<p>This paper deals with ancient Greek music, and in particular the relation of people to music during the fifth century BC in Athens. Music is believed to exercise great power over the human character and behavior, and at the same time is a means of emotional communication. For the first time during the fifth century, the power of music leaves the realm of the myths and becomes a subject of philosophical investigation. Two different types of sources are examined in order to study the relation of people to music: on the one hand the literary sources of this period,  and on the other the vase paintings. This method reveals various attitudes towards music by using two different perspectives. Possible explanations are given for the differing information, the purpose of each source being a decisive factor.</p><p>The paper suggests that although the information from the two types of sources varies and can even be contradictive, the recognition of the power music exercises is obvious in both cases .</p>

<p>This thesis examines the Neolithic settlements in Durankulak, Danube, north of Bulgaria and Sitagroi in Greek Macedonia at the time when human life went from nomadic and hunting to well organized, agriculture and settled. As a background I present facts about the chronology, I will look for similarities and differences in the climate and the environment of the settlements and then I make a comparison based on the material findings. The facts, analyses and artefacts give a base for understanding the daily life in Durankulak and Sitagroi. By comparing the settlements I will investigate if the Neolithization was a homogenous process on Balkan or if there are differences that indicate external inputs from several directions.</p>

<p>This paper analyses the existence and nature of the sacred landscape Olands härad during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Olands härad is located in Northern Uppland, onthe way to Östhammar, about 30 km northeast of Uppsala. The interpretations are done with help of place names studies as well as archaeological finds. The results indicate that different types of cult locations can be found in the area.</p>

<p>The aim of this work is to give an example of how archaeoacoustics can broaden our understanding of archaeological remains and to further contribute to the almost non-existing research of ringing stones. With a theoretical discussion about sound from three different perspectives and by means of using different kinds of analysis, this essay will show that there are unknown relations between the three known ölandic ringing stones and the cultural landscape of Öland. Possible patterns in the placement of the stones and the possibility of the sound in this soundscape will be investigated. The essay will also suggest a resonant stone typology and discuss the necessity of one. Finally, the intention is also to shed new light upon the discussion on what the uses of the ringing stones might have been.</p>

<p>In the Late Iron Age, the Mälaren region contained a clearly stratified society and many sites in the landscape indicate the presence of an upper stratum, an elite. This concept – elite – may perhaps be seen as problematic, but in this case it is decidedly more neutral, and considerably less limiting and excluding than many other concepts.</p><p>The elite was a group that we know possessed larger farm buildings, more monumental and richly equipped graves as well as control over a large part of the specialised handicraft. The people in this elite group of society clearly advertised that they belonged to a special social unit. There are indications that these people had clear similarities with the nobility of the Middle Ages, but they were active in a society without any towns, Christianity or church administration. This dissertation discusses a number of issues concerning the elite of the Late Iron Age. Two studies are central. The first concerns six sites in the Mälaren region: Old Uppsala, Helgö, Vendel, Valsgärde, Husby in Glanshammar parish, and Ancient Sigtuna. The sites are compared to study the similarities and differences of elite settings. I investigate the evidence of different sources for the presence of great landownership, and of their importance for the rulers compared to other resources such as plunder, trade and taxation. The results indicate that the sites had many structural and economic similarities. At the same time, the resource use varied, and each site had its own unique character. The study is concluded with a discussion on the economic structure of the sites.</p><p>The second study deals with the elite in the vicinity of Uppsala, an area that mainly through Old Uppsala and the presence of boat graves are usually connected with ancient rulers. The investigation is mainly based on a number of excavated as well as non-excavated graves, some of which have never been published. In addition, a number of placenames and three unique ritual deposits are discussed. The study indicates that the people usually included in the concept of elite were quite common. This provides a new perspective for our view of two long renowned sites: Old Uppsala and Valsgärde.</p>

<p>The conventional view on the Kalahari in southern Africa expresses that the area is unsuitable for livestock herding. For this reason, it is argued that livestock herders avoided the Kalahari in the past and were only able to establish themselves in the later half of the twentieth century, when deep-reaching boreholes were introduced in the area. An effect of this concept was that the archaeological record of pastoralists in the Kalahari either was perceived as non-existent or received little attention from scientific enquiry.</p><p>Based on an archaeological survey in the Kalahari of the northeastern part of Namibia, the purpose of this study is to construct an alternative approach to the archaeology of livestock herding. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the areas unrecorded land-use history. </p><p>I depart from the notion that the main ecological constraint for dryland pastoralism is the availability of dry season water and fodder resources. For this reason, the fundamental basis for a pastoral land-use system is places that contain dry season resources. By reviewing recent ecological research, historical and anthropological accounts and previous archaeological research, I establish a link between livestock herders’ procurement of dry season key resources and the practice of digging wells. The link can be motivated from the pastoral ambition of accumulating livestock and high water requirements in the restrained dry season. On this basis, I suggest that artificial wells are useful indicators of pastoral land use in the Kalahari. </p><p>The most crucial task for the study is to address the archaeological visibility of pastoral well sites. By a research approach integrating the theoretical understanding of pastoralism and a methodology including ecology, archaeology, history and the knowledge of the people who keep livestock in the region today, the archaeological survey revealed 40 well sites, including nearly 200 well structures that have all been used for watering livestock. </p><p>However, it would be unfortunate if a study of pastoral wells would solely address the ecological foundation and the archaeological visibility of pastoralism. I suggest that the wells signify the labour of peoples with common or separate histories, with or without own herds, but probably talked about in relation to herds. I will also argue that the wells can be used for tracking and reconstructing a pastoral land-use system that predated the colonial era. Furthermore, the wells can be used to identify changes of the land-use that took place during the twentieth century, which involved that livestock herding was more or less abandoned in large parts of northwestern Kalahari. </p><p>The study surmises that the critical historical perspective is valuable for development projects and conservationist interventions active in the region, especially in the light of the recent trends in the dryland ecology, which shows a larger appreciation for the indigenous understanding of the management of dryland ecosystems. With modifications, the developed approach can be applicable for land-use historical research elsewhere in southern Africa.</p>

