Since the 19th century archaeologists have found different types om amulet rings on various dig sites around Scandinavia with the biggest concentration in the Mälardal area. It is an object connect to old Viking age and Vendel period societies found from time to time during archaeological excavations. The problem with the amulet rings is, that the scientists don’t know how to fully interpret these artefacts. The common belief is that amulet rings are object connected to religious practice and the pagan cult. The purpose of this essay is to give the amulet rings a larger meaning and try to put new light on them, to widen the understanding of the object and to point out that more than religion can be interpreted around the artefacts and the context they are preserved in. This will put the rings in a more social sphere and widen the meaning and use of the object and the understanding of the Viking people. This essay is written with an intention to give a broader image surrounding the social role of the amulet rings in Viking age societies. This will be done through a descriptive and investigative mapping of the micro contexts of the amulet rings. The archaeological sites that will be used to do so are Lilla Ullevi and Kalvshälla in Uppland with a contextual approach as a theoretical perspective. In this essay, it has been shown that the sites have used the amulet rings to find religious connections in the Viking age and Vendel period complexes by schematically interpreting the rings as religious objects instead of seeing the possibilities in the material. Even if religion seems to be present the distribution of the rings indicates a larger scale of social use and not only religious actions. The result is that the ring is more flexible and complex then previously thought and more in-depth research into amulet rings is needed to fully understand the object and to use them in bigger archaeological interpretations.

In the southern part of the county of Jämtland seven rich finds of iron artefacts from the Vendel Period have been found. These finds contain similar sets of hunting weapons and tools of iron and they are all found close to lakes or river banks in the hunting ground area. In most cases no human bones or grave structures have been found in connection with the finds. The combination of artefacts is similar to combinations found in hunting ground graves in Dalarna and Norway. Therefore, archaeologists have discussed whether the finds in Jämtland should be classified as graves or hoards. The purpose of this thesis is to widen the discussion. An important point of departure has been to refrain from classifying the archaeological material in advance as graves or hoards, as sacred or profane, or as anything else, since such assumptions risk leading to circular reasoning. The analysis and discussion in the thesis are inspired by practice theory and focus on how actions performed can reflect people's relationships. Symbolism and beliefs, or what people thought, are of secondary importance. The results suggest that the finds of iron artefacts discussed in this thesis can be considered remains of ritualised activities. These activities may have been performed for a variety of reasons. For the moment, it may be fruitful to shift the focus from the classification problem to a discussion where these rich finds of iron artefacts are considered in a broader context. The results also suggest that these iron artefacts were deposited in the ground during a time when there was an increase in the construction of trapping pit systems in Jämtland. The rich finds of iron artefacts may well reflect changes taking place in the organisation of the surrounding community as a result of the increasing importance of hunting.

I have statistically worked up a material from 228 graves from the late Iron Age in the area of Mälardalen. In my material I have gathered the incidence of combs, knifes, beads, weapons whetstones and torshammarsrings. I have found that beads are overrepresented in graves of women and whetstones in graves of men. I only found weapons in graves from male. I found no indication from my statistic hypothesis (Z-test) that a grave that contains more than three beads should define the grave of a woman. A grave that contains a lot of beads, more than 20, consider I as a female gender. Combs, knifes and torshammarsring are considered as gender neutral.

Leather is a material that throughout history has been very important for humankind. Up until recently is has often however, together with other organic materials, not been given the attention it might deserve. This essay investigates how leather from the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia can be studied, if specialisation within leather related crafts can be identified and what this can tell us about how crafting skills were spread in a society. First a broader analysis is made of related crafts in the Late Iron Age, which is then put into relation to three chosen Vendel Age graves from the Valsgärde burial ground. Both leather production through hunting and tanning, and item production techniques like for example sewing and scabbard making are reviewed. Problems with preservation are discussed and possible alternative ways to study the subject are explored. The essay concludes that leather crafting included many techniques spread in society, practiced by common people. Still, several explicit specialisations also existed, which created high-quality leather products. Finally, suggestions for future research are made. / Läder har som material varit mycket viktigt genom hela den mänskliga historien. Fram tills nyligen har det, tillsammans med andra organiska material, dock ofta inte fått den uppmärksamhet det kanske förtjänar. Den här uppsatsen undersöker hur läder från den sena järnålderns Skandinavien kan studeras, om specialisering inom läderhantverk kan identifieras och vad detta kan berätta för oss om hur hantverkskompetens var spritt i ett samhälle. Först görs en bredare analys av relaterade hantverk under den sena järnåldern, vilket sedan sätts i relation till tre vendeltida gravar från gravfältet i Valsgärde. Både produktion av läder genom jakt och garvning, och tekniker för produktion av föremål såsom sömnad och tillverkning av svärdsskidor granskas. Problematik med bevarandeförhållanden diskuteras och alternativa sätt att studera ämnet utforskas. Slutsatserna av uppsatsen är att läderhantverk inkluderade många olika hantverkstekniker, som var spridda i hela samhället och praktiserades av vanligt folk. Flertalet explicita specialiseringar existerade dock också, vilket gav upphov till högkvalitativa läderprodukter. Slutligen ges förslag till framtida forskning.

