The Christianisation of Sweden is not much about religion. Instead, there is much to be gained by looking at it as a colonial situation with changing social identities and power structures. This is evident by the prevalence of hybridisations in the archaeological material. Some of the material categories that show the clearest example of changes are the burials from the 9th century up until about AD 1200. This is exemplified by two different Iron Age burial sites in Stockholm county, Uppland, Sweden: RAÄ 59, Valsta, in Norrsunda parish and RAÄ 40, Lilla Ullevi, in Bro parish; They both show hybridisation by involving older elements with newer ones during a time period when the church was not quite established in the region yet. The Christianisation of Sweden is a colonial situation, but the research tradition has often also used a colonial lens from the 19th and early 20th century in its approach to the period. This means that the same questions, interpretations and conclusions, often based on written sources, have been continuously reused for a long time, which has had consequences for the archaeology in Sweden.

Diss. Umeå : Univ., 2004.

The Migration period gold collars from Ålleberg, Färjestaden and Möne are three unique objects with a large amount of ornamentation. Ornamentation is often studied in a close perspective. This study goes from the normally used close perspective and studies the gold collars at a distance in their current museum environment at Statens Historiska Museum, SHM. The aim of the study is to nuance the research on gold collars ornaments by depriving from the perspective of museum. The main issue is how the collars appear at a distance and in motion and what knowledge the observation of the collars can contribute with. In order to answer the questions and fulfil the purpose of the study the theory is phenomenology. This is also included in the method, which is focused observation. The essay also indirectly tests if phenomenology is possible to use in a controlled environment. The Research material is primarily based on the observations of the gold collars in Statens Historiska Museum. It is also based on previous research and literature studies. The conclusion of the essay was that all three gold collars ornamentation appear similar at a distance, although there was a small difference in the ornamentation. Another conclusion is that it is not possible to say anything new about the social function of the collars in their present context, but that it could provide evidence of a theory presented by previous researchers.

The essay will address paleopathological changes in 13 skeletons from S:t Hans parish church from the middle-ages. The osteological analysis from S:t Hans has been compared with literary studies that address the two villages of Fröjel and Västergarn on Gotland. The osteological analysis was done with the purpose to observe differences in health between urban cities and the country villages. The result of the analysis shows dental pathologies, degenerative joint disease, periostosis, and violent trauma. The differences between the city and the country villages shows more pathologies in Visby. This may be due to the larger urban population in the city compared to the rural one. Another theory about this result is that the individuals from Fröjel and Västergarn are younger and the paleopathological changes in the skeletons have not left any traces in their skeleton.

This essay has been a literary study where the purpose has been to provide insight into Sami settlements focusing on the so-called stalló foundations. Based on previous research, questions that have been considered have touched on who or whom the builders of the stalló foundations are, what uses they have had, and what period the stalló foundations may have dated. The delimitation has been to limit the period from about zero to about the 17th century. The material in this essay consists of books and scientific articles. After a thorough analysis of the previous research, a separate discussion has also been conducted. The result showed a disagreement about who is the builders of the stalló foundations as well as whether the stalló foundations have been part of a moving or permanent settlement pattern. However, much suggests that the stalló foundations have a Sami origin, and that there may be regional differences and natural geographic conditions that may have affected the use of stalló foundations. Finally, the stalló foundations appear to have a total time span in the period 500 to 1900 AD, but most of these have been used during the Viking Age and a bit in the Middle Ages.

Runestones are stones with rune carvings on them and were in Uppland mainly raised during the eleventh and early twelfth century. Much of the earlier research done on runestones has focused on their inscriptions and not as much on their placement in the landscape. The placement of runestones has of course also been studied, but not very thoroughly using modern methods, such as GIS. We know that runestones were in many cases multifunctional and could serve as grave stones, memorial monuments or boundary markers etc., and quite a few were raised by burial grounds, roads and other places where they would be seen by many. This essay aims to further explore the placement of runestones by doing a large-scale analysis of Uppland’s runestones’ relation to burial grounds, water and the adjacent lands growing conditions. The stones are in the study categorized after their ornamental style groups, which form a relative chronology, and those that have inscriptions mentioning bridges. The runestones are then compared to one another, based on the three variables earlier mentioned, to see if there are any patterns or differences between them.

Abstract: This paper is studying peat and soil from the former lake Bokaren in stavby parish. The peat comes from a darkening around a skeleton that was dug out in 2015. The purpose is to investigate whether the previously measured level of arsenic found in previous analyzes can say something about the individual/skeleton found in Bokaren. Is it possible to determine whether the individual has been exposed to arsenic during his life or is naturally present on the spot. The purpose is also to include this in a discussion about poison and poisonings in a prehistoric context, as a possible cause of death for bog bodies?

