The purpose of this thesis is to examine the earliest active time period of the harbour of Västergarn on the island of Gotland. The exact time of the founding of Västergarn has been debated for almost a century. Extensive excavations were conducted between 2005 and 2013 by the University of Gotland which resulted in a large amount of pottery, of which the earliest type was the Baltic Sea ware. I aim to add to this discussion with a study of the morphology and chronology of the Baltic Sea ware found at the site. This type of pottery is an excellent archaeological source material for exploring the early history of Västergarn. Because the Baltic Sea ware is found all over the excavated area it provides evidence for the material needs of a growing urban population. As an everyday resource for the people of Västergarn it also indicates when the site was permanently settled.    The study of the morphology and the distribution pattern clearly shows that Västergarn was well populated already in the 12th century. Such an early date for occupation of the site has been questioned in earlier research. There is now archaeological evidence to argue that the settlement within the earthen rampart was probably founded in the second half of the 11th century. In the same time period Visby was established as an urban site. Furthermore, based on a topographical study comparing the presence of Baltic Sea ware in different trenches with the shore line I argue the rampart was constructed somewhere between circa 1000 and 1200 A.D. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka den tidigaste aktivitetsperioden i den gotländska hamnen Västergarn. Den exakta tiden för Västergarns grundande har debatterats i nästan ett århundrade. Extensiva utgrävningar genomförda av Högskolan på Gotland mellan 2005 och 2013 resulterade i en stor mängd keramik, varav östersjökeramiken är den äldsta. Jag ämnar utveckla denna diskussion med en studie av morfologin och kronologin av östersjökeramiken som finns på platsen. Denna godstyp är ett utmärkt arkeologiskt källmaterial i undersökningen av Västergarns tidiga historia. Då östersjökeramiken har hittats på nästan hela det utgrävda området bevisar det att en växande befolkning fanns på platsen. Som vardagsgods i Västergarn antyder keramiken också när platsen blev permanent befolkad.    Studien av östersjökeramikens morfologi och korologi visar också tydligt att Västergarn var välbefolkat redan under 1100-talet. En så tidig datering för platsens befolkning har länge varit ifrågasatt inom tidigare forskning. Nu finns det dock arkeologiskt bevis att platsen troligen blivit grundad under den andra halvan av 1000-talet. Staden Visby grundades under samma tidsperiod. Fortsättningsvis, med basis i en topografisk analys som jämför östersjökeramikens närvaro i vissa schakt med strandlinjen argumenterar jag för att Västergarnsvallen byggdes någon gång mellan cirka år 1000 och 1200.

The aim of this thesis is to see how dark skinned people separate in two movies from the early 19th century. I am also going to analyze the movies from analysis questions that can be founded under the chapter called Analys. The movies I have been watching to analyze are The Birth of a Nation from year 1915 and Tarzan the Ape man from year 1932. The first movie from year 1915 is a reflection from 1860 but booth movies are reflections about the relationships between white westerner and black people from Africa in the beginning of the 1900th century. What the movies gave me as a receiver is that black people in the USA and South Africa shouldn’t be active in politics or even get the power to rule at all and it is very clear to see during the movies. According to the movies black people aren’t capable to rule in USA or in their own country in the continent Africa. The movies also show that black people should work with the cleaning and to please white people. I am going to use social representation theory in this thesis. The method that is used here is to watch the movies, write what they are about and then compare them in nine analyzing questions that is presented in the thesis.

This bachelor thesis explores the agricultural landscape in southwestern Norway during the Viking Age. Based on macrofossil samples from the site Sømme in Rogaland fylke the prehistoric use of cultivated and non-cultivated plants are analysed and compared to previous studies and the state of knowledge. The thesis also investigates the potential social status of the site Sømme, the silversmithy and the smith. The results suggest Hulled barley (Hordeum vulgare) was cultivated nearby based on charred seeds found in postholes of the house. Nitrogen demanding plants, such as Fat-hen (Chenopodium album), were also found, which suggests an agricultural practise that involved manuring. The social status of Sømme and the silversmith is likely to have been quite high. People in graves with smithy tools in Norway are considered to have held a high social status. In Joa, close to Sømme, is one such grave. The smith has most likely been in direct contact with the ruling class when crafting jewellery.

