The background of the study is that humans’ relationship to the nature and animals is not universal and is based on critical archeology and reflexive thinking. Previous researchers have interpreted the animals in graves as food offerings or a communication meal, where the horse is highlighted as a prominent symbol of power, prosperity, alliances, and aristocracy. Researchers have also compared animal style ornaments with Icelandic Sagas, and they connect humans and animals to transformation, metamorphoses, and hybridity. The interpretations in this context are based on the animals´ contemporary function and modern views. By studying the materials more closely, it turned out that the bones of humans and animals have been mixed in the graves. In the animal style ornamentation, there are often mixtures between humans and animals, and so also in the Icelandic Sagas. This indicates that the ancient humans intended to recreate mixtures between humans and animals in the materials. The study also links to the anthropological terms totenism and animism, to show that humans’ relationship to animals differs, and that it is not always the same as the modern view.

Med hjälp av osteologiska och genetiska analyser har flera gravar från vikingatiden som tidigare tolkats tillhöra män nu visat sig tillhöra kvinnor. Det är dock fortsatt kontroversiellt att tolka dessa kvinnor som krigare. Att kvinnorna tillhört den sociala eliten är studenter och forskare i stort överens om men vilken roll de haft i vikingatidens samhälle råder det delade meningar om. Att tolka tidigare samhällen och deras sociala roller utifrån det material som finns tillgängligt idag är komplext vilket blir tydligt i denna uppsats. Vikten av att inte tolka vikingatidens sociala roller utifrån samtidens syn på könsroller, ideal och normer blir också tydligt. / With the help of osteological and genetic analyses, several warriorgraves from the Viking Age that where previously interpreted as belonging to men have been shown belong to women. However, it remains controversial to interpret these women as warriors. That the women belonged to the social elite most students and researchers largely agree on but there are divided opinions about what role they had in the Viking Age society. Interpreting past societies and their social roles based on the material available today is complex, which comes clear in this essay. The importence of not interpreting the social role of the Viking Age based on the contemporary view of gender roles, ideals and norms also becomes clear.

This thesis examines the relevancy of south-west portals with regards to their potential usage in post-burial ritual activity with particular focus on the deposition of sacrificial offerings. South-west portals are a type of stone constructions found on the edges of mounds and stone settings in eastern central Sweden usually dating to the Viking Age (c. 750-1100 CE). As many as possible of all excavated south-west portals are accounted for. The find materials in south-west portals as well as their accessibility are assessed in accordance with the reasoning that long-term grave cult would result in repeated sacrificial depositions and that the portals would have had to have been accessible for such sacrifices to have been conducted. There is no clear evidence of south-west portals having been used for deliberate sacrificial depositions. Some portals would have been inaccessible and most non-funerary find assemblages were likely non-deliberate or at least nonindicative of repeated sacrifices. South-west portals were likely more relevant in funerary rites of passage or potentially odd instances of necromancy rather than in sacrifices connected to ancestor worship. / Denna avhandling undersöker relevansen av sydvästportar med avseende på deras potentiella användning i rituella aktiviteter efter begravningen med särskilt fokus på deponering av offergåvor. Sydvästportar är en typ av stenkonstruktioner som förekommer på kanterna av högar och stensättningar i östra Mellansverige, vanligtvis daterade till vikingatiden (ca 750-1100 e.v.t.). Så många som möjligt av alla utgrävda sydvästportar redovisas. Fyndmaterialet i sydvästportar samt deras tillgänglighet bedöms utifrån resonemanget att långvarig gravkult skulle resultera i upprepade offerdepositioner och att portarna skulle ha behövt vara tillgängliga för sådana offer att genomföras. Det finns inga tydliga bevis för att sydvästportar har använts för avsiktliga offerdepositioner. Vissa portar skulle ha varit otillgängliga och de fyndmaterialansamlingar som inte var gravar var sannolikt oavsiktliga eller åtminstone icke indikativa på upprepade offerriter. Sydvästportar var sannolikt mer relevanta i begravningsriter eller potentiellt udda fall av nekromanti snarare än i offer kopplade till förfädersdyrkan.

