<p>This paper discusses runic inscriptions from the middle ages on Gotland and how they portray social structure. It focuses on three themes: (1) fixed time and space, (2) women and the nuclear family and (3) profession and social status/structure. It also discusses changes brought on by a more structured and established Christianity, as well as differences between medieval rune stones on Gotland and their predecessors Viking Age rune stones in the Mälar Valley.</p>

This paper discusses runic inscriptions from the middle ages on Gotland and how they portray social structure. It focuses on three themes: (1) fixed time and space, (2) women and the nuclear family and (3) profession and social status/structure. It also discusses changes brought on by a more structured and established Christianity, as well as differences between medieval rune stones on Gotland and their predecessors Viking Age rune stones in the Mälar Valley.

The aim of this study is to determine what can be known about the people who were able to write runes during the Viking Age. The investigation is based on the runecarvers’ own statements about themselves and their work, which is normally found in the signature or the carver formula of the inscriptions. The material comprises all carver formulas known from primarily Scandinavian Viking-age runic inscriptions, but since most of the inscriptions are found on rune-stones, there is a focus on runecarvers who worked in this material. In the study the form and content of these carver formulas are closely analyzed in different ways. It can for example be shown that the choice of verbs in a carver formula is primarily determined by chronology, which is also reflected in the geographical distribution of different verbs in the material. The study also shows that the carver formula is normally positioned finally in the text, and that the examples of other positions might be determined by the content of the rest of the inscription. In some cases the runic monument is signed by more than one name, which has been interpreted as indicating the existence of workshops. Even if this is true for parts of the material, many of the co-signed stones seem to be the products of carvers who only worked occasionally. An investigation of the personal names and the use of attributes such as patronymic, titles or bynames, shows no difference from the normal Viking-age population, which indicates that the rune-carvers were not members of a special social class. The latter part of the study deals with the relationships between the rune-carver and the sponsor of the runic monument. Special attention is paid to some local carvers in the Mälar Valley in order to determine their social status and the extent of their production of rune-stones. The study shows that some of these carvers belonged to a wealthy group of land-owners with contacts abroad, and many of them have executed about ten rune-stones, often in the vicinity of their own dwellingplace. In conjunction with this, there is also an attempt to see to what extent the writing habits of these local carvers are influenced by more productive and presumably professional carvers. This investigation leads to a re-evaluation of one of the most famous carvers in the district, Åsmund Kåresson, which also has some implications for the picture of how the rune-stone custom was introduced into central Sweden at the beginning of the 11th century.

Runstenar dokumenteras idag både för att skapa en visuell avbildning och medsyftet att användas vid forskning. Om avbildningen ska användas vid forskningfinns krav på en låg mätosäkerhet. Vid de studier som funnits har terresterlaserskanning (TLS) varit den valda dokumentationsmetoden. Fotobaseradskanning vilken är en billigare dokumentationsmetod har utvecklats mycketunder senare tid i och med utvecklingen av högupplösta kameror ochanvändarvänliga mjukvaror för bildbehandling.Denna studie syftar till att finna svar på om fotobaserad skanning är en lämpligmetod vid avbildandet av runor och ornament då en 3D-modell med lågmätosäkerhet ska skapas. För att avgöra detta jämförs tre fotogrammetriskapunktmoln och modeller mot punktmoln och modeller från en TLS av märketHexagon Romer Absolute Arm. Punktmolnen och modellerna från HexagonRomer Absolute Armen bildar i denna studie referensmodellen. Endigitalkamera och en smartphonekamera används i studien. Fotografier tasmed båda kamerorna på ett avstånd av 40 cm från runorna. Medsmartphonekameran tas även fotografier på 10–20 cm för att utvärderaavståndets betydelse för resultatet.Jämförelser mellan de sammanlagda RMS-värdena för fotogrammetriskamodellernas och referensmodellens ytor visar på den lägsta avvikelsen fördigitalkamerans modell. Detta då RMS-värdet för avvikelsen motreferensmodellen endast är 0,30 mm för digitalkameran. RMS-värdena föravvikelserna för smartphonekamerans modell är 0,63 mm då fotograferingenutfördes på 10–20 cm och 2,59 mm om avståndet var 40 cm. Alla modellerhar avvikelser på mm-nivå vilket jämfört med tidigare studier får anses somsmå skillnader. Resultatet visar även på avståndets betydelse för punkttäthetenoch den skapade modellens mätosäkerhet. De punktmoln som skapades avsmartphonekamerans fotografier uppvisar en ungefärlig dubblering avpunkttätheten i det täta punktmolnet då avståndet minskas från 40 cm till 10–20 cm mellan kamera och objekt. Till viss del kan kortare avstånd med andraord kompensera för en kamera med sämre upplösning. Detta gör att även ensmartphonekamera kan vara ett alternativ vid dokumentation av runskrift omingen bättre kamera finns att tillgå. Studien antyder att en högupplöstdigitalkamera kan vara ett fullgott alternativ till TLS vid dokumentation avrunskrift med låg mätosäkerhet. Detta skulle underlätta för forskare vidinsamlandet av material vid studier av runskrift.

