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Northern Sweden’s petty kingdoms have been described in historical documents dating as far back as the Roman iron age, as more-or-less independent and self-governing smaller principalities. Previous examination of them has determined at least thirteen probable independent petty kingdoms during the Swedish iron age and migration period, which could be an interpretation influenced by the historical accounts of Prokopios. This paper aims to re-examine their makeup and function from historical sources, geographical and archaeologically contextual factors and whether the term “petty kingdom” is the descriptor most apt for them or not. There are possible origins from and connections to middle Sweden, to Finland, Estland and Russia which puts the independence of these pettykingdoms in question, as well as archaeological analysis of the identified kingdom sites from a perspective other than as an administrative and/or political center, which could lead to an understanding of their purpose and use.

This essay includes osteological and pathological analyses on selected individuals from the medieval cemetery at Helgeandsholmen, Stockholm. All of the individuals have been selected based on information that indicates that they have suffered trauma caused by violence. The main purpose of this work is to contribute to existing knowledge about the buried individuals at Helgeandsholmen since no archaeological excavation or osteological report has ever been published. The analysis suggests that the violence was more likely linked to warfare in a number of cases, but it is also possible that some of these injuries were the result of interpersonal/domestic violence. The fact that some of these individuals exhibit healed trauma suggests that a number of the individuals studied may have been professional soldiers. It is apparent that further, detailed, study of this collection is warranted as it offers significant insights into the lives of Stockholm’s residents in the recent historical past.

The effects of climate change can be seen across the globe in the form of drought, heavy rain, and a rise in temperature. To exemplify the effects of climate change, three areas, rich in archaeological sites, along the Swedish coast have been chosen to represent different conditions where different approaches are needed. The sites in combinations with material regarding climate change may show the fate of archaeological sites in coastal areas. While the effects of climate change on archaeology may not appear great, at closer look we can already see complications. A rise in global temperature is followed by the melting of, among other things, the polar ice which leads to a rise in sea levels. The rise of sea levels is one of the greatest threats to costal archaeological sites. The costal erosion following this will also have devastating effects on any archaeological sites in the costal environments. Is it possible to save many of these sites and objects through immense rescue efforts or do we have to accept that we cannot save it all? To prevent the loss of archaeological sites in costal environments we need to act sooner rather than later. A change in legal handling of the affected sites in combination with untested methods may be what is needed to get the preventative work started.

This paper will analyze archaeological material from a number of Stone Age sites, starting in the area of Södertörn, Sweden. There has been plenty of research on the Swedish Stone Age, however, there is an issue of classifying all Stone Age sites as settlements, regardless of what the archaeological material tells us. By comparatively analyzing the material from a number of Stone Age sites, a better understanding of these sites, and possibly the Stone Age in Södertörn and East Middle Sweden as a whole, will hopefully be attained. The paper will present information from a number of Stone Age sites in the area of Södertörn, along with material and interpretations from a few other Stone Age sites in East Middle Sweden, in order to help figure out if the term settlement is a correct one or simply something settled on. This in turn will help us find a clearer picture of how the Stone Age people of the area lived, which will be beneficial to current and future researchers.

This essay aims to understand and analyse earlier research concerning women’s roles in the Late Iron Age through a gender perspective. This will be done by analysing the Volva theory in relation to ancient medicine in Scandinavia with the primary focus on the medicinal herb henbane. The volva theory and the interpretation of grave 4 at the fortification of Fyrkat as a “Volva grave” had an immense impact on contemporary scientific research and popular science. The essay will examine the volva grave, at Fyrkat in Jylland, Denmark because it’s unique finding of henbane seeds. For comparison the essay will look at other archeological contexts containing henbane. The Oseberg grave will also be included in this essay because of its relevance for the volva interpretation and gender discourse in earlier research.

