This essay, The Saint Domnius cathedral in Split, is written with the intention to examine the Sankt Domnius cathedral. By examining the cathedral and the contemporary historic contexts in the Croatian region of Dalmatia from the antique period up to the 13th century middle ages, the study shows how the process of change due to the historic contexts is visible on the cathedral building itself. The main questions in this study are: how has the early Christians community’s relationship to the antique legacy and the antique remains influenced the building of Saint Domnius cathedral between the early and high middle age periods?  Which historic contexts can have influenced the Christian community’s relationship to the antique legacy and the antique remains?  To answer these questions this study has done a detailed description of the relevant historic events and people in the region of Dalmatia. The study has also showed relevant earlier study’s made on the campanile of Saint Domnius cathedral and the sphinxes found in the nearby area and the history and documentation of restorations made on the original mausoleum building that today is the Saint Domnius cathedral. A field study has also been made at the cathedral that revealed multiply carved crosses and names on the outside walls. The conclusion of the study shows that the antique legacy and ancient remains of Emperor Diocletian’s palace was regarded with hatred and forbidden by the early Christian community from the 4th to 5th century. The early Christians showed their hatred for Diocletian by destroying antique material that contained a symbolic meaning. This was an act of revenge from the Christian community for the prosecution that Diocletian had brought upon the Christians at the beginning of the 4th century. The revenge resulted in the destruction of Diocletian’s sarcophagus and the sphinxes that represented his honour and status. The walls on his mausoleum also got carved with crosses. From the 5th until the 7th century the palace was abounded because of escalating threats in the area. This resulted in the preservation of the palace and the mausoleum. When the palace once again got inhabited in the 7th century the Christian community did probably not regard the once hated antique remains with content.  The reason for this can be that the people had simply forgotten the symbolic meaning behind the remains and regarded it only as decorative remains. Besides this, the Croatians that had immigrated to the area at the same time showed a dominated position in the region. The Croatian were mostly pagan until the 9th century and therefore they may have lacked the sympathy for the early Christians prosecution.  At the same time the mausoleum was turned in to a cathedral, the building was probably chosen because of its central position and it’s already exclusive furnishing and material it contained. The reason why I don’t believe this was an act of revenge was as stated above, the ignorance of the remains true symbolic meaning and the dominant pagan Croatians influence in the region. However they also left a central motif of Diocletian unharmed in the new converted cathedral. The middle ages continued with periods of greatness for the Croatian people, they formed the kingdom of Croatia and expanded the borders. When a feud with the kingdom of Hungary about the rights to the crown ended with the defeat for the Croats in the 12th century, they were forced in to a political union with Hungary. The Croats lost their independence and developed a yearning for their once dominant position in this part of Europe. They manifested this yearning by building the campanile at Sankt Domnius cathedral. The campanile was finished at the 13th century and displayed consciously selected symbolic material that linked the Croatians prehistory to the antique prehistory in the region. The campanile became a monument that showcased the Croatian identity. / Den här uppsatsen, Sankt Domnius katedralen i Split, är skriven i syftet att undersöka Sankt Domnius katedralen. Genom att undersöka katedralen och den samtida historiska kontexten i den kroatiska regionen Dalmatien, från den antika perioden fram till medeltiden på 1200-talet. Visar studien hur förändringsprocessen från de historiska kontexterna är synliga på katedralbyggnaden. Huvudfrågorna inom denna studie är: Hur har de tidigt kristna samhällets relation till det antika arvet och de antika lämningarna influerat Sankt Domnius katedralen mellan de tidiga och högmedeltida perioderna? Vilka historiska kontexter kan ha influerat de kristna samhällets relation till det antika arvet och antika lämningarna? För att besvara dessa frågor har denna studie gjort en detaljerad beskrivning av relevanta historiska event och människor från den dalmatiska regionen. Studien har även framfört tidigare relevanta studier som gjorts på Sankt Domnius kampanil och sfinxarna som hittats i närheten av området runt katedralen. Studien uppmärksammar även historien och dokumentationen av de tidigare restaureringsarbetena som untgörts på den ursprungliga mausoleum byggnaden som idag är Sankt Domnius katedralen. En fältstudie har även gjorts på katedralen som påvisa ett flertal inristade kors och inritade namn på katedralens ytterväggar. Studiens slutsats visar att det antika arvet och de antika lämningarna av kejsare Diocletianus palats var betraktat med hat och förbjöds av det tidigt kristna samhället från 300-talet till 400-talet. De tidiga kristna visade sitt hat för Diocletianus genom att förstöra antikt material som innehade en symbolisk mening. Det var en hämnd från det kristna samhället för den förföljelse som Diocletianus hade utfört på de kristna i början av 300-talet. De kristnas hämnd resulterade i förstörelsen av Diocletianus sarkofag och sfinxarna som representerade hans heder och status. Väggarna till hans mausoleum blev även inristade med kors. Från 400-talet fram till 600-talet blev Diocletianus palats övergivet pga. eskalerade militära hot i området. Detta resulterade i att palatset och Diocletianus mausoleum preserverades. När palatset återigen befolkades på 600-talet behandlades troligtviss inte de antika lämningarna länge med förakt av det kristna samhället. Anledningen till detta kan ha varit att människorna glömt bort den symboliska meningen i lämningarna och betraktade den endast som dekorativa material. Förutom detta så hade kroaterna som immigrerade till om rådet vid denna tid visat en dominerad position i regionen. Kroaterna bestod till stor del av hedningar fram till 800-talet och de kan därför ha saknat sympati för den kristna förföljelsen. Vid denna tid transformerades mausoleum byggnaden till en katedral, byggnaden valdes troligtviss pga. den centrala position som den befann sig i och den redan exklusiva inredningen och material som fanns inuti. Anledningen till att jag inte tror att valet att konvertera Diocletianus mausoleum till en katedral inte var en hämnds aktion är som jag nämnde tidigare, okunskapen av de antika lämningarnas sanna betydelse och den dominanta hedniska kroatiska influensen i regionen. Ett centralt motiv av Diocletianus som lämnades kvar orörd i den nya konverterade katedralen.   Medeltiden fortsatte med perioder av storhet för det kroatiska folket, de formade Kungariket Kroatien och expanderade sina gränser. När en fejd med Kungariket Ungern om rättigheterna till tronen slutade med en förlust för kroaterna på 1100-talet, tvingades de att ingå i en politisk union med Ungern. Kroaterna förlorade sin självständighet och utvecklade en nationalromantisk längtan till deras forna dominerade position i denna del av Europa. De manifesterade sin längtan genom att bygga kampanilen vid Sankt Domnius katedralen. Kampanilen stod klar på 1200-talet och uppvisade medvetna val av symboliskt material som sammankopplade den kroatiska förhistorian till den antika förhistorian i regionen. Kampanilen blev ett monument som uppvisade den kroatiska identiteten.