This essay provides a study of five Swedish locales in the Mälar Valley and Öland, namely Arkels tingstad, Aspa löt, Tingstad flisor, Anundshög and Signhilds kulle/Fornsigtuna, and their possible use as sites of Viking Age thing assemblies. Historical texts, place names and archaeological excavations are queried through the aid of a theoretical assemblage drawing on De Landa, Deleuze &amp; Guattari, as well as Icelandic, British and Scandinavian research. Following this, I propose that the locales chosen as thing sites were communicational nexuses localised on commons in borderzones between land domains. Thus, space commonly understood as in the elite's periphery insteadbecomes of central importance.

The Viking Age rune-carvers and their readers used runes as a semiotic resource to convey and structure the messages on rune-stones. An analysis of the ways in which this resource is used together with other resources gives us a deeper insight into the relationship between writers and readers and into the written culture in which the rune-stones were produced. The present study treats runic carvings as multimodal texts in which different semiotic modes produce meaning by visual and verbal means. The roles played by runes in such texts are studied from three different perspectives. The empirical study in chapter 3 investigates how the verbal messages of the inscriptions interrelate with ornamental compositions. The most important convention found is that runic inscriptions usually start in the lower left part of the ornamental band in which they are inscribed. A second result is that there is a certain correlation between the visual and syntactic structure of runic texts. In chapter 4, Södermanlandic inscriptions employing more than one writing system are investigated. These carvings can be tied to a context of high social ambition in which at least two different, socially stratified discourses are expressed by means of the runes as a visual semiotic mode. Chapter 5 is devoted to non-lexical inscriptions, showing that such carvings are indeed runic texts despite their lack of verbal message. Different types of readers can use runic resources in different ways. Firstly, runes carry meaning independent of any verbal message, giving them significance even to illiterate readers. Secondly, literate readers can appreciate certain conventions of runic composition and, thirdly, one and the same runic text can be part of different discourses and hence be aimed at different kinds of readers. / <p>Disputationen sker på norska och svenska</p>

This thesis explores bodily representations in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1050 AD). Non-human bodies, such as gold foil figures, and human bodies are analysed. The work starts with an examination and deconstruction of the sex/gender categories to the effect that they are considered to be of minor value for the purposes of the thesis. Three analytical concepts – masks, miniature, and metaphor – are deployed in order to interpret how and why the chosen bodies worked within their prehistoric contexts. The manipulations the figures sometimes have undergone are referred to as masking practices, discussed in Part One. It is shown that masks work and are powerful by being paradoxical; that they are vehicles for communication; and that they are, in effect, transitional objects bridging gaps that arise in continuity as a result of events such as symbolic or actual deaths. In Part Two miniaturization is discussed. Miniaturization contributes to making worlds intelligible, negotiable and communicative. Bodies in miniatures in comparison to other miniature objects are particularly potent. Taking gold foil figures under special scrutiny, it is claimed that gold, its allusions as well as its inherent properties conveyed numinosity. Consequently gold foil figures, regardless of the context, must be understood as extremely forceful agents. Part Three examines metaphorical thinking and how human and animal body parts were used in pro-creational acts, resulting in the birth of persons. However, these need not have been human, but could have been the outcomes of turning a deceased into an ancestor, iron into a steel sword, or clay into a ceramic urn, hence expanding and transforming the members of the family/household. Thus, bone in certain contexts acted as a transitional object or as a generative substance. It is concluded that the bodies of research are connected to transitions, and that the theme of transformation was one fundamental characteristic of the societies of study.

<p>This thesis explores bodily representations in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1050 AD). Non-human bodies, such as gold foil figures, and human bodies are analysed. The work starts with an examination and deconstruction of the sex/gender categories to the effect that they are considered to be of minor value for the purposes of the thesis. Three analytical concepts – masks, miniature, and metaphor – are deployed in order to interpret how and why the chosen bodies worked within their prehistoric contexts.</p><p>The manipulations the figures sometimes have undergone are referred to as masking practices, discussed in Part One. It is shown that masks work and are powerful by being paradoxical; that they are vehicles for communication; and that they are, in effect, transitional objects bridging gaps that arise in continuity as a result of events such as symbolic or actual deaths.</p><p>In Part Two miniaturization is discussed. Miniaturization contributes to making worlds intelligible, negotiable and communicative. Bodies in miniatures in comparison to other miniature objects are particularly potent. Taking gold foil figures under special scrutiny, it is claimed that gold, its allusions as well as its inherent properties conveyed numinosity. Consequently gold foil figures, regardless of the context, must be understood as extremely forceful agents.</p><p>Part Three examines metaphorical thinking and how human and animal body parts were used in pro-creational acts, resulting in the birth of persons. However, these need not have been human, but could have been the outcomes of turning a deceased into an ancestor, iron into a steel sword, or clay into a ceramic urn, hence expanding and transforming the members of the family/household. Thus, bone in certain contexts acted as a transitional object or as a generative substance.</p><p>It is concluded that the bodies of research are connected to transitions, and that the theme of transformation was one fundamental characteristic of the societies of study.</p>