Hur historia brukas är i min mening idag ett viktigt fält att undersöka. Vi lever i en allt mer sammankopplad värld med internet och sociala medier. Källkritik har genom detta blivit ett brinnande ämne. Dels beror det på spridandet av falska nyheter, men även att skolans nya läroplaner understryker vikten av att undervisa elever i att ha ett kritiskt tänkande mot källor. Här kommer även historiebruket in. Syftet och frågeställningarna med studien är att undersöka bruket av historia i relation till den svenska drottningen Kristina (1626-1689), en starkt omtalad monark ur den svenska historien som regerade över Sverige 1644-1654. Materialet som används i studien är allt från film, teater, pjäs, minnesmärken, nyhetsartiklar, läromedel och biografier. Utifrån detta material och den teoretiska grunden som är skapad av den tyske historikern Jörn Rüsen, sedermera omarbetad av den svenska historikern Anders Dybelius, undersöks det hur Kristina har använts främst från starten av 1900-talet till 2017 med hjälp av kategorierna utbildningskultur, populärkultur och minneskultur. Genom analys av materialet så ser man en tydlig utveckling med bruket kring Kristinas minne och som symbolgestalt, uppdrag ändras och nya ges beroende på vilken riktning samhället tar. Under 1900-talet och även innan det, så beskrivs hon oftast kortfattat i läroböckerna. Det är få resta minnesmärken efter henne i Sverige, där Rom och den katolska kyrkan har uppemot lika mycket. Under det tidigare 1900-talet försökte många hitta en mer biologisk förklaring till hennes sociala beteende och ovilja att gifta sig. När man anländer till 2000-talet har det ändrats. Med intåg av jämlikhet och jämställdhet i det moderna samhället började Kristina ses i ett annat ljus. Olika delgrupper har börjat symbolisera henne som en person vars liv drabbades hårt av att hon behandlades och uppfostrades till en man. En kvinna som kämpade mot dåtidens patriarkat och en kvinna som ville hitta och gå sin egen väg i livet.

Forskningen om den sydskandinaviska hällkonsttraditionen har av tradition varit centrerad kring olika motiv och tolkningar av deras betydelse. Detta är till viss del en naturlig följd av att hällkonsten utgår ifrån bilden som ett kunskapsförmedlande medium. Den främsta orsaken till detta torde dock vara att vi oftast återfinner de sydskandinaviska hällristningarna inhuggna på olika hällar i ett öppet landskap, som regel utan någon närmare relation till andra fornlämningar och i nära relation till marker som var lämpade för bete och odling. Som en följd av detta är det svårt att uttala sig om vad för slags rituella aktiviteter som omgärdade tillkomsten av denna hällkonst. Ett källmaterial som ännu inte utnyttjats till sin fulla potential för att studera detta är de fall där hällristningar återfunnits i samtida gravar. Syftet med min avhandling har varit att genom det goda exemplets makt försöka närma mig en förståelse för ett av de många sammanhang som denna hällkonst kunde produceras i. Hällristningarna från bronsåldersgravhögen Sagaholm har här fått tjäna som min utgångspunkt. Anledningen till detta är inte enbart att Sagaholm är det största fyndet av hällristningar som gjorts i denna typ av kontext i norra Europa, utan även för att de återfunnits i ett stratigrafiskt slutet sammanhang som tydligt visar i vilket skede av gravritualen som hällristningarna fyllde sin främsta funktion. Hällristningarna från Sagaholm presenteras, analyseras och tolkas följaktligen i relation till den gravritual som omgärdade uppförandet av denna grav. Genom min avhandling har jag velat visa att arkeologisk forskning och akademiska avhandlingar inte nödvändigtvis behöver vara additiva till sin karaktär för att producera ny kunskap, utan att denna lika gärna kan emanera utifrån en mer fördjupad diskussion över ett enstaka fynd. Jag har även velat peka på vikten av ett kontextuellt förhållningssätt inom arkeologin där olika metaforiska sammanhang är viktiga för tolkningen av den materiella kulturen som ett meningskapande fenomen. Genom min avhandling har jag kunnat påvisa att olika tekniker att framställa hällristningar inte okritiskt kan användas för att inordna dessa i ett kronologiskt ramverk. Tillverkningstekniken kan dock tas som utgångspunkt för andra frågeställningar, i föreliggande fall tolkas detta som ett sätt att addera en narrati v struktur till detta bildmedium. Till sist: Genom min avhandling har jag velat demonstrera vikten av att gå till botten med det källmaterial vi behandlar inom arkeologin och att detta är ett vitalt inslag i arkeologins främsta syfte - att studera och tolka den materiella kulturen som ett viktigt medium för mänsklig kommunikation. / digitalisering@umu

Megalithic tombs that originally date back to the early to mid-neolithic are the oldest preserved monument that can be found in Scandinavia. The act of raising big stone structures for the dead shows that the monuments where build to last through time. Prehistoric people from different time periods have reused these monuments on different locations all over Europe. This paper focuses on the monuments in Sweden and it shows that the reuse of megalithic monuments appears in all regions where these monuments can be found. The different reasons to why people wanted to reuse these monuments are also discussed. The paper proposes that the reasons are religious and political. Political the monuments can give inheritance rights which granted land rights among other things.