There are no written sources are available from the Predynastic period, but an array of art decorated artefacts has been found. This essay will take a closer look at one type of these artefact; the animal shaped stone palette to see what art of this artefact can tell us about the culture that made them.      I will do so by looking at the animal depictions found on the palettes, to allow comparison I will include D-wear, a decorated Predynastic pottery type. I have put together two data sets for the respective artefact that forms the base for this study. My theoretical perspective is that the art depictions of artefact as traces of the culture that made them. The palettes show a variety of patterns that can be seen as such traces in which type of animals are most common, how the animals can be connected by habitat and which animal depiction gets decorated features. My look at the D-ware data set is only brief but shows that animals are quite rare on the pottery and includes only three different kinds of animals. These still correlates with the animal palettes by both artefacts having birds as the most common. The bovids has an almost equal occurrence on the palettes and D-ware in my data sets. Other than this the animal depictions differ notably between the two artefacts. As the traces of culture does not provide any details, this study has given new questions that can be studied further in greater depth.

Wood has been an integral part of the Scandinavians everyday life for thousands of years. There are still several substantial gaps in knowledge about their wood culture during the Late Iron Age since previous research has been focused on more common findings of inorganic materials like ceramics, metals and glass. Archaeologists rarely find wooden artifacts during excavations due to wood disintegrating a lot faster than metal in the ground. Valsgärde is one of Sweden’s most important Iron Age sites since several wooden remains were found there. They show parts of our distant past that we have yet to understand and gain knowledge about. The few preserved wooden artifacts from the Late Iron Age show a rich culture of wood carving. That is why this study focuses on those very few organic objects that are found. Wooden artifacts might potentially be used to determine the social status of the individuals in the graves. This is examined through a comparative analysis of the wooden remains from Valsgärde and other boat graves in Scandinavia. The analysis also reveals what type of wood the artifacts were made of, which makes it possible to determine if they could be from local trees or if they had to be imported. There seems to be a conscious choice of what kind of wood an object should be made of depending on the purpose at hand and social status. In some cases the choice of wood also seems to be based on the symbolic or mythological meaning of the artifact. This study uses previous microscopic wood analysis from the boat graves to give a more in-depth picture of the Scandinavian Late Iron Age wood culture as a whole.

