The Bronze Age in southern Sweden is a period that has seen a great deal of research for as long as archaeological studies have been undertaken in this country. While we have a rich material record and even many visible indicators of the time in the landscape, such as the rock carvings of Tanum and the many mounds dotting the landscape, many aspects of that society are relatively poorly understood. I´m mainly referring to the economic structures underpinning Bronze Age societies. This project will take the models of Wealth and Staple Finance Systems, developed by Timothy Earle and successfully tested in many equivalent contexts around the world, and apply them on Swedish settlement materials from the Bronze Age settlements of Pryssgården and Apalle. The study looks at site distribution patterns, the prevalence of prestige goods and the possible importance of external contacts in order to produce a reliable economic model of the Swedish Bronze Age. While some similarities in resource management are obvious, some relevant aspects were found to differ.

The rock carvings in southern Scandinavia are an important part of Bronze Age research and the Scandinavian cultural heritage. There are three known sites with rock carvings on the island of Gotland. They are located in the parishes of Lärbro, Fårö, and Lye. The rock carvings on Gotland has been somewhat forgotten and are not a big part of research regarding the Bronze Age on Gotland. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the images on the rock carvings as well as analyse their placements in the landscape, both the natural and the cultural. The images will be analysed and possible interpretations of them will be discussed individually and together. Their relation to other ancient monuments and archaeological features will also be analysed. Each area’s cultural landscape where the rock carvings are present will be presented and compared with the other sites on Gotland. The result of this thesis shows that the rock carvings in Lärbro and Fårö are similar in both images and placement in the landscape. Ships, cupmarks, and weapons are among images carved at both sites. They both have a connection to fresh water and are in close proximity to stone ships. These two rock carving sites show a connection to the sea and a maritime identity in both their images and the surrounding cultural landscape. The rock carving in Lye has a smaller number of images, only cupmarks and a pair of foot soles. It is located in a different landscape which does not exhibit a connection to water in any way but instead shows a link to the land. This indicates that the rock carvings on Gotland had a connection to both the water and the land.

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

Deponeringar under bronsåldern är ett fenomen som uppstod både på land och i olika formerav vattentillstånd som till exempel sjöar, våtmarker, floder och vattenfall. Mycket forskninghar gjorts inom det här området, kring vilka typer av fynd och föremål som har hittats i dessasammanhang och många frågor uppstår när man arbetar med deponeringar som ett fenomen.Vad var anledningarna till deponering, vad var orsaken till varför de har placerats där ochhade omgivningen någon betydelse för människorna som deponerade människor vid dessaplatser. Frågorna som ställs inför den här studien kommer att vara för att se om vattnet hadesin egna aktörskap som spelade roll, om platsen, såsom rinnande eller stillastående vattenhade en påverkan, om det fanns andra faktorer eller krafter bakom valet av plats fördeponering. Denna artikel syftar till att diskutera vatten med sin egna form av akens och hurdetta relaterar till varför deponeringar skedde från första början i Mälardalsområdet. / Bronze age depositions was a phenomenon that occured both on land and in different forms ofwatery places such as lakes, bogs, rivers and waterfalls. A lot of research has been done inthis area, around what kinds of finds and objects have been found in these contexts and manyquestions arise while working with depositions as a phenomena. As to why they have beenput there, what were the reasons behind the depositioning and did the surrounding area matterto the people putting their own and other people down in these watery places. The questionsfor this study will be if the waters had its own agential power that played a part, whether theplace, such as flowing or stationary water had an impact or if there were other factors orpowers behind the choosing of place to deposition. This paper aims to discuss water with itsown form of agency and how this relates to why depositions took place in the first place inMälardalen.

This paper explores/investigates the circumstances around the unusual level of preservation of organic materials within certain mounds in Jutland, Denmark, as well as the scientific benefits of these findings. These mounds contain coffins made from oak-logs and within them mummies of different degree of preservation have been found. Five mounds have been selected to represent the find category: Borum Eshøj, Trindhøj, Storhøj in Egtved, Skrydstrupand Muldbjerg. These five have all become staples in their own right within Scandinavian Bronze Age Archaeology. Within this paper different interpretations of how these oak-log coffins and their contents have remained in their current state of preservation while other similar graves have not will be explored. In addition, different areas of research that have benefited from these findings will be highlighted. / I den här uppsatsen kommer förhållandena kring den ovaligt höga bevaringsgraden av organisikt material i en specifik typ av gravhögar från Jylland i Danmark utforskas. Dessa gravhögar innehåller kistor gjorda av ekstockar och inuti dem hittas mumier som bevarats till olika grader. Fem gravhögar har valts ut för att representera fyndkategorin: Borum Eshøj, Trindhøj, Storhøj i Egtved, Skrydstrup and Muldbjerg. Dessa fem har alla kommit att bli grundstenar i Skandinavisk bronsålders arkeologi. Den här uppsatsen kommer utforska olika tolkningar av hur dessa ekkistor och deras innehållhar bevarats när andra liknande gravar inte har det. Utöver det kommer olika forskningsområden som dragit nytta av dessa fynd att lyftas fram.

The aim of this BA thesis is to understand the Bronze Age deposit in Tumba, Botkyrka Parish, Sweden, and its unusual placement in the landscape: on land and not in water. In order to achieve this, the deposit is analysed with different points of view: 1) the deposit objects: two socketed axes from Montelius period V–VI and a chisel, are examined for traces of usage; 2) the deposit is seen in relation to two other deposits in its vicinity; 3) the spatial distribution of other Bronze Age remains and monuments are analysed; 4) the deposit is viewed as a part of a natural and cultural landscape. The results demonstrate that, in southern Botkyrka, used axes were deposited in an area free from other Bronze Age monuments. They appear also to have been placed outside the inhabited areas, i.e. where activities like grazing or hunting occurred. This can be understood by viewing the woodland as something with agency, and people in a relationship with the environment.

