Bread is an important cultural and social marker, and it occurs in many contexts, often preserved as carbonised. However, as bread fragments are typically small and anonymous, their total value of them is not appreciated. Often bread material is grouped simply as organic and not considered. Material from Late Iron Age and the early Medieval times Gamla Uppsala, Valsgärde, and Gnista (Uppland County, Sweden) is analysed here. In this text, both settlement and ritual contexts were taken into consideration in the trends concerning bread production and/or consumption. This thesis aims to establish a protocol for distinguishing bread from other carbonised materials, including a macroscopic description that can be used in the field. Micro morphological and lipids analyses are relevant resources to study charred bread-like fragments recovered in archaeological contexts. Other laboratory methods, including FTIR, GC–MS, and GCIMS, were used alongside these methods. Experimental archaeology allowed for the build-up of a list of references to compare the material collected in the field. Developing a method to study these remains sheds light on the cultural value of bread, one of the most spread foodstuffs, and its connections with conviviality. / Bröd är en viktig kulturell och social markör, och det förekommer i många sammanhang ofta bevarat som förkolnat. Men eftersom brödfragmenten vanligtvis är små och anonyma, uppskattas inte deras fulla värde. Brödmaterial sorteras ofta endast som organiskt material och tas inte i vidare beaktning. Material mellan yngre järnålder och tidig medeltid från Gamla Uppsala, Valsgärde och Gnista (Upplands Län, Sverige) analyseras här. I denna text har både bosättnings- och rituella sammanhang beaktats för att undersöka trenderna kring brödproduktion och/eller konsumtion. Denna uppsats syftar till att identifiera bröd från annat förkolat material inklusive en makroskopisk beskrivning som kan användas i fält. Mikromorfologiska analyser och lipidanalyser är relevanta metoder för att studera förkolnade brödliknande fragment från arkeologiska sammanhang. Vid sidan av dessa metoder användes andra laboratoriemetoder, som inkluderade FTIR, GC–MS och GCIMS. Experimentell arkeologi gjorde det möjligt att bygga upp en lista med referenser för att jämföra det material som samlats in i fält. Dessa metoder används för att belysa det kulturella värdet av bröd, ett av de mest spridda livsmedlen och dess kopplingar till social gemenskap.

Heaps of fire cracked stones is an apparent feature of the Scandinavian Bronze Age. The heaps are built of stones cracked by fire and then placed in different constructions. The heaps are placed in different contexts in the Bronze Age landscape and for a long time, research neglected this site category owing to that the heaps were not considered important enough to dig. During the 1980s-90s the interest for the heaps of fire cracked stones increased and it became a wellresearched although debated site category. Earlier research has interpreted the heaps to be on the hillslopes in the landscape. This study’s research aims to understand the relation between shorelines and the placement of fire cracked stone heaps. This will be done through a landscape study of Uppland. The study indicates that the pattern in the distribution of heaps of fire cracked stones creates a correlation with the shoreline of the time the heaps were built, through their placement in the landscape. By creating a dynamic shoreline displacement, the essay will be able to look at the landscape in a more detailed way and will be able to investigate the relation between the heaps and the water edge. Through excluding the heaps that are under the waterline it is possible to in general determine the earliest possible production date. The fire cracked stone heaps have earlier been categorised to the Scandinavian Bronze Age but this research argues that some of the heaps should belong to the Neolithic Age as well.

<p>This paper analyses the existence and nature of the sacred landscape Olands härad during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Olands härad is located in Northern Uppland, onthe way to Östhammar, about 30 km northeast of Uppsala. The interpretations are done with help of place names studies as well as archaeological finds. The results indicate that different types of cult locations can be found in the area.</p>

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>

This paper analyses the existence and nature of the sacred landscape Olands härad during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Olands härad is located in Northern Uppland, onthe way to Östhammar, about 30 km northeast of Uppsala. The interpretations are done with help of place names studies as well as archaeological finds. The results indicate that different types of cult locations can be found in the area.