<p>In the year 2007 the Swedish National Heritage Board released directions for how the contractarchaeology in Sweden should carry out their work. These directions stressed that a differentapproach to the archaeological finds should be used – that would lead to a higher degree ofselection than before. The purpose of this essay is to find the reason why this change indirections occurred, and this is done by a study of the history of the rescue archaeology inSweden. The other purpose of this essay is to examine if the excavation strategies inarchaeological excavation reports from different times, correlates with the general guidingprinciples for the contract archaeology in Sweden of that time.There are several reasons why the change in directions occurred, but it seems as the mainreasons are practical. The handling of archaeological finds is relatively expensive andarchaeological researches of today generally don’t need to take care of all the finds for theinterpretation. Consequently there is no reason to save everything. The study of theexcavation reports show that there is correlation between the excavation techniques used, andthe general guiding principles for the contract archaeology of that time.</p>

<p>This thesis discusses the dress code during the Pitted Ware culture on the Swedish island of Gotland. Eight Pitted Ware grave-fields have been analyzed; only 74 skeletons have been identified with some sort of ornament that could have been attached to clothes. The grave-fields are rich in finds and in people nearly every age group is present. The analysis has shown that there are clear differences between the genders. The female always has some sort of seal tooth ornament around her waist and thighs. The man has sometimes tusks from wild boar and tubular bones as an ornament on his clothes. The children have all of the ornaments that the parents have but in smaller numbers. There are also other finds that appear on all of the individuals, but the tusks, seal tooth and tubular bones are the ones that appear on nearly every individual. The North American Indians clothing has been used as a reference to help understand the clothing of the Pitted Ware. So far all of the finds that have been found on the skeletons have shown great diversity in the Pitted Ware clothing.</p>

<p>The subject of this essay in archaeology is the economy at the mining village of Saladuringthe 16th and early 17th century. The silvermine in Sala was once the foremost producer of silver in Sweden, and the mine as well as the mining village had had a long and rich history. This history can be seen in historical documents as well as in archaeological findings. The lure of silver attracted many different people to the mining village. This in turn madetrade an important part of the mining village. The trade made it possible for coins to circulatefreely and this made it possible for a monetary based economy to be established in the miningvillage. The focus of this essay is mainly on coin finds, but also on other archaeological items foundduring excavations of the mining village. These other archaeological finds can shed some light on the type of economy that existed in the mining village. Included is a comparison of coin finds in two other locations, namely the chapel ruins of St. Ursula in Västerås and Vårfrukyrkan in Enköping. Each of the churches is located near Sala and were used contemporary with the mining village. The purpose of including them into this study is to see whether these churches used the same stock of coin as they did in the mining village.</p>

This thesis proposes an alternative perspective to the general neglect of toy materials from deeper analysis in archaeology. Based on a study of selected toy artefacts from the Classical Harappan settlement at Bagasra, Gujarat, it suggests a viable way of approaching the objects when considering them within a theoretical framework highlighting their social aspects. The study agrees with objections in e.g. parts of gender archaeology and research on children in archaeology to the extrapolating from the marginalized child of the West onto past social structures. Departing from revised toy definitions formulated in disciplines outside archaeology, it proceeds with the objects’ toy identifications while rejecting a ‘transforming’ of these into other interpretations. Thus entering a quite unexplored research field, grounded theory is used as working method. As the items indicate a regulated pattern, the opinion on toy artefacts as randomly scattered around becomes questioned. Using among others the capital concept by Bourdieu, the notion of micropower by Foucault and parts of the newly developed ideas of microarchaeology, the toy-role of the artefacts is emphasized as crucial, enabling the items to express diverse social uses in addition to their possible function as children’s (play)things. With this, the notion of the limiting connection of toys to playing children becomes unravelled, opening for a discussion on enlarged dimensions of the toys and a possible re-naming of them as the materialities of next generation. While suggesting the items to indicate various social strategies and structurating practices, the need for traditional boundaries and separated entities successively becomes eliminated. The traditionally stated toy obstacles with cultural loading and elusive distinctions can with this be proposed as constructions, possible to avoid. The toy concept simultaneously emerges as particularly useful in highlighting the notion of change and continuity within the social structure and children’s roles in this.