<p>I have statistically worked up a material from 228 graves from the late Iron Age in the area of Mälardalen.</p><p>In my material I have gathered the incidence of combs, knifes, beads, weapons whetstones and torshammarsrings.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Combs, knifes and torshammarsring are considered as gender neutral.</p>

The aim of this essay is to question and analyze problems surrounding the current research within the field of spikes.The latest breakout was in the early 50's,since then there haven't been any major research projects and no interpretation have been made.Not only does this  essay bring a contribution to the research of spikes but also question what has earlier been established through interpretations.The focus of this essay is on the spikes found on the island of Gotland in the Baltic sea,these are currently stored at the Museum of Gotland.What was the main area of use that these spikes had and in which context are they found? Although only 27 finds will be analyzed during this essay ,the goal is to get a greater understanding of the usage of these finds and how this will contribute to the archaelogical sites.

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.

<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>

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.

Fish-head pendants are one of the characteristic Gotlandic Late Iron Age artefacts. This object has been rather neglected and mainly considered as an insignificant embellishment, normally worn as a neck-collar and seen as an artefact include in the typical Gotlandic set of female jewellery. The fact that the fish-head pendant has a very long life span, which stretches from grave-finds in the Early Vendel Age to hoards in Viking Age as well as secondary usage as brooches in the Early Middle Ages, makes the artefact an excellent starting point for discussions on social practices and change through material culture. It's shown in this study that, contrary to previous beliefs, the normal usages for fish-head pendants is as solitary pendants and not as neck-collars. Neck-collars is shown to have an intricate relation to inhumations for young individuals, whereas solitary pendants are found in cremation deposits for adult individuals, something that relates to a fixed social practice mainly in the period 700-900 AD and that develops from the cremation funeral practice. This particular social practice relates to aspects of attraction and protection and continues in to the 10th century outside of funeral structures, which is shown by the composition of hoard-finds from the 10th century, but is totally absent when the pendants is given a secondary usage as brooches in the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century. Hence the material also gives the possibility to discuss the division among pre-historic periods. This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 gives the prerequisites. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical framework; concerning aspects such as agency, structuralism, social structures, change and material culture. Chapter 3 discusses questions of chronology and typology. In chapter 4 fish- head pendants and their practices of usage and social practices are discussed in the grave-material from the period 600-1000 AD. Chapter 5 concerns hoards and amber-pendants during the 10th to 12th century, and finally chapter 6 discusses the effects and reasons seen in the social practices defined in chapters 4 and 5, as well as the implication of social practices on pre-historic periods. The material is further presented in four catalogues, chapters 10-13.