Today, the pets we own are thought of as friends and family members. A lot of people even go as far as saying that the pets they own are their children. While we have this close and almost human relationship with our pets, we also distance ourselves from the animals we have on our plates. What did the human – animal relationships look like during the Vendel Period and Viking Age?  The goal with this essay is to analyse cremation graves from the grave site in Valsgärde, Uppsala, and then compare these results with those from Ylva Bäckström’s osteological study of eight cremation graves from Valsgärde and with Berit Sigvallius’ study of the cremated material from the grave fields in northern Spånga. The grave field in Valsgärde, Uppsala, is dated to pre-Roman Iron Age as well as Vendel Period and Viking Age. The boat graves are what the grave field in Valsgärde is most famous for, but in addition to the 15 boat graves there are also at least 62 cremation graves and 15 skeleton graves. The graves in the northern Spånga are dated to 500 BC. - 1050 AD and lies in Kista, Granby, Ervinge and Kymlinge. The osteological study and the comparison with the two previously executed analysis have been done with the purpose to see in what way the relations between humans and animals expresses itself in the osteological material of Uppland during the late Iron Age. Hopefully the composition of the graves’ animal material will contain indicators of the human – animal relations. Previously conducted studies of Iron Age cremation graves in general, has shown that there was a significant increase in the amount of animal bones in the graves during the Vendel and Viking age. Animals are clearly important to the people during the late Iron Age. In what way were the animals significant and how is this expressed in the material?

This report is about a couple of specially chosen peatlands in eastern Uppland, Sweden. It concerns their development between the year 1922 and 2012. The historic fact originates from a large investigation of peatlands in the south of Sweden made by the Swedish Geological Survey, SGU, in the 1920’s. To be able to choose peatlands an analysis in GIS were made, in which we were able to find locations good enough for our field investigation. During the field investigation we bore to find nice peat cores that later went through several analyses in a lab. The main goal with this investigation was to find out how much humans have been able to affect the peatlands and their development during the years, by for example agricultural activities. The conclusion we came to find was that agricultural activities have affected the peatlands in the form of composition. / Rapporten handlar om en undersökning av utvalda torvmarker i östra Uppland och deras utveckling mellan år 1922 och 2012. Den historiska bakgrunden till undersökningen grundas på den kvalitativa torvundersökning som utfördes av Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning på 1920-talet i södra Sverige. Egna fältundersökningar gjordes för att kunna förstå hur de olika utvalda torvmarkerna utvecklats fram till idag. För att välja ut de olika markerna gjordes en GIS-analys samt en insamling av data från den gamla inventeringens dagboksanteckningar. Dessa data var de som stod som grund för arbetet i fält och för själva jämförelsen av utvecklingen. Under fältarbetet togs borrprover upp som sedan användes för att genomföra analyser i labb, dessa analyser användes sedan för beräkningar. Den inlandsis som för 10000 år sedan drog sig tillbaka är den faktor som i synnerhet präglat landskapet i Uppland. En del av landskapet syns idag som torvmarker. En torvmark är en landyta som är täckt av torv, vilket är växter som är i olika grad nedbrutna. Idag räknar man att ungefär 25 % av Sveriges areal är täckt av torv (Sveriges geologiska undersökning 2012). Undersökningen visade på olika grader av förändring på de torvmarker som undersökts. Sammanfattningsvis kunde man se en stor påverkan på de flesta torvmarkerna.

In this study, litho-, bio- and chronostratigraphic investigations combined with RTK GPSleveling have been carried out to reconstruct the paleoenvironment in the central part of theLånghundraleden Trail. The area displays four shallow lake basins of varyingmorphologies. The basins are now covered with peat as a result of infilling and overgrowth.The emergence of the saddle-point, i.e. the highest point of the underlying minerogenicsurface, was estimated to have occurred c. BC/AD. The isolation events of two basins, atc.12.4 and c.12.3 m a.s.l. west and east of the saddle-point, were dated to c.AD 20 andc.AD 30, respectively. By combining these isolation data with six previously investigatedbasins a shore displacement curve for the central part of the Långhundraleden Trail and thesurrounding area, i.e. east of the Ekoln basin was constructed. The curve indicates anaverage regressive shore displacement rate of c.6.2 mm/yr since c. 3200 BC. Around 1500BC, this trend was interrupted by a short period of retarded regression, correlated with theL4 event. The isolation ages of the basins in the Långhundraleden Trail appears relativelyyoung when compared to an average shore displacement rate of 5.6 mm/year in thenorthern part of L. Mälaren, west of the Ekoln basin. As the area is dominated by a fissurevalleylandscape, this discrepancy could be attributed to small-scale irregular tectonicmovements, which caused faster uplift rate, i.e. 6.2 mm/year, east of the Ekoln basin.

