The aim of the essay is to investigate rock art in Sweden as a cultural heritage. The material in the essay is rock art. The method is a literature study that compiles and analyzes other researchers’ views of the material (rock art). I limit the essay to rock art in Sweden. The essay has 3 questions: 1 How can cultural heritage be used? 2 Which laws protect rock art? 2 Are there archaeological traces of the fact that the rock art continued to have significance after no new rock art were created? The theoretical point of departure of the essay is historical perspective. The physical traces of the past are seen as different functions and have different meanings for different periods of time. The result of the essay is that rock art are seen as memories preserved in physical form (in books) and the actual ritual to punch the pictures or that performing rituals are seen as bodily preserved memory for example memorial ceremonies. The Heritage Board of Sweden works with the protection of culture, with knowledge dissemination and knowledge building, conservation and care authority work and archaeological assignments. County Administrative Board is responsible for protecting, informing and protecting the regional cultural environment as building and settlements, ancient objects and churches, cultural landscapes and industrial history sites. The Heritage Law determines the protection of valuable buildings such as ancient monuments, ancient finds, church cultural monuments and some cultural objects. The rock art form Stone Age may have affected where new rock art were placed under the Bronze Age, which affected the location of Rockies during the younger Bronze Age. Recent visits created a movement pattern in the landscape that may have lived and structured peoples activities also after the tradition of making new pictures had ceased. Rock art premises may have affected where new rock art were placed during the early Bronze Age, which affected the location of Rockies during the younger Bronze Age.

This essay aims to gain a deeper understanding for the beliefs and identity of the sami people in Sápmi, northern Scandinavia through observation of their material culture. More specifically the object of interest is different types of jewellery made from materials like horn, silver and tin dat- ed to iron age 500 BC to 1300 AD. Metal deposits, or places of sacrifices used by sami are key interest to understand the usage of jewellery and the symbolism behind it, if there is any. The discussion is based on earlier research made by archaeologists and other scientists. The purpose being to understand and illuminate a culture with a long history that’s still alive. This will be conducted with an archaeological perspective.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate syncretism in burial mounds that were active burial places during the Iron Age and the change of religion from pre-christianity to christianity in Mälardalen. The study consists of a comparative analysis of two burial mounds that was recycled and has two different burials pracites on its primary and secondary graves. The essay is a literature study and based on fieldwork reports from excavations of the two burial mounds and the burial fields Spånga RAÄ 193 and Valsta RAÄ 59. Tombs can have been a visible power symbol in the landscape during the Iron Age. A physical link between the dead and the living, between people and the ownership of the earth and the odal concept. The grave ship during the Iron Age had a great variety. Concepts like syncretism can be difficult interpreted because it was used as a concept in religious history from the beginning. It deals with the process of diffrents religions meet and the consequences of that meeting.

Gamla Uppsala is a spectacular area filled with archeological remains dating back to the Iron Age. There have been several excavations in the area, the biggest one carried out between 2012 and 2013 with the construction of a tunnel that is a part of the railroad Ostkustbanan.An important tool in understanding the Iron Age civilization in Gamla Uppsala is to know what houses were used for. This is where a method called macrofossil analysis can be used with great success. By analyzing earth samples from postholes, graves, wells and hearths macrofossils like seeds and slag can be found and used to interpret a house based on the material.This study is going to use samples that were not prioritized during the excavations for the analysis in order to answer what function these houses had.The macrofossil analysis conducted during this study showed a lot of fresh seeds but also charred material that consisted mostly of grain seeds. An interpretation of the houses using the material found within the earth samples was made and the postholes was likely dwelling houses.Hopefully this study can contribute to a further understanding of Gamla Uppsala during the Iron Ages.

Today, the pets we own are thought of as friends and family members. A lot of people even go as far as saying that the pets they own are their children. While we have this close and almost human relationship with our pets, we also distance ourselves from the animals we have on our plates. What did the human – animal relationships look like during the Vendel Period and Viking Age?  The goal with this essay is to analyse cremation graves from the grave site in Valsgärde, Uppsala, and then compare these results with those from Ylva Bäckström’s osteological study of eight cremation graves from Valsgärde and with Berit Sigvallius’ study of the cremated material from the grave fields in northern Spånga. The grave field in Valsgärde, Uppsala, is dated to pre-Roman Iron Age as well as Vendel Period and Viking Age. The boat graves are what the grave field in Valsgärde is most famous for, but in addition to the 15 boat graves there are also at least 62 cremation graves and 15 skeleton graves. The graves in the northern Spånga are dated to 500 BC. - 1050 AD and lies in Kista, Granby, Ervinge and Kymlinge. The osteological study and the comparison with the two previously executed analysis have been done with the purpose to see in what way the relations between humans and animals expresses itself in the osteological material of Uppland during the late Iron Age. Hopefully the composition of the graves’ animal material will contain indicators of the human – animal relations. Previously conducted studies of Iron Age cremation graves in general, has shown that there was a significant increase in the amount of animal bones in the graves during the Vendel and Viking age. Animals are clearly important to the people during the late Iron Age. In what way were the animals significant and how is this expressed in the material?

