One aim of this essay is to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of the objects inthe Victoria Museum, Gustavianum, collection VM 346–362 (the sequence expanded, later inthe project, also to include VM 346) and how they got there. This will be achieved byfollowing the paper trail back to the excavation in Egypt. The other is to describe how objectsfrom digs were spread between museums and different countries by W.M. Flinders Petrie.Questions have been raised about the perceived origins of the objects in the Gustavianumcollection VM 346–362. The collection has until recently been believed to be the funeraryobjects of the First Intermediate Period man Wadjet-hetep. In 1921 this collection was mostlikely bought by the Victoria Museum through Pehr Lugn, from W.M. Flinders Petrie, somemonths after Petrie and Brunton ended their excavation season of 1920/21 in Sedment, Egypt.However, the collection as a whole cannot be the funerary objects of Wadjet-hetep, since themajority of those are owned by and exhibited at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark.The one confirmed belonging of Wadjet-hetep in the Gustavianum VM-collection is the innercoffin which has his name on it. The collective memory of the museum claims that fivewalking sticks, also currently in the VM-collection, were found with the mummy inside theinner coffin at the excavation site. Unfortunately, the museum archive is extensively damagedand contains nothing that can tell us about the collection's origins.By investigating external sources, Petrie and Brunton’s accounts of the excavation, as well asonline catalogues and archives, the VM collection can be backtracked to Sedment. The resultsconclude that the objects in the collection derive from different tombs and periods.

To date, previous discussions of the practise of ”weapon deposition” in prehistoric Scandinavia have focused primarily on the Roman Iron Age. The focus of these investigations have been the large offerings of weapons in bogs, which were presumably taken from enemies defeated in battle. Until recently, these particular kind of ritual practises were thought to have ceased in the middle of the 6th century. It is now widely acknowledged, however, that this sort of ritual practises did not simply dissappear, but instead re-emerged during the Vendel- and Viking age in a changed state. These rites, which are frequently associated with elite groups and so called ”central places” are embodied, for example, in the weapons and other valuable objects deposited in the lake adjacent to the Late Iron Age magnate site at Tissø, Denmark. Similar finds have been recovered in Scania and Gotland, but these practises have not received enough attention compared to other ritual aspects of the Viking Age. This essay therefore aims to investigate the ideologies and motivations underpinning these rites, and provide a reassessment of their possible connection to elites, political and religious centralization, and central places/manorial sites.

Eriksson, J.E. 2021. Hallar och kulthus i södra Skandinavien under äldre järnålder: När Oden och härskaren blev grannar.Eriksson, J.E. 2021. Halls and cult houses in southern Scandinavia during early iron age: When Odin and the ruler became neighbours. The intention of this paper is to investigate why halls and cult houses were built close together and at the same time in southern Scandinavia during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period and how this can be linked to the development of administrative and military power. The thesis has been divided into three parts, namely a review of archaeological and historical research, a description of three archaeological sites and analysis. This means that the theoretical starting point of the thesis is to compare research with recent years reported archaeological results. The paper focuses on the time from the Roman Iron Age to the end of the migration period, from the year 0 to 550 AD and the geographically area being studied to southern Scandinavia. The result of the study shows that leaders inspired by the Roman Empire built and took control over the halls and cult houses around the year 250 AD to legitimize and manifest their power, acquire wealth and loyalty from subjects. Archeological remains show that the Norse god Odin was worshiped in the cult house and the stability of this cult can be traced to the end of the Viking Age.

The sacrificial tree of Frösö: A symbiosis of two cultures? This bachelor thesis deals with the site of what has been interpreted as the remains of a sacrificial tree under the church of Frösö, on the island of Frösö. The found material consists predominantly of animal bones, where a large part has been identified as wild animals such as brown bears, but also a large number of juvenile pigs. Previous research has interpreted the place as an Old Norse place of worship to the Norse god Frey, due to the rich numberof pigs and the islands theophoric name (translated to “The island of Frey”). The unusual wild animals, such as squirrels and red deer have been interpreted as a staging of the ancient world tree Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. The overrepresentation of bones from brown bear however has been debated and is often compared to Sami bear graves. There are some similarities to the bear graves, but the differences that exist needs to be looked at more closely. The aim is to process materials and interpretations in a more holistic way. This is done by discussing various ritual acts, belief system and the choice of place of worship and sacrificial material, then apply this to the findings under the church of Frösö. Since such a large part of the bone material descents from brown bears, the use of bears in various cult practices has also been studied. The aim of this study is to provide new insight and interpretation of which ethnic groups may have used the site, before the church was built.The discussion concludes that a symbiosis is possible in the vicinity of the island, and that it is therefore not unlikely that this also applies to the island of Frösö. The found material under the church of Frösö could be remnants of a bear ceremony, but it could also be remnants from a more economic aspect or simply a mixture of the two. The bear was important financially in the Norse society and a Sami influence, based on their customs and beliefs, is not entirely unlikely given the close contact that existed. This could therefore have been symbolically incorporated into the religious rites.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of horses from ritual and everyday contexts, respectively, by investigating their diet and mobility. In this thesis, teeth of domestic horse Equus ferus caballus from the wetland Bokaren and central place Gamla Uppsala in Uppland during the late Iron Age (550-1050 A.D) are analyzed. The material consists of 44 teeth from 23 distinct horses from wetlands, wells, postholes, and settlement that were compared against each other, to discover diet and mobility similarities, differences, variations, and life history changes between different ritual and everyday contexts. It was conducted through a multi-isotope (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr) analysis of equine cheek teeth in EA-IRMS and LA-MC-ICP-MS. The results indicate that the horses from ritual and everyday context were adapted to different livestock practices, according to their mobility, function, and priority. Horses used for transport were prioritized with nutritious and protein-rich feeding. In contrast to work- and multifunctional horses from Gamla Uppsala that show signs of prolonged nutritional stress caused by the fact that they did not meet their protein intake. A majority of the horses were non-local, they consumed food from the same region, and they may have come from more northern regions in Sweden and/or Finland. / Tidens Vatten