The exclusive bronze and gold objects found in the Iron Age ship and rider burials of Vendel, Valsgärde and Sutton Hoo are well known. Less known, however, is the grave field of Vallstenarum on Gotland, where some similar finds have been made. Vallstenarum is located in a highly interesting landscape with former bays and lagoons, Bronze Age monuments, hill forts and a long continuity of human activity. While many of the impressive Bronze Age graves and monuments are widely visible in the landscape, Iron Age burials are more descrete. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the people in the Iron Age Vallstena community, their social organisation and their communication with the rest of the world. This will be achieved by analysing grave objects in relation to status and hierarchy, but also in relation to the surrounding landscape and in chronology with nearby archaeological sites. By comparing where similar finds have been made, the paper also discusses the location of Vendel Period central areas and Iron Age trade and communication. The results show a highly symbolic landscape, where the domestic area was separated from the grave fields. The find material also implies that the Vallstena area was involved in a vast communication network during the Vendel Period and possibly functioned as a trade hub through its strategic location next to the Gothem river. The grave activity in the central area of the parish seems to peak during the Vendel period, and the peripheral areas of the parish starts to get more intensively populated in the Viking Age. / I ”Tjelvars” fotspår- Rekonstruktion av det forntida landskapet vid Lina myr på Gotland under 9000 år

This thesis studies the famous boat graves in Valsgärde, Sweden and Sutton Hoo, England.  Its purpose is to understand the affects these graves had on the people who surrounded and visited them. Affect describes the first reaction when a person experience somthing new. The other focus of this thesis is the boat graves that seemingly lack buried people, and why the bodies in the graves are missing. There are some fragments of both humans and animals in the Valsgärde graves. In Sutton Hoo there are small amounts of remains from humans or animals, the osteologists have not been able to ascertain which of the two. There are some theories that the burials have been open for everyone to see, the question is then why and if this is the case, how did people react to this phenomenon, that is the boat-graves affects. The thesis concludes that the now missing bodies may have been exposed in the open for a long time, before they were buried. The soil´s acidity at Sutton Hoo is at pH 3,8 at the lowest, which has an impact on how well bodies are preserved in the ground. Both the soil and the exposing of the bodies might have done an equal amount of damage to the bodies.

<p>This paper deals with the connection between food and burial habits during the late Iron Age in present-day Sweden. The archaeological material used in the study consists of 16 potsherds from a burial site at Alsike hage, Alsike parish, in the province of Uppland in east-central Sweden. On these potsherds have been conducted FTIR- and GCMS-analyses, in order to see what types of food have been deposited in the burials. Furthermore, the result of the GCMS-analyses has been compared to contemporary material from both burial sites and settlement sites, in order to establish whether differences between the compared materials exist. The analyses show that there are differences between the material from burial sites compared with the material from settlement sites, but not any particular differences between the material from different burial sites. Among these differences we can see that the settlement sites show: a higher amount of total lipid content, a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids indicating that food was heated in them, a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids from crop products as the only content, and a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids from ruminant animals. The interpretation of these results is also discussed in the paper. Furthermore, the results of the FTIR-analyses also shows a good correlation with the results from the GCMS-analyses, it seems that the organic “foodcrusts” analysed with FTIR indeed stem from the same meal indicated by the GCMS-analyses.</p>

<p>This thesis is a historical archaeological essay and deals with the Frankish empire and its sway over the European area. The aim of this essay has been to examine if the sway of the Franks reached the Scandinavian area. The Frankish empire was the most influential power in Western Europe from the 6th century until the death of Charlemagne 814 AD, when the kingdom began to disrupt. The essay is divided into three parts. The first part is a background where I describe the Frankish empire in a historical context. The second part contains the archaeological finds. The third part contains a discussion and conclusions.</p>

This paper deals with the connection between food and burial habits during the late Iron Age in present-day Sweden. The archaeological material used in the study consists of 16 potsherds from a burial site at Alsike hage, Alsike parish, in the province of Uppland in east-central Sweden. On these potsherds have been conducted FTIR- and GCMS-analyses, in order to see what types of food have been deposited in the burials. Furthermore, the result of the GCMS-analyses has been compared to contemporary material from both burial sites and settlement sites, in order to establish whether differences between the compared materials exist. The analyses show that there are differences between the material from burial sites compared with the material from settlement sites, but not any particular differences between the material from different burial sites. Among these differences we can see that the settlement sites show: a higher amount of total lipid content, a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids indicating that food was heated in them, a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids from crop products as the only content, and a higher amount of vessels which contained lipids from ruminant animals. The interpretation of these results is also discussed in the paper. Furthermore, the results of the FTIR-analyses also shows a good correlation with the results from the GCMS-analyses, it seems that the organic “foodcrusts” analysed with FTIR indeed stem from the same meal indicated by the GCMS-analyses.

In the town of Grobiņa in Latvia several cemeteries with grave goods and burial traditions that could be linked to Gotland have been excavated, as well as cemeteries of local type. The town itself has been interpreted as the site of a Vendel age settlement, possibly beginning around 650 AD. The aim of this thesis is to study the characteristics of the settlement and in particular its relation to Gotland. A study of the age of circular disc brooches discovered in and around Grobiņa has also been carried out as a part of the analysis. This type of brooches is very typical for Gotland during Vendel and Viking age. / I Grobiņa i västra Lettland har ett flertal vendeltida gravfält med gravgåvor och begravningstraditioner som kan kopplas till Gotland påträffats. Även gravfält av lokal typ har påträffats. Grobiņa har tolkats som platsen för en vendeltida bosättning, möjligen grundad cirka 650 e. Kr. Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera bosättningens karaktär, och i synnerhet dess förhållande till Gotland. En studie av de dosformade spännen som påträffats i och omkring Grobiņa har också genomförts som en del av analysen. Denna typ av spännen är typisk för Gotland under vendel- och vikingatid.