The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue on how ancient human remains are or should be handled and dealt with from an ethical and archaeological perspective. This management has previously been based on what we today call racial biology, which shows how these issues have been neglected and assumed less worthy when it comes to how to treat indigenous people. In museums, archives, universities and medical institutions there are currently bone materials that science and indigenous people claim ownership of in different ways. Indigenous people believe that their ancestors have the right to rest in peace while science deems that human remains should be observed in order to preserve the past and monitor the future with the help of prehistoric knowledge. For a deeper understanding of how reburials and repatriation works, three case studies are presented. Two of these case studies are completed reburials, and the third case study is an ongoing process since 1949. In this paper a hermeneutic approach which is used to explain why human remains are the key to future studies, without involving our personal opinions.

In the seventeenth- and early eighteenth centuries, fluits were the most common type of merchant ship used in Baltic trade. Originally a Dutch design, the majority of all goods transported between Sweden and the Republic was carried on board such vessels. Far from all voyages reached their destination. Down in the cold brackish water of the Baltic, the preservation conditions are optimal, and several of these unfortunate vessels remain nearly intact today. Although thousands of more or less identical fluits were built, surprisingly little is known about the arrangement of space on board, their sculptural embellishment and other aspects that formed the physical component of everyday life on and alongside these ships. Fluits were a fixture in early modern society, so numerous that they became almost invisible. The study of wrecks thus holds great potential for revealing vital components of early modern life. Inspired by phenomenological approaches in archaeology, this thesis aims to focus on the lived experience of fluits. It sets out to grasp for seemingly mundane everyday activities relating to these ships, from the physical arrangements for eating, sleeping and answering nature’s call, to their rearrangement for naval use, and ends with a consideration of the architectonical contribution of the fluit to the urban landscape.

The women of ancient Athens have been studied to greath lenght, yet it is still a controversial subject where researchers still debate the seclusion of women. This study concerns the wifes positon in the household of claissical and hellenistic Athens, what were her social relations to the members inside the household. This paper will move in a cronological order starting with classical writers, mainly Xenophon. The hellenistic chapter will use the same concept of working with hellenistic writers, mainly Menander and Theophrastus, to see how the social relations for the married woman has changed, or how it haven’t. In both these chapters there will also be discussions of what work that is commonly named for women, what it represents, and the concerns of its authenticity. This study will also use archaeological material for this research where the reader is going to be able to se movement patterns of the ancient woman in her home. Also problem we have when looking for the athenian woman in the architecture. New types of sculptures arrives during the hellenistic times, what can they tell us about status and roles of women? Finally there will be a conclusion of the differences in the status of married women and if she were more or less secluded during the hellenistic times versus the classical period

Researchers have for many years discussed whether cult continuity is an existing phenomenon. Older research says that the first churches built during the Christianization directly took over the place of a pre-Christian cult. Recent research says that the matter of cult continuity is more complex, and that the places of churches can be a part of a pre-Christian religious area, but power and economy are also significant factors. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any cult continuity in nine sites in Gästrikland, Sweden. The churches built during the Christianization were placed in villages with a long continuity of settlement since Viking age. Scientists believe that the place names near the churches indicate that they have been sites of pre-Christian significance. This study will examine this more closely through the analysis of archaeological materials in relation to previous research, hoping to shed new light on the matter.

No description available.

The migration period was played out during 400-550 AD. This period has also been called the Norths golden era. This is because of the substantial number of gold and jewellery finds from this period. Archaeologists has since the 1930s been debating if the migration period was a time of crisis. This is because of all the discoveries that has been made and interpret as a crisis in Europe. Both the abandonment of the stone settlements and the ring-forts in Öland and Gotland has been used as evidence of a catastrophic crisis. The purpose of this essay is to present the most debated interpretations of the migration period. The questions for this essay is: How does the debate look like from it´s beginning to our present day? Has the debate had any changes? Could the archaeologists have been influenced by their own society? The essay is based on literature studies and presents the different scientists thoughts in the debate. Both the ring-fort and the abandonment of the settlements have had a significant role in the debate and therefore will be presented in this essay. This essay shows that the debate has taken a lot of changes through the years. The conclusion is that archaeologists have been influenced by both their present times and the existing archaeological theory.   Keywords: Migration period, iron age, debate, crisis, climate change, stone-house settlements, ring-fort.

