This study is an urban analysis of Roman Pompeii. It explores the spatial structure of the town just before the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 72, and how public space was used for movement, activity and interaction between people. For this, Space Syntax was used, a topological method developed in the 1980s to analyse and plan modern urban contexts, based on the configuration of spatial systems in the axial and in the convex dimension, representing movement and “place” respectively. This method was used to establish an axial map of Pompeii, and to analyse the spatial configuration of three specific movement axes. The axial map strengthens one of the hypotheses discussed in current research about Pompeii, namely that of an older town nucleus in the west part of Pompeii. One part of the thesis is a hypothetical reconstruction of a town-wide traffic system for wheel-borne traffic. The routes were reconstructed to fit the archaeological evidence and meet certain other criteria, and were then independently checked against the axial analysis. As a conclusion, a regulated traffic system could be seen to have existed. A good case was made for how it could have worked. Another part of the thesis deals with the relation between public and interior space. The different types of interior spatial units lining the three chosen movement axes were investigated. The aim was to see how differences in both density of doorways and type of interface gave rise to different urban environments.  It was found that commerce and a concomitant dense interface with many street doors largely followed the dimension of movement. The segmentation of public space along the movement axes was explored in order to gain an insight into which segments of space held specific functions, and how how these functions related to dense and less dense interfaces between public and interior space. This segmentation emphasizes official buildings and monuments, which are allowed to disrupt what is otherwise the norm for the permeable interface between exterior and interior space. As a result, the picture of a town with two different types of interaction between people emerges. On the one hand, both fleeting and more intense interaction was facilitated in those spaces where official buildings and monuments were prominent, and where group identity was stressed. On the other hand, the more unregulated interaction largely took place “along the road” between these spaces.

Archaeology is a popular subject which the public has the opportunity to meet in a variety of contexts. In addition to television documentaries, non-fiction and popular science magazines, archaeology has even played a significant role in the fictional world. Apart from these sources, you can also find archaeology in news reports where the newspapers or the tv-stations acts like mediators of archaeological news based on the archaeological work that is currently ongoing in our present time. Since it is now a demand on Swedish contract archaeology to communicate it's results, the news media often gets to play the role as the link between the archaeologists and the public. This paper is based on an analyse of archaeological news presented in local newspapers. The aim of the study was to investigate the visual mediation of archaeology to the reader. The results showed that the visual mediation of archaeological news is not only based on the selection of photos or illustrations. According to this survey, visual mediation can also be constructed using particular words that either describe the factual characteristics or words that alludes to the fictional world. Archaeological news that are channeled through local newspapers tend to reflect a narrow view of the archaeological discipline. The reason for this can probably be seen as a consequence of the relationship between archaeology and the society. In order to broaden the currently prevailing image of the archaeological discipline, this paper arguments for a much closer and more deliberate collaboration between local news media and archaeologists.

The essay deals with the early archaeology in Sweden during the 17th and 18th centuries in generally and with Henric Jacob Sivers excavations at Skrickerum in particularly. In the medieval, Christian Sweden, the relics from the antiquity was considered merely as symbols of the heathen past  but with the foundation of Sweden as a united kingdom they awoke interest as symbols for the nation and were used as tools in the nation building. The interpretation of the antiquity and the ancient relics where done with the Bible and the ancient writers of Greece and Rome as guides and sources. With the new scientific approach, inspired by the Enlightenment, the Swedish antiquity and its relics gained other meanings and understandings and during the early 19th century Swedish archaeology developed into a scientific subject. The aim of this essay is to retain a deeper understanding for how Swedish antiquity was looked upon during the period between the Renaissance and 1800 among scholars of the time. What similarities and differences can be spotted in a comparison with archaeology of today? Due to this, the essay concentrate on a few, selected scholars from each century and takes a look at questions like; what was considered antiquities, how where they interpreted and what part did the Christianity, and later on the Enlightenment, play in the view upon Sweden´s ancient past. In order to find answers on a broader and deeper level, the essay makes a detailed study of excavations performed by Henric Jacob Sivers at Skrickerum, Östergötland in 1757. Sivers, who was a priest and a scholar born and educated in Germany, was inspired by the new scientific view and very interested in the ancient past, he collected antiques and called himself “fornälskare”, antique lover. The excavations at Skrickerum took place during two days in June 1757 and Sivers documented the work rather thoroughly in his publication Berättelse om några nyligen i Tryserums Sokn, Tiust Härad och Calmare Län, öpnade hedniska Grafhögar och the theruti fundna Saker (Sivers 1758). How were these excavations conducted and how did they differ from excavations of today, in theoretical, methodical and conductional aspects? Sivers’ publication will give the answers and help us get a glimpse of Swedish archaeology in its early state.