This thesis applies contemporary approaches to the study of the submarine as archaeological material. Relevant national and international maritime law is examined. The study considers the methodology for distinguishing wrecks over time and the archaeological context of the submarine in a global setting. A case study of the Russian submarine Som, is used to illustrate and exemplify the issues proposed in the essay including archaeological evaluation. The archaeological evaluation in the case study is based partly on moving imagery, not primarily produced for archaeological purposes, to obtain data from an inaccessible contemporary site.

This thesis is concerned with the earliest picture stones on Gotland. The study will focus on the interpretation of the motives and symbols that are shown on the stones. This will partly be done by compounding the various motives into one synchronic statement and also partly by studying the manifests of the contemporary roman armed forces on the continent. Instead of earlier interpretations, suggesting that the expressions of the picture stones basically are about religion, myths, sagas and conceptions about the death, my idea is that the expressions shows coherence with roman warfare. My aim in this thesis is to propose that the motives on the picture stones of the Migration Period on Gotland deals with the organisation of power and warfare in this time, both on and outside the island.

In this thesis, I explore and analyse narratives around toxic and scarred landscapes. The aim of the thesis is to understand human views and experiences of anthropogenic environments through narratives of contamination and toxicity. Some concepts used throughout the thesis are landscape, heritage, ghost, and trauma. The research is situated in the transdisciplinary field of environmental history and utilises multidisciplinary academic research, art works, and several different media outlets as sources of data. Many brief examples of toxic sites are given along the way to demonstrate discussed themes in practice, but two specific landscapes are explored in detail. These are Bikini Atoll in Marshall Islands, an island remaining radioactive to date due to Cold War era weapon testing, and the town of Teckomatorp in Sweden, a remediated site of a chemical industry scandal. Furthermore, an academic environmental justice project Toxic Bios (KTH, Stockholm) is analysed as a medium of narrative creation and several visual artists’ works are brought up alongside news articles and cinematography. This thesis is an exploratory journey and it aspires to contribute to bridging academic disciplines as well as encouraging expression of individual stories and subjective viewpoints in narrations of scarred landscapes. Findings of the thesis link to previous research on landscapes as experienced and temporal – toxic landscapes are narrated constantly through many perceptions, storylines, and branches of research. Some reoccurring themes are sickness, environmental justice, tensions between local and global levels of narration, fascinating but controversial depictions of toxicity’s aesthetics and individual experiences of dramatic pasts in non-dramatic present. Individual stories, counter-hegemonic narratives, and transdisciplinary practices are needed in order to create deeper understanding of living in the Anthropocene.

This study analyses and interprets the location of the 18 historical execution sites in the Swedish province of Västergötland. The purpose of the study is to analyse eventual patterns in the sites’ locations which could help future research and protection of the sites as well as locating additional sites. The main question is how the placement of execution sites in the landscape relates to previously discussed theories on the selection of the execution sites. The study will be a GIS-based analysis of geographical data, historical maps, and relevant literature in the hope of finding patterns and reasons for the execution sites’ location. The study will use and compare earlier theories regarding the location of execution sites such as being located on heights, near roads and crossroads, boundaries, water, bogs, on unfertile soil and on prehistoric gravesites as well as the locations’ connection to ideas of accessibility and visibility. The results show that execution sites are often located on heights in the landscape, near roads and crossroads, on unfertile soil and near water and bogs. The other criteria, being near boundaries and being located on prehistoric gravesites appear to be less significant for the selection of execution sites of Västergötland.

This essay analyzes the concept of blot (offerings), places where it´s been held, how it was performed and why it is performed according to literature sources. The literature is often based on Icelandic sagas and storytelling originating from the Christian period, and even though, the storys should be told with some truthful facts, the conclusion is, that these are not trustworthy sources. The question regarding the sagas veracity is therefore discussed from an archaeological viewpoint. Can we find proof in the archaeological material that will give us answers if blot is an individual happening, that actually existed? The answer is no, because there is no actual evidence available that can guarantee that blot as a specific event did occur. The archaeological sources reveal that sacrifices and offerings was made outdoors and in halls. This essay has been investigating three places in Sweden, Bollstanäs in Uppland, Skedemosse on Öland and Helgö in Mälaren. All of these places have proof of sacrificial offerings but their relation to the blot mentioned in saga literature is uncertain. My conclusion is that blot is a subject that is difficult to find as an event in the archaeological material.