågan har kombinerats. Dock rör det sig inte om en institutionell förändring som katalysator för implementeringen, utan snarare om inkrementell förändring i synen på offentlig upphandling som ett verktyg för social förändring. / The purpose of this thesis is to identify probable outcome influencing factors that enable a successful implemented outcome of social considerations in public procurement in a Swedish context. The analysis and conclusions are based on a comparison between two cases where the outcome is the common denominator. The empirical material for the thesis is primarily gathered from interviews with officials and politicians in Sigtuna and in Örebro municipalities. The theoretical tools used for analysis in this thesis are taken from Rational choice and Normative institutionalism. Three thematic factors have been used to categorize the similarities and differences between the cases: these are the rules of the game, preferences and resources. The result shows that the cases have more probable outcome influencing factors in common than they exhibit outcome influencing factors that set them apart. A likely important probable explanatory factor is to be found in the fact that the subject of social considerations was handled at a management / political level as a strategic issue, rather than as a legal or technical issue. The cases can also be understood in a manner which informs us that the need for procurement and the need for social action have evolved independently of each other and before the actual procurement processes. It is through the actors’ actions that the procurement issues and the social considerations have been combined into a common issue. However, the result does not indicate an institutional change as a catalyst for the implementation, but rather that the change in the perception of public procurement as a tool with social policy implication represents an incremental change within the existing institutions.

This thesis aims to study the level and scale of literacy as it expanded in Viking towns during the 8th-12th century. In order to get an understanding of this spread, I have worked with two case-studies of Viking towns, as they were founded and prospered during and by the end of the Viking Age in Sweden; the town of Birka located in Björkö Island in Lake Mälaren, and the town of Sigtuna located in the province of Uppland, in central Sweden. Through the study of selected archaeological material, this paper aims to bring together scattered information and shed light on what we know about the level and spread of literacy in Viking society. The purpose of this endeavour, is to question not only the notion of an illiterate pagan society that the Viking Age Scandinavians are considered to have been, but also question both the methodology in which the scholarly archaeological community studies literacy, as well as the way literacy itself is defined in the study of the ancient world. The paper includes a bibliographic and a material-studying approach, as well as a section where digital archaeological research methods are used with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software in order to illustrate the level and scale of literary expansion in Viking Age Sweden. / <p>The proceedings of the Thesis defence were undertaken in the form of a web meeting via Zoom, in accordance to the local restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>

Sigtuna’s trade and production has been the subject of an increasing amount of archaeological investigations during the last 30 years. However, most of the research has been conductedregarding the buildings, coin mints and precious metal objects. This thesis will instead research one of the basics of the production, namely the iron. By reviewing the iron objectsand currency bars from house X in the city block Humlegården 3. Through high precision studies with conservation and scanning electron microscope I will be able to come one step closer to identifying what sort of items were produced on the site and discerning what status and function the smithy had. I will also investigate the possibility to track the origin of the iron. / Sigtunas handel och produktion har varit föremål för ett ökande antal arkeologiska undersökningar de senaste 30 åren. De flesta av dessa undersökningar har handlat ombyggnader, mynthus och föremålsstudier. Den här uppsatsen kommer istället att undersöka ett av hantverken som krävs för att kunna utföra många andra hantverk, nämligen järnhantverk. Genom att undersöka järnfynden och ämnesjärnen från hus X i kvarteret Humlegården 3, via detaljerade studier som inkluderar konservering och Svepelektronmikroskop, kommer jag att komma ett steg närmare vilka föremål som producerats på platsen samt utröna vad för status och funktion smedjan hade. Jag kommer även undersöka om det är möjligt att säga någonting om järnets ursprung.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om runstensbeståndet i Norge, Danmark och Mälardalen kan säga något om hur dessa områden kristnades. Skillnader mellan de olika områdena i antal runstenar och själva runinskrifternas innehåll tolkas mot bakgrund av den historiska kontext de restes i. Norge och Danmark har relativt få runstenar med kristet budskap och än färre som hänvisar till eskatologiska föreställningar medan Mälardalens runstenars inskrifter påfallande ofta fokuserar på själens öde efter döden. I Norge och Danmark anses allmänt människorna ha konverterat efter påtryckningar från olika kungar. I Mälardalen anses dock kungar med sådan makt att de kunnat framtvinga ett religionsbyte ha saknats under den aktuella tiden. Ett tänkbart scenario som kan förklara dessa skillnader presenteras mot bakgrund av detta. Uppsatsens föreslår att i Mälardalen konverterade familj efter familj efter kontakt med omkringvandrande missionärer, vilka i sitt budskap fokuserade på just eskatologiska föreställningar, på himmel, helvete, synd och botgöring för synd, både i detta livet och efter döden i skärselden. Detta framkallade ett behov hos människorna i Mälardalen att hjälpa sina avlidna släktingars själar och försöka förkorta det lidande de antogs utsättas för efter döden. Kungarna utnyttjade sedan de konverterades behov av religiös service som kunde ge syndernas förlåtelse för såväl levande som redan avlidna för att knyta dem närmare sig och på så sätt på sikt kunna etablera en ny typ av kungamakt i området. Detta skedde främst genom att kungarna erbjöd tillgång till kyrkor och präster i den nyanlagda staden Sigtuna. I Norge och Danmark stod missionärerna under kungarnas beskydd och kontroll och det budskap de där framförde handlade mer om makt och framgångar i detta livet som den kristna guden kunde ge. Detta framkallade inte något behov av att medelst runstenar uppmana förbipasserande att be förböner för avlidnas själar och detta är anledningen till varför inte särskilt många stenar med uppmaningen att hjälpa en avlidens själ återfinns i dessa områden. Den avgörande orsaken till om människor rest stenar som med inskrifter som relaterar till eskatologiska föreställningar är alltså enligt denna undersökning ifall människorna i området konverterat av egen inre övertygelse efter kontakt med frilansande missionärer som fokuserat på frälsning, synd och botgöring eller om de kristnats på någon kungs befallning av missionärer som kontrollerats av sagde kung och som framfört ett budskap som mer handlat om den kristne gudens överlägsna makt.