När man talar om Tjernobyl och Pripyat idag hänvisar man inte bara till platsen, men också till händelsen. Händelsen som den 26e april 1986 kom att ödelägga en hel stad; reaktor 4 i Tjernobyl kärnkraftverk exploderar och sprider mängder med radioaktivitet i området. Både platsen och händelsen har gett upphov till en mängd inspiration för dagens populärkultur, t.ex. HBOs tv-serie Chernobyl. Tv-serien kom att ha stor betydelse för turismen i området som efter seriens premiär fick en explosionsartad ökning i besökarantal. Idag, drygt 30 år efter katastrofen, är området fullt av liv och grönska, en klar kontrast till hur man skulle kunna föreställa sig ett område som utsatts för en kärnkraftskatastrof. Trots all radioaktivitet som släpptes ut 1986 har naturen återhämtat sig markant. Det enda som avslöjar att det på platsen skett en katastrof är den sarkofag som byggts för att hålla reaktor 4 instängd. Zonen som sträcker sig över 2600 kvadratkilometer är idag säker att besöka, vilket syns på den multimiljon-industri som kulturarvsturismen till området har utvecklats till. Dock är turismen till Tjernobyl och Pripyat inte hållbar i längden, något som det ökande förfallet i området bidrar till. Och, eftersom det inte heller är tillåtet att restaurera gamla byggnader och monument inom den 2600 kvadratkilometer stora zonen p.g.a. riskerna med radioaktiva partiklar i marken, riskerar kulturarvsturismen till området i framtiden att upphöra.   Trots detta hoppas Ukrainas regering göra Tjernobyl och Pripyat till ett världsarv, vilket också skulle göra området till ett minnesmärke med målet att varna framtida generationer för kärnkraftsolyckor. Ett sådant erkännande skulle också lyfta fram de drabbades upplevelser och berättelser från den ödesdigra händelsen, något som i längden förhindrar katastrofen från att falla i glömska.

This bachelor thesis examines osteological analyses on cremated bones and burial contexts in Sweden. It strives to investigate in more detail how the body has been used ritually and applied in such context and how cremated bones are buried in the ground. There has often been some form of transformation associated with cremation, both metaphorically and physically. The body goes from one state to another, which may have affected the various rites performed in correlation with cremation. In many cases, it was about preparing the dead for the next step and transition from death to the afterlife or whatever was thought to follow. To limit the scope, the focus will be on a specific period, namely the Iron Age. This is a theoretical thesis based on a literature study and thus no practical analyses of cremated bones were performed, but the work examines archaeological reports made about the subject area.

Hunting for marine mammals, mainly the seal species found in the Baltic Sea has long been on Gotland. Much research has been done on how and when seals have been hunted, mainly in the cave Stora Förvar on Stora Karlsö off the west coast of Gotland and on Ajvide. Hunting for porpoises has also occurred, the only whale species that live in the Baltic sea, but not to the same extent as hunting for seals in the Baltic Sea. This master thesis aims to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between animals and humans by studying the hunting of marine mammals in the Baltic sea from a long-term perspective. The questions for this thesis is to understand how hunting methods have changed, evolved and the economic purpose of hunting marine mammals. For this thesis, six case-studies have been chosen to enable discussion about the hunting in more depth. These six case-studies are from different places and time periods on the island of Gotland were bones from seals and whales have been deposited. The result shows that four seal species and one whale species were hunted during different time periods on the island of Gotland and these were the harp seal, ringed seal, harbour seal, grey seal and the porpoise. These mammals have been an important source for food especially during the stone age but also throughout the later time periods.

In an attempt to improve archaeological predictive modeling, two predictive models were developed through QGIS, Excel, GeoDa and R. These models were then tested with statistical quality tests. The first model was a linear regression model similar to that used by the default predictive models used in GIS software. The second model was a custom exponential model built through R. The two models were compared using MAE and the exponential model yielded slightly improved results. Various problems and opportunities regarding statistics in archaeological work were discovered, and discussed based on this papers findings.The concept of using the econometric methods of spatial predictive modeling was explored and discussed, although deemed unfit for this paper. Although the spatial model was never developed, it was deemed innessecary considering the success of the other models, in particular the exponential model. A few areas could with relative statistical significance be pointed out as likely former settlements, in particular an area to the immidiate west of Långön. The high probability area contains a smaller area previously reported by a civilian to contain rock fragments. Although that report is uncertain, in combination with the model results it is deemed the most promising area discovered during this project.