A study has been made about two individuals who were found buried in caskets on an medieval execution site on Gotland. The author has researched what we know about executions on Gotland and if we can learn something new about executions on Gotland when comparing an osteological material with literary sources. The study also aims to figure out who the two individuals in the caskets could have been.

This dissertation discusses Roman imperialism and runic literacy. It employs an interdisciplinary terminology. By means of terms new to archaeology, the growth of a specialized language, a technolect, is traced until it enters the realm of literacy. The author argues that there is more than one way for literacy to appear in prehistoric cultures. The ’normal’ perception is that literacy grows out of a need to keep records of a growing economic surplus. The ’other’ way for a culture to become literate is that someone else forces literacy upon it. This has been the case in many parts of the world subject to Western imperialism. The onslaught of Roman imperialism caused the invention of runic literacy in Northern Europe during the Early Roman Iron Age. The invention of the runic script should thus be seen as a preemptive reaction to the threat of Westernization. A comparison is made with a number of Early Modern Period cases of newly invented scripts caused by the arrival of literate Westerners in West Africa. The invention and introduction of the runes may well have been a dictated shift in literacy, seeking to break away from Latin. A number of dictated shifts in literacy from Early Modern Period America and Modern Period Asia are studied in comparison. The interaction between Germanic and Roman affinities was accentuated by the Roman army’s recruitment of Germanic men. These came to dominate the Roman army. This gave rise to a Germanic kleptocracy, a criminal rule in the post-Roman world. The role of runic literacy changed in the post-Roman aftermath of the Migration and Vendel Periods as the kleptocratic elite found it increasingly difficult to support a lavish lifestyle that included runic literacy. As a result, there was a decline in runic literacy in Northern Europe until the economic revival of the Viking Period. By then, it was clear that the North was soon to be integrated into the Christian West.

Houses with a stone foundation represent a new type of building on Gotland in the middle of the Roman Iron Age. At the same time there are other changes, for instance the number of visible graves decreases, and the farm and its land are emphasized by the stone enclosures that meander in the landscape. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how these changes in the source material can be understood in terms of changes in society and in people's way of looking at their world. Graves from the Roman Iron Age are studied in relation to their grave-goods, their appearance, and their connection to settlements and other graves. Objects of gold in the graves are compared with gold in deposits, and one can establish that different types of artefacts are found in different contexts. The settlements are also viewed at various levels, from the individual house and its artefacts to the structure of the cultural landscape. The hill-forts on Gotland are discussed and an overview of the Roman Iron Age in the rest of Scandinavia is given. The analysis of the graves reveals that the decrease in number in the middle of the Roman Iron Age can, at least in part, be explained by the a lack of a superstructure. At the same time precious artefacts such as Roman objects become more frequent, and so do the number of graves containing weapons. By studying the outline of the settlement pattern, one can conclude that the stone enclosures should not be interpreted merely as prehistoric fences, but that they should be recognized as a more complex phenomenon. In addition they link farms together into larger groups, and they connect the farmsteads to older graves. The interpretation that is put forward is that the stone enclosures, which link together farms and ancestors' graves, were an expression of how the society was organized around the family and kin. In this respect the stone enclosures "embodied" the social structure. In the analysis of the "forts", it is suggested that fortifications on flat ground belong to the period that precedes the changes in settlement, and that they constitute central places for the community. The forts on hilltops are on the other hand in many cases contemporaneous with houses with a stone foundation, and comparisons are made between hill-forts and stone enclosures. One interpretation that is put forward is that the maintenance of the social order in the local communities demanded new strategies, due to circumstances both on Gotland and in the surrounding world. Stone had a great part in this strategy, because it could preserve the farm and the enclosure-communities for the future. The stone enclosures linked the past graves to the present, and through the stones' permanence one built for the future. Some of the changes in the archaeological material can thus be interpreted as an attempt to prevent changes in the society.

The aim of this paper is to understand the differences and the similarities between leprosy hospitals and house of holy spirit hospitals (helgeandshus) and their status and function in the society of medieval Sweden.