The methods of sex determination through skeletons or through objects in graves has been used on and off since the nineteenth century. Most of the osteological methods are however developed on intact bones, and the archaeological method assume that jewelry is female associated and weapons are male associated. A tendency to choose the archaeological sex determination above the osteological sex determination can be spotted as well. The study examines how the osteological sex determination methods could be used on fragmented skeletal remains, and question the archaeological sex determination method with a gender perspective. This will be achieved by analyzing thirteen graves from a burial ground in Lekarehed, Lärbro parish (socken), Gotland. The skeletal remains were excavated in 1878 and 1951 and is dated to late Bronze age–early Iron age and the Viking age. The aim with this study is to get a deeper understanding of how the methods can be used, and to shed light on the stereotypical view on femininity and masculinity that exists. The aim is also to emphasize that the most important and most interesting information comes from the discussion of the problems that exist in these methods, and that the most important thing is not to decide what is feminine or masculine, or to choose one method in front of the other. The analysis resulted in one certain, four uncertain and eight graves without sex determination regarding the osteological method, and two certain, one uncertain and ten graves without sex determination regarding the archaeological method. In the discussion, the problems with putting the woman and the man as pairs of opposition is brought up, because it excludes the graves that cannot be put in one of these two categories. The objects in the graves can represent something other than sex as well, for instance age or status. The cooperation between the osteologist and the archaeologist is important for the knowledge to evolve and to carry on. By looking at the material in a new way, new insights will perhaps come forth. / Denna uppsats handlar om hur det går att använda osteologiska och arkeologiska könsbedömningsmetoder på ett fragmenterat skelettmaterial. Metoderna som används för den osteologiska könsbedömningen är ofta, om inte alltid, utvecklade på intakta ben, och när det gäller fragmenterade ben blir könsbedömningen svårare att utföra. Den arkeologiska könsbedömningen är en könsbedömning gjord via föremålen i gravar och utgår kortfattat ifrån att vapen är manliga och smycken är kvinnliga. Den granskas här genom ett genusperspektiv som ifrågasätter synen på kvinnligt och manligt och hur de tankarna överförs till forntiden. Det finns också problematik i hur osteologin och arkeologin stämmer överens med varandra. För att undersöka problematiken har ett skelettmaterial på 13 gravar från ett gravfält i Lekarehed, Lärbro socken, Gotland analyserats. Resultatet för den osteologiska könsbedömningen blev en säker, fyra osäkra kön och åtta stycken utan könsbedömning. Resultatet för den arkeologiska könsbedömningen blev två säkra, en osäker och tio utan en könsbedömning. Slutsatserna i uppsatsen är att de osteologiska och arkeologiska könsbedömningsmetoderna blev problematiska. Den osteologiska på grund av de fragmenterade benen och svårigheter inom den morfologiska metoden. Den arkeologiska på grund av att det inte fanns könsindikerande föremål i många gravar och även på grund av vad vi sätter in i kvinnligt och manligt associerade föremål. Där både en osteologisk och en arkeologisk könsbedömning fanns, stämde de överens med varandra. Det betyder dock inte att de inte ska problematiseras, eftersom vi inte vet om forntidens människor tyckte att smycken var kvinnliga och vapen var manliga. Vi vet inte heller om föremålen representerar kön, eller vad föremålen hade för användningsområde. Det blir också svårt att dra slutsatser om hur individerna i Lekarehed såg på kvinnligt och manligt, eftersom resultaten av könsbedömningarna i många fall var bristfälliga, och för att gravfältet representerar olika tidsperioder. Ny kunskap kan uppkomma om vi slutar att sätta kvinnan och mannen som motsatspar, och är öppna för en annan syn på genus som inte representerar dagens (västerländska) samhälle, eftersom de gravarna som hamnar utanför de två kategorierna blir osynliga. Det är viktigt att osteologen och arkeologen samarbetar, och inte väljer den ena metoden framför den andra, eftersom den mest intressanta informationen och kunskapen kommer utifrån diskussionen av problematiken, och vilka nya aspekter som kan tillföras om vi inte förutsätter att forntidens människor såg på kvinnligt och manligt på det sättet som det finns en tendens till idag.

This essay, When women become men, is written with the intention of illustrating a way in which archaeologists and osteologists can work together to derive from the notion that men and women, and masculinity and femininity, are two rigid binary components which oppose each other. This is done on a practical level by analysing the graves from the Viking age burial site at Stora Hallvards, Silte parish, Gotland, Sweden. The analysis has been carried out through the means of osteological and archaeological sex assessments and osteological means of age assessment on the individuals. The main questions asked are how well the archaeological and osteological sex assessments correlate with each other, and what it means when they don’t; whether or not there is a difference in sex and gender based on age; and how the non-normative individuals in the materials can be reached. The essay has been written through intersectional feminist theoretical perspective with a base in queertheory, and an introduction has also been given to different views of, and ways in perceiving, sex and gender in different cultures around the world, with a broad time perspective to broaden the sex/gender discussion over time and space. The results of the analysis show that the archaeological and osteological sex assessments matched in 47,8% of the cases, and did not in 8,7% of the cases. The results are then discussed from a gender perspective, and it shows that there are differences between both children and adults, but also between adults, and between children. The difference can to some extent be linked to age. In this essay, it has been shown that it is fully possible to interpret the material based on more parameters than femininity and masculinity, and that this can only be achieved by seeing gender as the wide range of humanity that it actually includes, such as identity, status, sexuality, occupation and age. All that is required is that one is open to the idea that gender is not linked binary to biological sex.