The thesis explores contradictions that farmers see between current mode of production, and how they imagine that modes of production would need to change if there were no fossil fuels. Based on qualitative interviews with farmers, the aim of the study is to contribute to a discussion on strategies to increase the farms’ capabilities to produce food without fossil fuels. This topic is relevant from both environmental and contingency perspectives. I understand society of today as mainly driven by capitalist logic, meaning that the logics of capital are what most people perceive as the normal and rational way to organize society. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework that sees the dominant energy source as specific and conditional for the historical organization of different societies, focusing on the role of fossil fuels as specific to the current capitalist society. The analytical tools are derived from the concept mode of production, which puts focus on how the farm production is organized in regard to labor, skills, inputs and machines. By using a specific focus on how farmers describe contradictions between the current mode of production of farms and in the case of a sudden lack of fossil fuels, I elucidate features of current food production that are made logical and rational by using fossil fuels, but which seem less logical when there are no fossil fuels. I argue that the threat to food security is not due to the fossil fuel dependency per se, but due to how fossil fuels have and are enabling 1) social relations where the purpose of food is to be a commodity rather than to be nutrition for people, 2) spatial concentrations of refineries, distribution and consumers, 3) social relations with dispossession of means of productions for consumers and concentration of ownership of land for producers, 4) technical relations which drive deskilling of knowledge on how to produce food. For policymaking, this means that exchanging fossil fuels with other energy sources would not necessarily increase food security, as long as the above mentioned mechanisms are reproduced. To increase food security, agricultural policies need to aim at making food more than a commodity and decrease the distance between production and consumption, both in spatial terms but also in terms of knowledge and skills. These strategies are not necessarily compatible with the logics of the capitalist mode of production.

Gustafsson, O. 2018. Landsbygd kontra stadsmiljö–gotländska avrättningsplatser som talar. Gustafsson, O. 2018. Countryside versus urban area–Gotlandic executions that reveals. This bachelor thesis covers two executional sites on Gotland, one on the east coast near Visby, called Galgberget and the second one on the southern part of Gotland called Grötlingbo. The focus of this bachelor thesis will be on separating the sites and comparing them with each other based on their executional marks found on the bones from each site. I examined the 29 boxes recovered remains, with 25 boxes from Galgberget and four boxes from Grötlingbo, excavated from these two sites and used different methods to determine what kind of weapon and crime can be linked to the executional marks on the remains. One of the four methods that was used for this examination was sharp force trauma, that revealed a similarity in cervical vertebra damage on the individuals from both sites. The second method was dismembering, which was only identified on the bone fragments from Galgberget. The third method that was used to examine the remains was penetration wounds, which only appears on the remains that had been through violence-related circumstances or torture with a 20-centimetre nail through the head, the remains with these kinds of wounds were only discovered at Galgberget. The fourth method that was used was bone fractures, which showed; after examining the 29 remains that it was only discovered at the Galgberget executional site. It can be concluded from this that even if the execution sites are near-by each other, they performed different kinds of executions, with different kinds of execution marks. For example, from Grötlingbo the only execution mark there was the cervical vertebra sharp force trauma. Meanwhile from Galgberget there were several execution marks, which are mentioned in the methods above. Keywords: Galgberget, Grötlingbo, execution marks, Gotland, execution.

The focus of this study is to detect any similarities – or lack thereof – between the alloys of different types of oval brooches from the later Iron Age in Scandinavia. The study is furthermore concerned with how the alloys and the typologies can be mutually complimentary to one another in regards to dating or determining the age of specific oval brooches. For this purpose X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) was used on five different items deriving from Birka, Vendel and one of unknown context. The results indicate continuity with earlier studies regarding copper alloys with contents of zinc, and that this study’s brass brooches may have been produced in this alloy for its gold-like appearance. A higher level of lead can be found in the younger brooches, therefore indicating that tortoise brooches of a later date may contain more lead than their earlier counterparts. Furthermore, the study shows that brass may be mistaken for gold, and it raises questions about the use of metal originating from native copper sources. This study is a part of the Birka Black Earth Harbour project. / The Birka Black Earth Harbour project