During the Viking Age, the burials on Gotland consisted of both cremations and inhumations. However, inhumation became increasingly common at the end of that period. Furthermore, several children have been identified around the island, but almost all of them are in inhumation graves. Only a few analyses of cremations from the Viking Age have been conducted. At the moment, there are only two burial grounds, dating to the Viking Age on Gotland, where the remains of cremated children have been noted. This study aims to try to locate children's graves, or possible children's graves, by studying cremations from the burial ground in Stora Ihre, Hellvi parish. Hopefully, this will contribute to future studies of cremations from Gotland in the early Iron Age and bring more knowledge on how children were treated. A total of 60 cremations have been analyzed, where only two graves contain the remains of non-adult individuals, but only one of these dates to the Viking age. At Stora Ihre, children of several ages have been buried in inhumation graves, like many other places in the rest of Gotland. In several cases, they have been buried together or secondarily next to an older individual, both in or around an inhumation or cremation grave, but in some cases, children have been given their own grave. This may indicate that a shift in burial traditions of children took place from the Vendel period to the Viking age, but it may also reflect social differences between the ages.

Leather has been one of the most common crafting materials in human history. With its incredible versatility it has been used for clothes, shelter, books, armour, containers, decoration, and everything in between. The boat graves from Valsgärde presents a for the time period large amount of preserved leather, allowing us to have a peek into how it was used during the late Scandinavian Iron Age. This essay focuses on which animals have been used in the making of these objects and what the choice of raw material and visible crafting skills might tell us. A total of 54 samples from the Valsgärde boat graves were analysed using the ZooMS method. Additionally, tanning methods and other related processes are discussed. The main conclusions are that while the choice of material has an important impact on the final result, it seems like the skills of the craftsperson was the most important factor affecting quality and exclusivity for an item. / Läder har varit ett av de vanligaste materialen i mänsklighetens historia. Med sin fantastiska mångsidighet har det använts till kläder, bostäder, böcker, rustningar, behållare, dekoration, och allt däremellan. Båtgravarna i Valsgärde erbjuder en för tidsperioden stor mängd bevarat läder vilket ger oss chansen att få en glimt av hur materialet användes under den sena järnåldern i Skandinavien. Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på vilka djur som använts för att tillverka dessa föremål och vad valet av råmaterial och hantverkmetoder kan säga oss. Totalt har 54 prov från Valsgärdes båtgravar analyserats med ZooMS-metoden. Därtill behandlas garvning och andra relaterade processer i läderhantverk. De huvudsakliga slutsatserna är att även om valet av råmaterial har en stor inverkan på slutresultatet så verkar hantverkarens skicklighet vara den viktigaste faktorn för kvalitet och exklusivitet i ett föremål. / <p>This thesis was made possible through funding from Västgöta Nation.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the social role of women in the Viking Age on Gotland. The female jewellery articulated the Gotlandic identity on the island in the Viking Age, unlike the men's jewellery which expressed similarities with other places in Scandinavia. Therefore, the female jewellery can be seen as traces of an important cultural expression that distinguished the Gotlandic women from others. The understanding of which types of jewellery that are considered to be linked to the female gender during the Viking Age is based on a number of excavated graves. The jewellery in graves have been researched for a long time. However, there is another category that includes jewellery which have been neglected, namely hoards. Therefore, this thesis investigates female jewellery in graves to understand the composition of jewellery in hoards. The purpose of this is to interpret if the hoards can express a female gender identity, similar to the female gender identity in graves based on the composition of jewellery. This is realized through the use of performativity and embodiment theory. The similarities and the differences between the jewellery in graves and hoards are investigated through a correspondence analysis. The result show that the differences between the composition of jewellery in graves and hoards are meaningful. The graves consists of a more complete set of jewellery made of bronze, whereas the hoards are interpreted to consist of parts of a complete set or a larger number of the same type of jewellery. The hoards also contain more jewellery made of precious metals than the graves. The hoards are intrepreted as savings of vaiable jewellery that could be resumed and used again by women. The Guta Law is applied in this thesis to contribute to the understanding of who owned the jewellery that women wore. The result is that women did not own the jewellry individually. Instead it was owned collectively by the family but that women might have had the responsebility of the jewellery during their lifetime. It is interpreted that women, through the use of Gotlandic jewellery, had the social role in society to show off the family wealth and their Gotlandic identity. Therefore, it is argued that women played a crucial part in public gatherings and had an active role in the Gotlandic society in the Viking Age.

