Åsmund Kåresson is one of our greatest rune stone makers. His ornographic stile was copied by other rune writers. Åsmund also made many stones, around 60. Many scientists took för granted Åsmund was from Uppland, but not Magnus Källström. He saw liknesses in a rune stone from Medelpad, M5, and one from Uppland, U372, dedicated to Åsmund. This essey tries to complement Källströms statement. The rune stone M5 is compared with U372, and since neither one is signed, with U956. As one more attempt to prove Källström being right, I tried to put all Åsmunds stones in right decade, with Gräslunds method. As far I as am concerned, M5 and the stones signed by Åsmund is Gästrikland, is clearly older, than many stones signed/dedicated to Åsmund Kåresson in Uppland. The stones in Gästrikland are so huge and monumental, I asked myself why many Upplandic stones of Åsmund – especially the earlier - was so much simplier. My explaination is, that Åsmund carved runstones as proffessional, and since he was not known i Uppland, he first had to make himslef a namn. Then he could do his big, beautiful, wellcarved and artistic stones, because someone was intrerested in paying him. This - I mean - is another thing, that indicates what Magnus Källström assumed is right: Åsmund Kåresson is from Medelpad, learned to carve in / <p>En arkeologisk uppsats om den store runristaren med sin egna stil</p>

The topic of osmund iron is of great interest in both historical and metallurgical perspective. Between the 14th and the 17th century osmund iron was exported extensively from Sweden but it has been difficult to characterize and confirm what exactly osmund iron is. Further research should be conducted to improve the understanding of this kind of iron.   This work is primarily focused on medieval osmund iron. It is trying to determine what can be stated about their production methods and how to identify osmund pieces. A literature review was performed, to present an overview of iron production methods in medieval Europe. A metallurgical analysis was conducted on a number of osmund samples from the polish shipwreck ‘Miedsiowiec’, W5., together with samples from bar irons and iron billets from the same ship. Analysis was performed using LOM and SEM with EDS, analysing the crystallographic structure of the samples, and performing slag analysis using EDS to establish statistical trends. One of the aims was to evaluate a previously suggested hypothesis, namely that osmunds were shipped to Danzig from Stockholm, and then refined into iron bars and billets.  The studied iron bars and billets were purely ferritic with some slag inclusions. By looking at the shape of the slag inclusions, it can be stated that the bars and billets were forged differently from the osmund pieces. The osmunds were found to be made by indirect reduction as seen by the prevalence of cementite. It could not be confirmed if the bars and billets were forged by osmunds.  The osmunds showed different trace element compositions, than the iron bars and billets. The microstructure of all the osmunds varies greatly, which was to be expected. The osmunds had a higher carbon content and fewer slag inclusions. The hypothesis that osmunds were refined into iron bars and billets is not supported by the findings of this study. / Osmundjärn är av stort arkeometallurgiskt intresse, som en svensk exportvara som exporterades mellan 1300- och 1600-talet. Det är dock svårt att definitivt avgöra vad osmundjärn är för något. Det krävs därför ytterligare analyser och studier inom detta område för att förbättra vår förståelse av osmundjärn.   Denna studie behandlar upphittade medeltida osmundjärn och stångjärn i syfte att avgöra hur dessa har tillverkats. En litteraturstudie genomfördes som omfattande medeltida järntillverkningsprocesser, den existerande forskningen om osmundjärn samt relevanta forskningsmetoder. Järnproverna som erhölls kommer från den polska skeppsvraket ’Miedsiowiec’, W5. Mikrostrukturen av proverna analyserades med ljusmikroskop och en SEM-EDS analys utfördes. En föregående publicering om osmundar har föreslagit att osmundar exporterades från Stockholm till Gdansk, där de välldes och bearbetades till stångjärn. Osmundarna och stångjärnen som erhölls undersöktes också för att korrektheten i denna hypotes. Stångjärnens mikrostrukturer var ferritiska med ett flertal inneslutningar. Två av de så kallade iron billets hade anisotropiskt formad slagg, jämfört med de så kallade iron bars som hade isotropiskt format slagg. Det bedömdes att osmundarna var tillverkade i en masugn, på grund av perliten som hittades i mikrostrukturen i samtliga osmundar. Mikrostrukturen i alla osmundar varierade dock kraftigt, som väntat. Osmundarna hade också högre kolhalt, och färre slaggpartiklar. Hypotesen om att osmundar bearbetades till stångjärn stöds därför inte av resultaten som hittats i denna studie.