This paper examines the relationship between the landscape at Bronze Age figurative rock art sites in the province of Södermanland in Sweden with the types of motifs and number of motifs present at the sites. For this purpose, six different properties in the landscape are studied with GIS: Height above sea level, cardinal direction of the slope, distance to the shoreline, cardinal direction to the nearest body of water, visibility of the rock art sites from major waterways and coastline, and type of rock at the site. While comparing the landscape properties of rock art sites grouped by the motifs present, the landscape properties height above sea level, and distance to the shoreline differed the most between motifs. Footprint- and human motifs diverge the most from general patterns. As for the comparison of landscape properties between figure-rich sites and those with only one figure in total, the biggest differences in landscape were the height above sea level and types of rock present at the sites. The conclusion drawn is that while certain landscape properties differ between motifs or figure-rich and single-figure sites, there are also certain properties and patterns that were consistently chosen for all rock art sites in Södermanland.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which type of society could supply the resources required to construct the cairn monuments along the coastal regions of Västerbotten during the Bronze Age. The study is centered on a cluster of cairns within the parishes of Bygdeå, Nysätra and Lövånger, situated at elevations between 31-52 meters above today’s sea level. Through analyses and calculations of the cairns themselves and their proximity to stone quarrying materials, the volume of each cairn within the chosen cluster has been used to evaluate how long it took these monument builders to complete the construction of the cairns. The workforce required is shown to heavily depend on the size of the cairn and its location from the stone material. Theoretically some cairns could have been constructed in just a few days, whereas some took significantly more time to construct. The indicated social types capable of providing the necessary resources were found to be avariation of nomadic band and/or semi-sedentary tribal communities composed of extended families. Powerful cheiftains and societies with greater resources weren’t necessarily found to be a requirement. The procurement of food and other resources varied and over time the economic foundations gradually shifted from a mainly hunting and fishing reliance to embracing cultivation and animal husbandry.

Depåfynd och anledningarna bakom deras nedläggelser har länge varit forskningsfrågor. Begreppet har definierats olika utav diverse författare. Flera forskare har utvecklat kriterier för vad som utgör ett depåfynd, samt om det har nedlagts i sakralt eller profant syfte. Gemensamt för en rituell tolkning är att depåplatsen har extraordinära naturliga egenskaper, något vattenmiljöer uppfattas besitta. Med området Östra Ljungby i Trolle-Ljungby socken, Skåne som undersökningsområde kommer uppsatsen ställa fyndmaterialet mot dessa kriterier. Fyndmaterialet har påträffats i både fast- och våtmark samt består till stor del av olika typer av yxor, verktyg och dolkar som typologiskt dateras till tidsperioder från mesolitikum till äldre bronsålder. Utifrån en hypotes om vattens personskap utforskas även en möjlig koppling mellan vattendepåfynden och folktrossägen. Tidsmässiga likheter och skillnader analyseras samt diskuteras i syfte att förstå deponeringsplatsernas kontinuitet. Det kan slutledas att flera sakrala depåer har nedlagts i Östra Ljungby, där vissa har gjorts på samma plats över långa tidsspann. Alltså finns det tecken som hänvisar till att undersökningsområdet haft en kontinuerlig deponeringstradition. Vidare finns en koppling till seder som gjorts för att skydda sig mot näcken. Däremot bör det belysas att en sådan koppling är svår att fastställa på grund av svårigheterna att rekonstruera forntida ritualer och ideologier. / Hoards and the reason behind their depositions have long been research questions. The term has been defined differently by various authors. Several researchers have developed criteria for what constitutes a hoard, as well as whether it has been deposited for a sacred or profane purpose. Common for a ritual interpretation is that the deposition place has natural properties that are extraordinary, something watery environments are believed to possess. With the area of Östra Ljungby in the parish of Trolle-Ljungby, Skåne as the research area, the essay will compare the finds against these criteria. The material found have been discovered in both solid ground and wetlands, and consists largely of various types of axes, tools and daggers that are typologically dated to time periods from the Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Based on a hypothesis concerning the personhood of water, a possible connection between the wetland hoards and folklore is explored. Temporal similarities and differences are analysed and discussed in order to further understand the continuity of the deposition sites. It can be concluded that several sacral depositions have been made in Östra Ljungby, where some have been made in the same place over long periods of time. Thus, there are signs that point to the study area having a continuous depositional tradition. Furthermore, there is a connection to customs made in order to protect oneself against näcken. However, such a connection is difficult to establish due to the difficulties in reconstructing prehistoric rituals and ideologies.

The aim of this study has been to revaluate Bronze Age society using rock art as an archaeological material. It has also sought to question certain prevailing interpretative trends within the research of rock art; ascribing it as ritual practices, expression of a social elite and the adoption of symbols from cultures along the Mediterranean Sea. This has chiefly been made possible through the application of Slavoj Žižeks ideas about the ideological fantasy and the sublime object of ideology. The thesis proposes a connection between art and ideology. A selected sampling of rock carvings from three areas in Sweden has been made in order to further investigate the relationship between different figurative motives both at a regional level, as well as a local. This study claims that rather than having been under the control of an elite, rock art has been accessible for the majority of the population both to produce and view. The depiction of human representation as rock carving does not depict a clear social stratification. It is also argued that the idea of images displayed on the rocks having roots in the imagery of Mediterranean civilizations is a construct of current western ideology, as the symbolic connection between the cultures is tenable at best, according to this study.