Karl- Erik Nordström 2018. A strong and sacred Landscape. Central Places and Cosmology during the Iron Age   This study intends to address a specific aspect of the landscape, not only as something that can be linked to economic, political and legal factors but also spiritual and cosmological. Much of these thoughts have been taken from certain studies of "the strong landscape" that shape the beliefs and identities. Such ethnoarchaeological approach has grown to a great extent in recent decades and is represented internationally by several authors from the 70s and 80s, who in their Bronze Age studies highlight the importance of contemporary world of imagination.   Something that characterized much of the research tradition in the period after 1945 is building history and research around central places. The central site concept, which includes "a place of specific qualities", was not developed until the 1970s.   One thing that can not be avoided in this case is the adaptation to the harsh climate and the environmental problems that develop during the Iron Age, which in many cases have been devastating but can also involve reorganization, better use of resources and a more centralized structure. The emerging economic, political, legal and religious centers that the central places make up can be seen as an expression of this. Here, spiritual and cosmological performances about landscapes, towns, farms and houses have also been developed.   This aspect of the landscape as a cosmological unit I intend to study closer to the rich iron age community in Sundhede outside Hudiksvall. Here, a number of villages and smaller regions are grouped around a high-rise city center and here we also find outfields, which extract the substance that had an important significance during this time and also gave a spiritual cosmological significance, namely the iron. With this I hope to contribute to further knowledge of the role played by the landscape during the Iron Age, not least metaphysical.

Scandinavia is famous for their Viking ships and their raids during the 9th century. However, the Scandinavian society was widely divided between the ruling forces. There are a lot of evidence for conflicts within the Viking world, with both written sources, stories and archaeological records speaking for it. As the ship, and travel by water, was one of the most efficient ways of travelling, widely used within all of Iron Age Scandinavia, this paper seeks to explore the possibilities of a maritime defense system within the central Viking society using place names and GIS. Uppland, as one of the most influential areas in Scandinavian Iron Age, hosting sites as Vendel and Gamla Uppsala, the use and need of a maritime defense would have been, due to the risk of conflict, vital.

The Bronze Age in southern Sweden is a period that has seen a great deal of research for as long as archaeological studies have been undertaken in this country. While we have a rich material record and even many visible indicators of the time in the landscape, such as the rock carvings of Tanum and the many mounds dotting the landscape, many aspects of that society are relatively poorly understood. I´m mainly referring to the economic structures underpinning Bronze Age societies. This project will take the models of Wealth and Staple Finance Systems, developed by Timothy Earle and successfully tested in many equivalent contexts around the world, and apply them on Swedish settlement materials from the Bronze Age settlements of Pryssgården and Apalle. The study looks at site distribution patterns, the prevalence of prestige goods and the possible importance of external contacts in order to produce a reliable economic model of the Swedish Bronze Age. While some similarities in resource management are obvious, some relevant aspects were found to differ.

Under lång tid har mayafolkets landskap, av arkeologer, ansetts vara homogent. Detta har bidragit till tolkningen att det förhållande som mayabefolkningen hade till sin urbana levnadsmiljö respektive omgivande topografi, likväl som förhållande till det kulturella livet har sett likadant ut oberoende av region. I realiteten är det naturliga landskapet i Mesoamerika heterogent, vilket då även resulterar i urbana och kulturella skillnader mellan regionerna. I denna uppsats kommer undersökas och diskuteras de skillnader som finns mellan de olika mayakulturerna och hur detta kan ha påverkat jordbruket inom regionerna. Dessutom kommer regionerna jämföras med avseende på potentiella skillnader i kultur likväl som rumsliga skillnader i topografi och det urbana landskapet. Den klassiska tidsepoken (250-950 e.Kr.) kommer vara i fokus, men som referenspunkter och med grund i att olika städer uppstod vid olika epoker kommer även andra tidsperioder att behandlas i uppsatsen. Denna uppsats är baserad på litteratur studier och är en kvalitativ undersökning.

The concept of slavery in ancient Egypt is a debated issue, that has mostly focused upon the different uses of the phrasing and terminology of the different words for servitude. Without giving too much emphasis upon the different terminologies, this essay presents a summary of the state of slavery within the borders of Egypt during the New Kingdom. As different kinds of servitude existed in the country, the focus is upon the types of slaves who were the property of their master and could be bought and sold. The essay presents who the slave was and where he came from, as well as what kinds of duties the slave was used for. The process of acquisition is also covered, before finally discussing the rights of the slave as well as the means to become free of your bonds.