Shore displacement has largely affected both the natural landscape and the humans within. This is especially true for Västergarn parish on Gotland, where low-lying plains make up large parts of the domain. Yet, the land–sea interaction of Västergarn, has not been studied closely for a long time. Through a comprehensive study, as well as a reexamination, of different sources and materials, this study aims to shed new light on the spatial distribution and chronology of Västergarn. To understand this, we need to get a scope of the extent of the sea. Previous research (e.g. Ilves &amp; Darmark 2011; Mikołajczyk et al. 2015) has showed that phosphate analysis may help indicate the position of former shorelines. How can this, methodologically, be applied to phosphate-mapping carried out well over 50 years ago? This thesis does not aim to completely answer this question, but rather to analyze what went into determining a shore-level for 1000 AD during earlier research (e.g. Lundström 1979, 1981). Moreover, this study aims to critically examine the interplay between historical shore-levels and the built world within Västergarn. The Västergarn defensive wall and Paviken bay constitute the two main areas of study, owing to the pursuit of understanding the interplay between these two sites. Västergarn cannot be fully understood without also including the Kronholmen peninsula (formerly island, as the name suggests), why some attention is also directed towards this area. / Strandförskjutningen har till stor del påverkat både naturlandskapet och människorna inom. Detta stämmer i synnerhet för Västergarns socken på Gotland, där i princip hela området är att betrakta som synnerligen låglänt. Ändå har relationen mellan land och hav i Västergarn, inte utforskats närmare på länge. Genom att inkludera och ompröva ett flertal olika källor och material, syftar denna studie till att på nytt belysa Västergarns rumsliga fördelning och kronologi. Tidigare forskning (se Ilves &amp; Darmark 2011; Mikołajczyk et al. 2015) har visat på att analys fosfatvärden kan bära med sig insikt i forna strandlinjenivåer. Hur kan denna kunskap metodologiskt tillämpas på fosfatkarteringar som genomfördes för mer än 50 år sedan? Denna uppsats syftar inte till att fullständigt besvara denna fråga, men däremot att närma sig vad som legat till grund för att fastställa en strandnivå för 1000 e.Kr. under tidigare forskning (se Lundström 1979, 1981). Huvudfokus för denna studie är att kritiskt granska samspelet mellan historiska strandlinjenivåer och bebyggelse i Västergarn. Västergarnsvallen och Paviken utgör, i strävan efter att förstå relationen mellan dessa två platser, de huvudsakliga studieområdena. Västergarn kan dock inte förstås till fullo utan att även blicka mot halvön Kronholmen (tidigare ö, som namnet vittnar om), varför en viss uppmärksamhet också riktas mot detta område.

Falkenering har varit en del av den svenska kulturen sedan 500-talet v.t. då de första spåren av rovfågel framträder i gravar från främst Mälardalsområdet och har sedan 2021 klassificeratssom ett av UNESCO:s immateriella kulturarv. Jakt med rovfågel under yngre järnåldern i Skandinavien är ett relativt outforskat ämne som främst har fokuserat på att bekräfta att rovfågel fanns närvarande, spåra praktikens ursprung eller bekräfta en individs status. En definition av falkenering och kriterier för en falkeneringsgrav har tagits fram innan en kvalitativ komparativ analys har utförts på 39 gravar innehållande rovfågelben. Även en djupare analys av gravarna i Rickeby, Sunnerby och Vårberg har genomförts. Analyserna visade att inte alla gravar innehållande rovfågel är högstatusgravar och att rovfåglarnas närvaro troligtvis är mer komplext än enbart falkenering. Jakt med rovfågel kan delas in i nöjesfalkenering och yrkesfalkenering och möjligtvis syns spår av detta bland de undersökta gravarna. Studien visar att tidigare antaganden om att rovfåglar indikerar falkenering, att de enbart hittas i högstatusgravar och att falkenering enbart är en sport för eliten inte är tillräckliga. / Falconry has been a part of Swedish culture since the 6th century AD when the first traces of birds of prey appear in graves from the Mälardalen area and has been classified as a cultural heritage by UNESCO since 2021. The practice of hunting with birds of prey during the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia is an underrepresented subject in archaeological studies. The focus has previously been on confirming the presence of raptors in graves, tracing the origin of the practice and confirming the status of an individual. A definition of falconry and criteria for identifying a falconry grave have been developed followed by a qualitative comparative analysis of 39 graves containing raptor bones. A more thorough analysis of the graves in Rickeby, Sunnerby and Vårberg has also been carried out. The results showed that not all graves containing birds of prey are high-status graves and that the presence of raptors is more complex than to be explained by falconry alone. Hunting with raptors can be divided into falconry for entertainment and professional falconry. Traces of the division might be possible to observe among the graves examined. The study shows that previous assumptions that the presence of raptors indicate falconry, that they are only found in high-status graves and that falconry is a sport for the elite are not sufficient.