The understanding of ancient societies is often mainly based on how their burial sites have been interpreted. This is especially true for ancient societies where the burial sites may be the only remaining traces which can be studied. With a classical model, their analysis can yield valuable results on certain areas such as identifying status relationships and spatial groupings. The social structure that originally affected how the burial ceremony was conducted, however has largely been a subject of speculation. To analyse this structure a new theoretical foundation is required. In this thesis a ritualization perspective rooter in ritual theory has been implemented. It´s inclusion allows for the study of the structuring processes within the burials by identifying the normative actions which constituted the ritual. This approach requires methods capable of recreating that the ritual actions through the funerary remains. For this reason, the methodological approach employed has been largely rooted in archaeothanatology and taphonomy. In this thesis the Lapita culture which was active in Melanesia ca. 3000 BP has been in focus. This culture was chosen since its societal structure has so far been speculated widely but so far, no consensus has been reached. Only two Burial sites of adequate size and quality have been found to date, Reber-Rakival in Papua New Guinea and Teouma in Watom. These sites have been analysed previously and the findings suggest a rich variation in the funerary ritual implemented at the sites. Ritual has long been linked to societal structure but there are few methods which allow an archaeologist to study this structure through the ritual. The methods have been employed on physical remains from Reber-Rakival and recorded images from Teouma with the aim of clarifying the funerary ceremony and identifying the normative actions at both sites. The addition of previous research and ethnographic data was incorporated to compare and further clarify the interpretations. The resulting interpretation suggests that the burial practice and societal structure at the different sites had some overlap in how individuals of differing genders were positioned and treated. The extent to which this treatment was at the core of the ritual however, varied. In Teouma there was a clearly defined androcentric influence which was prevalent in both how the bodies were positioned and to what extent they were interfered with. This differed to the societal structure which affected the burials in Reber-Rakival which could not be as clearly defined given the greater level of disturbance at the site but was clearly not as extreme in favour of males. This indicates that different societal structures were in place but at present it cannot be considered as a conclusive estimation, further research is required to test it. / Tolkandet av forntida samhällen har ofta till stor del baserats på hur deras begravningsformer tolkas. Dessa undersökningar kan ge goda resultat men har oftast varit fokuserade på att identifiera exempelvis status och spatiala grupperingar. Den sociala strukturen som påverkade begravningsceremonin undersöks sällan närmare än via bred spekulation i den klassiska modellen. För att studera denna sociala struktur genom begravningsritualen närmare krävs teoretiska perspektiv som sällan brukas inom klassisk arkeologi. Ett teoretiskt perspektiv med vilket just denna struktur kan studeras är ritualization. Genom detta perspektiv kan de identifierbara normativa handlingarna inom en begravningsritual ses som en återspegling av den sociokulturellt strukturerande processen som påverkade ritualens utförande. Detta kräver metoder som kan återskapa handlingarna genom de material som finns tillhanda. I denna uppsats har Lapitakulturen i Melanesien som var verksam ca. 3000 år sedan legat i fokus för att se hur effektiv denna metod är på en relativt okänd kultur var sociala struktur är oöppen för vid spekulation i nuläget. Bara två större gravplatser från Lapitakulturen har identifierats i nuläget, Reber-Rakival i Papua Nya Guinea och Teouma i Vanuatu, så analysen har begränsats till dessa två platser.  Metoderna som använts har sina rötter i arkaeothanatologi och tafonomi har implementerats på fysiska material från Reber-Rakival och bildbevis från Teouma. Endast handlingar som direkt påverkade kroppens position inkluderades och ämnade att klargöra den rituella processen med focus på normativa handlingar och identifieringen av potentiella indikatorer för att tolka hur den rituella strukturen kan tolkas. Jämförelse med resultat från tidigare analyser och etnografiska exempel utfördes för att testa tolkningarna. Resultaten av dessa metoder visade att den rituella processen hade vissa likheter mellan de två platserna. Speciellt i att de varierade beroende på den gravlagdes kön. Vid sin kärna var det dock olika. Detta kunde ses i de mycket tydligare tecken på en klar separation mellan könen med en klar androcentrisk agenda i de rituella handlingarna i Teouma jämfört med Reber-Rakival där de rituella normerna var mer svårtolkade då platsen var mer störd men indikerar att den rådande strukturen inte var lika extrem i fördel för manliga individer. Denna uppskattning kan dock i nuläget inte ses som en slutgiltig tolkning, ytterligare studier krävs för att testa den.

The five south-eastern archaeological sites in the Västerås district were probably built about 3000 years ago, thus during the younger Bronze Age. Building of fortresses was very resource-intensive, requiring large resources of materials, crew and food as well as a management and organization. The patrons should have had an important economic role in the village and, based on their location on the mountain slopes at Mälaren, should have had a trade to do. The probability is high that the citizens were trading venues where products from the east, south and west of Sweden / Scandinavian Peninsula were sold or exchanged for products from central Sweden. The products sold and purchased were, for example, leather and bronze products (Burenhult 1999: 54-58).

The design on the bronze age culthouse is very similar to the design of a common house construction from the Bronze Age. In addition to this, there ar very few similarities. Culthouses have not been used for the purpose of the accommodation or other secular context, this results in that the buildings lack the typical settlement finds. The study of the Bronze Age culthouses is an important aspect in the research on the population´s religious beliefs. As archealogists don´t have much knowledges about the Bronze Age religion and its religious beliefs, more research can be executed and a deeper understanding of both the religion and the culthouses can be developed. The culthouses from the Bronze Age that have been examined, show different characters in form of finds and remains. A summary of these findings and remains can create a clearer picture of culthouses and the findings that suggest religios activities.