The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the eastern silver crisisin the mid 10th century on the cultural connections and trade routes of the Late VikingAge Sveonic realm. By studying status symbols, such as weapons, glassand the decorative parts of the male and female dress, I expected to find that eastern influencesdeclined in favour of more western elements. This proved to beproblematic. The material indicates a continued strong cultural exchange between the Sveonic realmand theSlavic regions, even though trade clearly shifted westward. My explanation for this is thateven though, and perhaps because of, king and church favoured a shift towards west, the demand for western goods other than silverremained low during the late 10th and 11th century.In addition to this,even though the direction of trade shifted, it was still largely conducted within the Slavic cultural sphere. There is also very little indicating the presence of foreign merchantsother than Slavicand probablyFrisianin early Sigtuna. My explanation for this is that the Sveonsmainly went overseasto sell their merchandise, and that they were forced to do so since Sigtuna,as opposed to Birka, could offer no unique goods which wouldattract foreign merchants.

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Runstenarna i Sollentuna följer ungefär samma mönster som de i resten av Uppland vad gäller fördelning av vilka som reste stenarna och till vilkas minne. Därför är det självklart att förhållandena var också det samma vad gäller arvsmönster, där bakarv, delade arv och kvinnliga arvingar var ett vanligt inslag. Av de 83 runstenssponsorer som syns på ristningarna var 67 (80 %) män och 16 (20 %) kvinnor. Av de 44 runinskrifter där man kan tydligt se antalet sponsorer så hade 18 (40 %) en sponsor och 26 (60 %) flera. Av de 67 ihågkomna var 55 (82 %) män och 12 (18 %) kvinnor. De utlandsfärder som gjordes av Sollentunabor gick i österled, tydligen främst till Grekland och det tycks ha funnits minst en släkt som ordnade dessa expeditioner som bodde i området, kanske fler. Runstenarnas placering visar också att det redan på vikingatiden stod en kyrka i Spånga och en i Ed. De antyder också att när folk valde var de skulle resa sina runstenar, speciellt de större och mer påkostade verken, så brukade man välja de platser även tidigare generationer hyllat sina döda. Mot slutet av perioden förvandlades runstenen till slut till en variant av den kristna gravstenen. Förutom att hylla sina döda släktingar var runstenarna också ett sätt att stärka sin egen ställning i samhället, genom att visa upp vem man var släkt med och som ett sätt framhäva sin rätt att ärva egendomar och även titlar och makt. Brostenarna och de stenar som nämner utlandsfärder visar på några mäktiga och rika släkter inom området. Om man också ser brobyggandet som en form av avlat är de också ett tecken på kristendomens genombrott. / Uppland is the most runestone dense region in Scandinavia and Sollentuna is no exception to this.The goal of this paper is to analyse the inscriptions on the runestones found in Sollentuna härad andthrough them discuss society and familial relationships at the time. Comparisons of the material in Sollentuna to research done on runestones in other areas are done. As runestones are generally Christian monuments they also provide information on the spread of Christianity in the late Vikingage. Their positioning may also provide hints regarding the locations of the earliest churches in the area. They are also considered a tool to assert rights of inheritance and thus also provide informationon the rules of inheritance at the time they were made. Finally, a few of them mention expeditions abroad and provide some information regarding the destinations of these travels as well. Considering the large number of runestones in the area, it is likely that the erection of runestones was popular among most land owning people. Some runic inscriptions are much larger than the others and it is likely that their sponsors wished this to reflect their wealth, prestige and power.

Accompanying the rich and highly individualized Swedish Late Iron age graves are often charred remains of plants and food together with the other grave-goods. These remains have long been known but often overlooked, mainly due to low preservation. Some relatively well preserved finds are cultivated cereal grains, which have become a common archeobotanical find in Iron Age cremation graves and are a massive source of information regarding agriculture and food culture. But what do they say of the buried individual? This thesis aims to investigate the cereal grains, plants and food remains by treating the archaeobotanical remains as grave-goods in a statistical study made on macrofossil remains from Bådstorpsgravfältet, a vendel and viking age burial ground in Östergötland, Sweden. With the results from 79 graves it is researched if plant remains can be linked to certain demographics and the changings of its role in the burial practices over time.