Three-dimensional (3D) laser scanners are becoming increasingly more affordable and user-friendly, making 3D-modeling tools more widely available to researchers in various countries and disciplines. In archaeology, 3D-modeling has the particular advantages of facilitating the documentation and analysis of objects that are fragile, rare, and often difficult to access. We have previously shown that 3D-modeling is a highly useful tool for shape analysis of archaeological bone material, due to the high measurement accuracy inherent in the latest generation of 3D laser scanners (Sholts et al. 2010; 2011). In this work, we explore the utility of 3D-modeling as a tool for Viking Age artefact analysis. To test the usefulness of 3D-modeling when analyzing artefacts with a very complex morphology, we chose highly ornate Viking Age baroque shaped brooches as study objects. These baroque shaped brooches constitute a group of dress ornaments mainly encountered in eastern Viking Age Scandinavia. Due to their large cast and/or attached bosses they obtain an almost baroque appearance, hence their name (cf. Jansson 1984: p. 81). They appear in two major versions, i.e. circular or equal armed, and in two kinds of material, i.e. silver- and copper-based alloys. Because of the position of bronze brooches in burial contexts, it appears they were used to fasten the cape or shawl in the female dress (cf. Jansson 1984: p. 75ff., Aagård 1984: p. 96ff.; Neiß 2006, figs. 3, 4; Capelle 1962: p. 106). For the present work a recently excavated brooch from Denmark was analyzed, together with three Russian brooches with nearly iconic status in the field of Viking Age studies. In the three case studies, we investigated possible uses of 3D-modeling for artefact analysis, artefact reconstruction, and tool mark and motif analysis. Exploring the usefulness of 3D-modeling for these purposes allowed us to draw conclusions regarding how 3D-analysis can be best incorporated into future artefact analysis. In addition, the case studies allowed us to gain new insights about the baroque shaped brooches and their uses. / <p>Forskningsfinansiärer: Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, Svenska institutet (Visby-programmet), Kungliga vitterhets historie och antikvitets akademin (Montelius minnesfond); Svenska fornminnesforeningen</p> / 3D-laserskanning som verktyg vid vikingatidsstudier

Over the past two decades, environmental history as an approach to the understanding and explanation of historical processes has become gradually fashionable amongst academics; empirical data collected over the North Atlantic proposed new trends with regards to economic patterns during the Viking Age. The increasing number of Viking Age sites exposed in Iceland, the amount of zooarchaeological collections highlighting an abundant presence of fish bones in the overall archaeofauna, together with one’s expertise in environmental history as well as a strong interest in socio-economic development during the Viking Age and medieval periods were many factors which help identify strengths and weaknesses with regards to the understanding of the emergence of commercial fish trade in Iceland, and to a lesser extent, the Faeroe Islands. The thesis proposes a new theory with regards to human adaptation to new environments, and subsequent economic developments based on the commercial exploitation of fish. The interdisciplinary aspect of this project using cultural sediment analysis and zooarchaeology, as well as concepts from anthropology and economic anthropology, allows for the theory to be tested by empirical data.