In recent years there has been discussion of the many health benefits of the paleodiet, a diet that consist of food that we are evolutionary and genetically adapted to consume. The agricultural revolution introduced mankind to dietary changes that did not suit our biology, and is now the main reason for the nutrition-based diseases in developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to review both the archaeological methods used to explain the paleodiet and the knowledge we have about our hunter-gatherer ancestors and to see if there is any evidence to claim that the paleodiet could be an answer to food-health related diseases. This paper will also discuss the different perspectives behind the many dietary changes in human evolution and how they reflect on man’s dietary conditions today. The material used for this research is based on studies in anthropology, biology, genetics and epidemiology. The theory behind this paper is based on the positivism knowledge founded on properties and relations between measurable studies. Based on interpretations by reason and logic this paper is concluded through deductive reasoning. The results show that food-related diseases and syndromes are absent from traditional hunter-gatherer societies and that they first start to manifest if a western-based diet is adopted. According to our evolutionary and biological structure, man is not adapted to consuming dairy or agricultural products and we are, in fact, genetically identical to our Paleolithic ancestors. Therefore, because we have the same dietary conditions as the paleo hunter-gatherer, we would be considerably more healthy if we adopted a Paleolithic based diet.

The earliest graves that are found in Sweden is the megaliths, the huge stone monuments created with boulders and open entrances. The megaliths origin is from the Middle Neolithic’s, but they have been reused for several millenniums. The very act of constructing these monumental stone chambers for the dead shows that these monuments were built to last through time. This master’s thesis deals with four different kind of grave types that spans through four different time periods in Southwestern Sweden. After the Middle Neolithic, monumental graves the hällkistan (stone cists), became the dominant grave type during the Late Neolithic. The cist varies in construction, some are meant to be entered but most are closed. During the Bronze Age a new kind of cists continues to be used and new are constructed although the culture tends to create big heaps, cairns, around the cist. During the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age the construction of the graves changes and the cists are instead present on grave fields. The paper compares the similarities between the graves, megalithic tombs, stone cists, cairns and grave fields, in their monumentality, construction, accessibility, content, and focuses heavily on the transmission between the grave types through the theoretical concept of Longue durée. I have also chosen to focus on the tradition of reuse, and Pierre Nora´s theoretical concepts about memory sites and memory environments. The slow slight changes to the grave traditions, constructions and rooms shows changes in ideology of the contemporary culture. My main focus is to identify and discuss the transformation of the grave room, from the Middle Neolithic monumental stone construction to the late Iron Age grave fields. Through my understanding of this process, I argue that the mentioned grave types are the same type of monument that slowly changes through a time span of roughly 4000 years. The changes are visible through very slight and slow processes.

Heaps of fire-cracked stone is an archaeological site category frequently found in Sweden. The heaps were constructed by piling a massive amount of deposited fire-cracked stones and occasionally they contain artefacts, for example, grindstones, ceramics or bones from both humans and animals. The heaps are sometimes also constructed with complex inner stone patterns in forms of e.g. circles and spirals. The heaps have been found all over Sweden, but the largest concentration is associated with the county of Uppland, north of Stockholm in eastern Sweden. In general, the structures have been linked chronologically to the Bronze Age (1800 B.C.–500 B.C.), although the heaps might be one of the least understood features of Scandinavian prehistory, as a result of their complex and varying content and spatial location. The remains are thoroughly debated, and the interpretation of them varies, ranging from graves to household indications, from sacral to profane, from piles of waste to markers of claimed land. The interpretations of the fire cracked stone heaps have mainly been made by comparing the contents of the heaps with finds from the surrounding archaeological landscape.                  In this study, the heaps will be analysed by using a landscape perspective by which they will be examined in relation to dynamic high-resolution shoreline reconstructions, vegetation and local topography. By examining the heaps by applying a high-resolution landscape model, suggests that their placement patterns are strongly connected to past shorelines. The analysis has in turn resulted in a non-prejudicial dating method for the heaps. The shoreline model was in the next step tested by a comparison to 118 published 14C-dates associated with fire-cracked stone heaps by using Kernel Density Estimations (KDE). The main result of the study is that the high-resolution shoreline model, in combination with KDE, provides an effective dating method for heaps of fire-cracked stone, which in the extension suggests an alternative motive for the construction of the heaps.

The purpose with this work is to try and see an economic development on Gotland during the Viking Age, where society went from a weight-based economy, to a monetary economy with its own coins. The aim is to try and distinguish a pattern in the investigated depots. How has the deposit structure changed during the Viking era when it comes to the minted and unminted silver?   The research about the silver deposits aim on the dating of the coins in order to create an approximate closing period for the contents of the depots.   The development of the silver structural change in the silver depots during the Viking Age makes it possible to study how the dominance of the early Islamic coins, in both coin and fragmented form, is phased out to be replaced by mainly English and German coins. The English and German coins that are found on Gotland could be seen as a model for the coins and the minting that began at the end of the Viking Age on the island.

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