The mass grave in Västergarn, Gotland, Sweden is located between two medieval churches and thought to be a bone depot from when one of the churches expanded their wall in more recent time. The bone depot is problematic in a way because it could contain individuals from a wide time frame, making it hard to ask certain questions regarding how the individuals lived and died. Also conducting individual studies of the skeletons is hard since the osteological material is highly fragmented and the individual graves has been disturbed post burial. Therefore this osteological study will not focus on studying the health of the people individual by individual, but rather examine the permanent teeth of this material and then apply statistics to study the overall oral health of Västergarns mass grave. Enquiries regarding tooth health and how people experienced their life because of it, are questions that I will be trying to answer in this study. A deeper and thorough investigation regarding certain teeth conditions such as dental calculus, caries, enamel hypoplasia as well as mechanical damage will be conducted. There will also be comparisons between other historic locations in Sweden such as Uppsala, Skara and the older cemetery and its ruin in Västergarn. Last but not least a discussion regarding the difficulty of examining a diverse material with different timeframes.

OF PROPER CONDUCT: PRIVATE TUTORS IN STOCKHOLM AND ITS ENVIRONS 1793–1795 This paper studies private tutors in Stockholm and its environs 1793-1795 by examining work advertisements written by said tutors. It is in part a continuation of a previous study of the education market in Stockholm 1798. It utilizes Yvonne Hirdman ’s gender theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic capital to analyze differences in what male and female tutors offered to teach, how they portrayed themselves and if any social groups could be ascertained. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used, where the quantitative method is partly influenced by the verb oriented-method from the Gender and Work (GaW) project and the qualitative method is influenced by hermeneutics. The study shows that most of the tutors were men, and of those men a majority were students, priests, educated men and officials. The female tutors did not use titles overall, but the subjects they offered to teach suggests most were in the mid- to upper mid layer of society. The French salon culture was dominating among the nobles at the end of the 18th century. This study argues that the salon culture was the cultural capital by which the tutors measured themselves. Because of their academic merits, men tended to use institutionalized cultural capital while women used only partly embodied cultural capital through their knowledge of the French language. Where men tended to use formal merits, women used a wider array of strategies. There were however a number of men who used strategies of weakness when faced with financial difficulties. Women taught mainly needlework and French, where female tutors offering to teach how to sew of clothes showed a shift from male professional tailors to female seamstresses. It is argued that Hirdman’s principle of segregation between men and women both affected the subjects the tutors were able to offer as well as the subjects they did offer.

This thesis is dedicated to an archaeogenetic study of five prehistoric individuals. The sample material comes from central Yakutia, also called Sakha Republic, in the north-eastern part of Russia. The main focus of this study has been the analysis of five mitochondrial genomes, retrieved from osteological material (human bones and teeth), having an estimated age of 6845 BP to 2490 BP. The dates fall within Neolithic, Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. A brief presentation for each individual’s archaeological profile and interpretation of the burial will be provided. While a series of interpretive tests with the mitochondrial DNA material were performed and the results are presented. The neolitization of the north-eastern Eurasia will also be discussed. The correlation between the Neolithic Age, Bronze Age and Early Iron Age populations will be proposed, as well as their connections to modern populations.

This paper investigates possible interpretations of a cremated grave material from the Vendel period in Valstad, Gamleby parish, Småland. The interpretations are based on both the osteological material and some of the archaeological finds. The focus in this paper is the excavated grave in Valstad and does not include similar burials from other locations. The source material consists of osteological material and text material that focus on the late Iron Age. The text material has been selected in order to include up-to-date discussions about ideas and interpretations. The theoretical framework of this paper is built around post-processual archaeology, process archaeology and practice theory. The osteological analysis resulted in the identification of three present animal species in addition to human remains. The analysis also revealed the species distribution in the grave and the distribution pattern of all bone fragments. The bone material was found to have been deliberately crushed, where the material is likely to have been collected or picked up before the crushing took place. The discussion treats three phases; cremation, deposition and closure, in the process from deceased individual to complete grave. In each phase identifiable practices and their interpretations are discussed for the grave as a whole. In the discussion, the interpretation is made that the cremation was the phase where the dead was considered leaving the living world. The deposition was instead interpreted as the phase that allowed the survivors to have continued contact with the dead and the closure the phase that made it possible for the established link to remain forever.