Abstract Gravfält och byar - En komparativ undersökning av sex gravfält från Värend. Gravefields and villages - A comparative analysis of sex gravefields from Värend. Abstract   The basis that this study stands on, is that iron age-gravfields represents nearby village communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate if six gravefields within the old folkland Värend represent different villages, or does the six representative gravefield-villages only show dissimilarity in social differences that occurred within the villages?   A comparative method analysis was used in this study, to help examine comparisons of the different grave types within the gravefields and the social phenomena that they reflect. To help the method further, old maps of the gravefields were used and field observations were made, to get a better picture in how the different grave types were placed and arranged within the gravefields and landscape.   The results show that these six gravefields probably represents their own nearby villages, and many of the graves that occur within the different gravefields, are alike to each other, which show that these supposed representative gravefield-villages had similar grave traditions. / Sammanfattning Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka sex gravfält från det gamla folklandet Värend, varav de sex gravfälten ligger idag inom Växjö kommun. Gravfälten som undersöktes var Lilla Fjäll-gravfältet (Växjö RAÄ 111:1), Ingelstad-gravfältet (Östra Torsås RAÄ 1:1), Telestad-gravfältet (Växjö RAÄ 12:1), Skir-gravfältet (Växjö RAÄ 19–20:1), Orraryd-gravfältet (Nöbbele RAÄ 3:1) och Västenhaga-gravfältet (Bergunda RAÄ 25:1). Denna studie fokuserade sig på att undersöka de olika gravtyper som förekommer inom de sex gravfälten. Detta gjordes för att kunna hitta spår av hur de olika gravfältens representativa by-samhällena kan ha återspeglats. Detta gjordes genom att identifiera skillnader mellan respektive gravfält och därefter diskutera vad skillnaderna kan representera. Jag ville veta om det handlar om olikheter mellan sex skilda byar som begravt sina döda eller beror olikheten på sociala skillnader inom byarna? Resultatet visade på att det förekommer ett varierande och komplext gravstruktur där vissa av gravarna kan ha representerat olika gårdar inom byarna, medan vissa av gravarna representerades som högstatusgravar och religiösa/rituella gravar. De olika gravfälten visade även på att de representerade egna närbelägna byar.

During the Nordic Bronze Age, houses were not exclusively connected with profane contexts, but did also feature in burial places, a peculiar fact when considering the careful separation of settlements and graves. What kind of houses do we find in these sacred contexts? What did these houses stand for? Why was the house symbolism chosen to accompany the dead? And why did the house symbolism flourish during the Nordic Bronze Age? To answer these questions three representatives for the house symbolism in Sweden are discussed in more detail, such as the burial in longhouses, peculiar houses called cult houses and house urns. Further, the phenomenon has been put in its temporal, geographic, social and ideological context, where aspects such as trade and settlement structure are presented. The house symbolism is, however, not confined to northern Europe. Through comparison with contemporary parallels in southern Europe and ethnohistoric analogies different possible viewpoints are detected.

Through social landscape theory the aim of this thesis is to broaden the understanding of the bronze age monumental graves on the coast of Norrland. Questions about similarities between the stone ship settings and long cairns are analysed by looking at size and placement in the landscape. This shows the possible connections between the two construction types and were questioned throughout the process of writing. A reconstructed shoreline set to Late Nordic Bronze Age period IV, has been analysed by looking at the monuments placement to see possible connections through a maritory between Norrland and southern Sweden. In this thesis I have incorporated some instances of Gotlandic as well as other stone ship settings and long cairns from the Baltic Sea area, to strengthen the point of a possible maritory that connected the societies of northern Sweden with the societies placed around the Baltic Sea. The long cairns can be found in Gävleborg’s county from Söderala parish along the coast all the way up to Byske parish in Västerbotten’s county and seem to be constructed in a way that follow the shape of the mountain, with some anomalies. Stone ship settings can usually be found along the mouth of rivers and are placed more specific in the environment, where the orientation seems to relate to the ancient shoreline and in some cases the monument even point towards plausible routes that would be possible to follow with a ship inland. There is a clear concentration of all monument types in Västernorrland’s county, more specifically around the area of Docksta. The placement of the monuments above sea level in relation to the ancient shoreline, seems to be varied, with no clear rule of what height they should lay on. Many similarities can be found between the two, yet so many differences that only can be answered by excavations of more monuments. Further research and excavations is needed in Norrland with focus on the Bronze Age, which is crucial for the understanding of Sweden’s northern coastal areas and the trade across the Baltic Sea.