What specifically characterizes an equestrian grave and what equipment do the equestrian graves from the Vendel period and early Viking Age contain? This study deals with the differences and contrasts that exist in horse equipment between Vendel period and early Viking Age times in Vendel and Valsgärde and how the horse equipment changes over time. The study deals with what are called equestrian graves and this is also where the differences in the grave material are the biggest. The contrasts that have been read shows a change in the grave material between the Vendel period and Viking Age, it goes from being an equestrian and warrior ideal where horse and riding have been a large part of the social structure with among other things like stirrups, spurs, and saddles to turn into what could be likened to a development of agriculture and the need for horses as draft and working animals. The latter grave material contains equipment such as towhooks, “rangles” and driving equipment. This material also contains other points of departure that are relevant to this thesis, including the role of the horse in human history, looting of boat graves and its disturbed context, and how it has affected the boat graves of this study and the deposition of horse equipment. The horse was of great importance in the lives of the living and in the land of the dead, but it also received both its riding equipment and working equipment in order to continue to have a centered role, even in the afterlife.

This essay aims to understand and analyse earlier research concerning women’s roles in the Late Iron Age through a gender perspective. This will be done by analysing the Volva theory in relation to ancient medicine in Scandinavia with the primary focus on the medicinal herb henbane. The volva theory and the interpretation of grave 4 at the fortification of Fyrkat as a “Volva grave” had an immense impact on contemporary scientific research and popular science. The essay will examine the volva grave, at Fyrkat in Jylland, Denmark because it’s unique finding of henbane seeds. For comparison the essay will look at other archeological contexts containing henbane. The Oseberg grave will also be included in this essay because of its relevance for the volva interpretation and gender discourse in earlier research.

In this paper, I discuss layer 23 from the 2015 excavation at the harbor in the black earth, Birka, through identification and conservation of a number of iron objects from this specific layer. These objects are in many cases broken and worn out, which indicates that they have been thrown away on purpose. Traces of bone and charcoal in the layer supports the idea that the harbor has been a place where people left their waste. Many of these excavated objects can be related to craftsmanship and/or the ships gear.

In the mid-10th century the import of dirhems from Eastern Europe came to an end. From being a steady flow of Islamic coins from Viking-Age Russia the focus shifted to western European coins such as German and English. Most studies on Viking Age coins and hoards in general have focused on determine the individual coin type and the composition of the hoard in whole. Others have focused on the more social aspects on why the hoards even exist. My study will investigate if it is possible to detect if there are different networks behind the import of coins by analysing the composition of hoards in the transitional phase. By using a correspondence analysis and also GIS analysis, I want to investigate differences and similarities in the hoards composition. The correspondence analysis will show if there are any affiliations between different variables, which a means recurring pattern or combination of data represented in the hoards such as mints, size, TPQ and find distribution on Gotland etc. These presence or absence of affiliations will then be discussed if they could indicate different networks operating the coin import. The material the study is based on are 10th century hoards from Gotland which contain coins from late Islamic dynasties, Germany, England and the Byzantine empire. The result shows no specific indications in the hoards composition on different networks or groups that imported different kinds of coins. There is however a chance that different local groups have imported the same type of coins. The correspondence analysis also clearly visualizes the shift from the import of Islamic dirhams to Western coins.

This is an experimental study of a few glass objects from the Birka Excavations 1987-1989. A number of beads and waste from bead production have been studied. A group of these objects have also been examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive detectors (EDS) to comparatively analyze the materials composition. Experiments to recreate the technique in which they were made have been attempted with various results. The techniques found in the beads include the use of murrini, stringer, dotting, and blown-drawn. However the waste material available to this study only suggests that in Birka, beads where made with the winding technique and ornamented with stringer and possibly dotting. The glass used was heated in clay crucibles and some rods where premade.

Studies on work-related skeletal lesions are a vital part of answering questions about how animals were used by prehistoric populations. In Sweden, this sort of research has mainly been done on cattle. Horse (equus) bones are simply to uncommon to find and the osteometric methods are severely lacking. This essay aims to use previous Swedish as well as foreign research on the subject, as a basis for a new study focusing on horse bones from different contexts. The aim is to find indications of whether or not the relationship between humans and horses has affected the way these animals were treated, and later disposed of after death. A new perspective of theory and methodology will be used to tackle the problems that have previously haunted osteological research on horse bones. By combining osteological analysis and microarchaeology the goal is to reach for information that in the past has been hard to come by.  Swedish osteology needs to step out of its comfort zone and start looking at animal bones as more than a statistic foundation.