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to study and evaluate the application of hyperspectral image analysis as a non-destructive analysis method for historical mortars. This method was applied on 35 sampled mortars in varying sizes and type from the inner walls of the fortified medieval city Carcassonne. By using near infrared spectroscopy and classifying the complex multivariate data by applying the SIMCA method (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies) it is possible to conduct an in depth analysis of the samples. This can then further our understanding about the construction phases as well as construction techniques used as indicated through the chemometric analysis that can identify and group the mortars in accordance to raw material and transformation process. From this could four distinct groups be found in the PCA models, two Roman periods and two high medieval periods, allowing to study Carcassonne prior to and after its enclosure. A find from the first Roman period indicates on a bathhouse or public building existing prior to the construction of the defensive wall, leading to the hypothesis that maybe more parts of the inner wall might contain older structures like this. The application of hyperspectral image analysis on historical mortars has proven itself a useful tool and simple method for studying mortars. / Målet med denna uppsats var att studera och evaluera applikationen av hyperspektral bildanalys som en icke-destruktiv analysmetod på historiskt murbruk. Instrumentet applicerades på 35 murbruksprover i varierande storlek och typ tagna från de inre murarna av den befästa medeltida staden Carcassonne. Med nära infraröd spektroskopi och klassificering av den multivariata genom SIMCA metoden (Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies) var det möjligt att göra en djupgående analys av proverna. Detta tillvägagångssätt kan då främja vår förståelse om stadens konstruktionsfaser och konstruktionstekniker som indikeras genom den chemometriska analysen som kan identifiera murbruket utefter råmaterial samt hur murbruket tillverkats. Från dessa metoder kunde fyra distinkta grupper finnas i PCA modellerna, två romerska perioder och två högmedeltida perioder, vilket öppnade för tolkning både innan och efter stadsmurarna rests. Ett fynd från den första romerska perioden indikerar på förekomsten av ett badhus eller publik byggnad vars väggar sedan återanvänts vid konstruktionen av den inre stadsmuren. Detta fynd leder till hypotesen att potentiellt andra delar av den inre stadsmuren kan innehålla väggar från äldre byggnader som denna. Applikationen av hyperspektral bildanalys på historiskt murbruk har påvisat sig ett användbart verktyg och simpel metod för att studera murbruk.

During the Late Quaternary, abrupt climate and cultural changes took place and made alternations to the past landscape. Climatic phenomena such as expand of ice masses,sea level rise, high and low temperatures, migration of humans, decline and increase of forest areas and more changes were the reason of changing the biodiversity of species and the formation of the land. Here cartographic maps with the use of GIS will be presented from reconstructions of the environment during the Late Quaternary, which then will be interpreted from coleopteran fossils for the whole of Europe. Furthermore, living and extinct species will be compared, in which the focus of the extinction will be in the British Isles. Each period will show a different abundance of species, the regional disappearance of the species will be depicted by the abrupt changes in the landscape during the past. Anthropogenic and natural factors will be discussed and be compared with the habitats of the species.

The rock carvings in southern Scandinavia are an important part of Bronze Age research and the Scandinavian cultural heritage. There are three known sites with rock carvings on the island of Gotland. They are located in the parishes of Lärbro, Fårö, and Lye. The rock carvings on Gotland has been somewhat forgotten and are not a big part of research regarding the Bronze Age on Gotland. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the images on the rock carvings as well as analyse their placements in the landscape, both the natural and the cultural. The images will be analysed and possible interpretations of them will be discussed individually and together. Their relation to other ancient monuments and archaeological features will also be analysed. Each area’s cultural landscape where the rock carvings are present will be presented and compared with the other sites on Gotland. The result of this thesis shows that the rock carvings in Lärbro and Fårö are similar in both images and placement in the landscape. Ships, cupmarks, and weapons are among images carved at both sites. They both have a connection to fresh water and are in close proximity to stone ships. These two rock carving sites show a connection to the sea and a maritime identity in both their images and the surrounding cultural landscape. The rock carving in Lye has a smaller number of images, only cupmarks and a pair of foot soles. It is located in a different landscape which does not exhibit a connection to water in any way but instead shows a link to the land. This indicates that the rock carvings on Gotland had a connection to both the water and the land.