Archaeology and art history are two disciplines that have a lot in common, especially in the pre-historic field where both disciplines rely on the same material – artifacts. Interdisciplinary methods have become increasingly more common the last few years and are very beneficial as it allows for more insight and variables into the study of the human pasts. This thesis aims to develop two methods from art history into methods fitting for archaeological material to investigate what type of information this can produce. The methods used are material analysis and spatial analysis. Spatial analysis studies human movement within an urban space, but this work considerer the placement of the individual within the grave instead as well as the grave goods. The method investigates how the placement of the grave goods relates and interacts with each other and the individual. The analysis can give clues and insight on who the buried individual was, their identity, and social role as well as giving indicators about the contemporary society the person lived in. When a spatial analysis is made it is favorable to carry out a material analysis as well. This is done to understand what type of materials the grave contains and what the material can tell. This will give depth and possibilities to understand the objects in the grave, their use, and the relationships they had to the individual. The material analysis in this paper is conducted with the help of an analysis scheme which is a tool that helps collect the same type of information from all the studied objects. The material that will be used are two ship burials from Valsgärde, 12 and 15, also known as the twin-graves as they are the only contemporary ship burials out of the grave field’s total of 15 ship burials. During the Viking age, it was common practice amongst the elite families to bury their dead in ship burials that included lavish gifts. Valsgärde in Uppland, Sweden, is an example of such a grave field with a long history. Graves from the Viking age, however, show the change that was present in the region, and traces of trade to the east can be found. Graves 12 and 15 are from the mid-10th century and some of the grave goods show influences from the east, both clothes, and items. The graves are the only of their kind at Valsgärde and even though they show the foreign impact they still follow the established grave traditions that Valsgärde have carried since the 6th century. The result from ship burials 12 and 15 are compared to Birka’s graves Bj 581 and Bj 944 who is similar in content, time and richness. The hope for this paper is to show how useful interdisciplinary methods can be, in this case, spatial analysis and material analysis with analysis scheme, to bring new aspects to graves and grave goods.

Med flest kända fyndplatser i världen av den globalt rödlistade vårsvampen bombmurkla (Sarcosoma globosum) åligger det Sverige ett internationellt ansvar för artens bevarande. På senare tid bedöms dock många av svampens växtplatser ha förstörts på grund av granbarkborreangrepp till följd av höga sommartemperaturer, något som befaras bli allt vanligare i och med klimatförändringarna. För att långsiktigt bevara arten tror jag därför att riktade eftersök kan bli aktuella. I denna studie undersöks vilka miljödata som är användbara för att prognostisera bombmurklans förekomst på landskapsnivå och möjligheterna med att använda GIS-baserad förekomstmodellering för att upptäcka nya växtplatser. Beståndsmedelålder, skogsslag och jordart, samt i viss mån lutning och väderstreck (aspekt) bedöms vara goda förklaringsvariabler för svampens förekomst. Under fältarbetet upptäcktes 1 ny växtplats förbombmurkla och det finns indikationer, om än inte statistiskt styrkta, på att bombmurklan oftare påträffas i områdena med god modellerad prognos för förekomst än i andra gran- eller barrblandskogar. / With most known occurrences of the threatened Sarcosoma globosum globally, Sweden bears international responsibility for this fungus’ survival. Lately, many of the previously known sites for the species have expired due to bark beetle attacks caused by high summer temperatures, which in future may occur even more frequently because of climate change. Therefore, I find targeted search for new occurrences necessary for future conservation. In this study I investigate which variables are useful for predicting occurrence on landscape-scale and the potential of using species distribution modelling forfinding S. globosum. Mean tree age, forest type and sediment, and to some degree slope and aspect, are useful variables for predicting occurrence. During field work 1 new site was discovered and there are indications, although not statistically significant, that S. globosum is more common in areas with high modelled prognosis for occurrence than in other spruce- or mixed coniferous forests.