This paper will focus on marine archaeology as a discipline, mainly from the perspective of shipwrecks that have been discovered with human remains. The analysis and interpretation will be based primarily on three specific shipwrecks within Swedish marine archaeology: Vasaskeppet, Kronan and Mars Makalös, all of which have and or are containing human skeletal remains. The ships have primarily been chosen for their provenience in archaeology and the fact that they have been subject to revisions and further discussions both in earlier decades as in the case with Vasa and ongoing modern projects such as in the case with Mars Makalös. The ships will be compared with each other in several ways but mainly concentrate on how their human remains have been handled.  Further topics will also involve how underwater cultural heritage are protected and what ups and downs follows the different methodologies, this will be relevant since shipwrecks containing human remains often face challenges on how they should be protected. Historical value and how this may affect the search and resources granted to expeditions will also be briefly discussed.      Source material will consist of texts in the form of field reports from the ships in question as well as general texts regarding marine archaeology and shipwrecks to get a brief overview of the subject and it´s development. Texts concerning ethical dilemmas surrounding human remains within shipwrecks will also be selected with both a perspective from Swedish archaeology and a more global perspective to provide relevant ground for further discussion. Email contact with people relevant to these ships or the theme in general will also form the ground for discussion and analysis.

Wood is a complex material and the mechanical properties are influencedby a number of structural parameters. The objective of this study has been toinvestigate the relationship between the structure and the mechanical propertiesof hardwood. Two levels were of special interest, viz. the cellular structureand morphology of the wood, and the ultra-structure of the cell wall. In thenext step, it was of interest to examine how the mechanical properties ofhardwood change with spontaneous/induced changes in morphology and/orchemical composition beyond the natural variation found in nature. Together, this constituted the framework and basis for two larger projects,one on European aspen (Populus tremula) and hybrid aspen (Populus tremulax Populus tremuloides), and one on European oak (Quercus robur). Amethodology was developed where the concept of relative density and compositemechanics rules served as two useful tools to assess the properties ofthe cell wall. Tensile testing in the longitudinal direction was combined withchemical examination of the material. This approach made it possible to revealthe mechanical role of the lignin in the cell wall of transgenic aspen trees,and investigate the consequences of holocellulose degradation in archaeologicaloak from the Vasa ship. The study on transgenic aspen showed that a major reduction in lignin inPopulus leads to a small but significant reduction in the longitudinal stiffness.The longitudinal tensile strength was not reduced. The results are explainableby the fact that the load-bearing cellulose in the transgenic aspen retained itscrystallinity, aggregate size, microfibril angle, and absolute content per unitvolume. The results can contribute to the ongoing task of investigating andpinpointing the precise function of lignin in the cell wall of trees. The mechanical property study on Vasa oak showed that the longitudinaltensile strength is severely reduced in several regions of the ship, andthat the reduction correlates with reduced average molecular weight of theholocellulose. This could not have been foreseen without a thorough mechanicaland chemical investigation, since the Vasa wood (with exception fromthe bacterially degraded surface regions) is morphologically intact and witha micro-structure comparable to that of recent oak. The results can be usedin the ongoing task of mapping the condition of the Vasa wood. / QC 20110420