This paper deals with the question of whether the symbolic language of the late Neolithic and middle Bronze Age was transferred from ceremonial monuments and barrows into the domestic sphere in the late Bronze Age. I will consider such elements as doorway orientation, the significance of boundaries and depositional practices to see if Early-Middle Iron Age settlements were indeed a major scene for ritual behaviour..

The intention of this essay is to put the light on and to discuss if there is a connection between a pre-Christian creation mythology and naked rocks on prehistoric sacred places in Scandinavia. Archaeological as well as historical materials are studied. The historical material is mostly from Snorre Sturlasons Asasagan with the explanation of the creation of the world. In this story the world was built from the body of a killed and deposited giant named Ymer. Almost the same myth is told in all Indo-European countries.

In 1886 Hans Hildebrand received a Bronze Age hoard found in a field that belonged to Eskelhem´s rectory. A record was made where Hildebrand presented and documented the artifacts. The following year Oscar Montelius reviewed the artifacts, which he described as horse gears. He compared the horse gears with similar artifacts found in Europe that roughly had the same dating in order to trace the origin of the hoard.  Montelius conclusion was that the hoard was created on Gotland around 500 BC.

Andersson, J. 2008. Bildstenarna och den muntliga traditionen på Gotland under yngre järnålder. The Picture Stones and the Oral Tradition of Gotland During the Late Iron Age. Högskolan i Kalmar ht 2008.This is a study of the picture stones of Gotland and the oral tradition connected to them.

This essay is about Late Iron Age settlement and its production. I want to define the nature ofthree different workplaces on Bornholm, Denmark, and compare them. My aim is to see if itis possible to define a workplace through the traces of the craftsmanship. Several materials areselected in this essay and the analysis provides different perspective on workplaces in the LateIron Age in Scandinavia. The results of the analysis between the three workplacesAgerbygård, Baggård and Kanonhøj shows that Baggård have more traces of melting of bronsthan any other of the places.

When the Iron spirals investigated in this paper saw the light again no one looked at them as nothing more than decoration. It was first during the 2011 excavation in Old Uppsala that the symbolism of the items no longer could be ignored. The spirals of Old Uppsala lay along the walls of the great hall, which stood upon one of the human constructed plateaus in the area. The hall had been burned down and then cleared of all lumber. Then the iron spirals had been placed in the positions and then everything was sealed with a layer of clay.A study of the artifact began with the purpose to contextualize and interpret the iron spiral.

The aim of this work is to give a broader and more nuanced picture of the use of locks and keys during the Iron Age, in particular the Late Iron Age, in the Lake Mälaren region. This has been done by comparing two buildings: the hall on Helgö and the living quarters in the garrison on Birka. Here we can see two very different areas where locks and keys were important parts of the daily life. The study also includes a typology of padlocks based on the findings from the same places as the building study and their surroundings..

This paper deals with the question of whether the symbolic language of the late Neolithic and middle Bronze Age was transferred from ceremonial monuments and barrows into the domestic sphere in the late Bronze Age. I will consider such elements as doorway orientation, the significance of boundaries and depositional practices to see if Early-Middle Iron Age settlements were indeed a major scene for ritual behaviour..

In this essay I have chosen to write about graves, settlements and historical, important central places during the Late Iron Age and the introduction of Christianity in the east of Blekinge. The reason why I have chosen to write about this is because the area has many ancient monuments and not much have been written about the area. The main question is who where the people who lived there and why did they choose to settle there..

By examine cremated remains from graves dated to Late Iron Age I wanted to find out what sorts of animals were placed in the graves. But also to see if the animal sacrifices had any connection to the Old Norse religion. The osteological material that were analysed were from both cremated humans and animals and had been dated to Viking Age. The material is from burial ground 59 at Laxare, Boge parish on Gotland. In addition to the human remains, the material contains bones from horse, cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dog, cat, bear, birds and fish.

This essay is focused on the re-use during the Bronze Age of the Stone Age passage grave RAÄ 85 in Mysinge, Öland. To increase the knowledge of the phenomena of re-use in general and that which occurred in Mysinge passage grave in particular I?ve looked at other forms of re-use on Öland and the re-use of passage graves in Falbygden. The research has been limited to the Bronze Age. My goal has been to see what this might tell us about the relationship people during the Bronze Age had towards the abstract subject of ?non-existence?, in other words death.

This paper deals with prehistoric charred organic material, interpreted as bread, found in graves and in the underlying settlement at Kalvshälla, Järfälla parish in Uppland. The aim was to categorize the organic material morphologically and with the help of Fourier transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to see whether it was bread or not. Material from 13 graves (dated to Late Roman Iron Age until Viking Age) and 3 finds from the settlement have been analysed. Differences were noted both in shape, porosity and structure. Some of the material has been interpreted as cereal based foodstuff instead of bread due to morphological discrepancies.

This paper deals with archaeological prospecting for the purpose of finding a prehistoric settlement in Alsike hage, Alsike parish, Uppland. The methods being used are soil phosphate analysis, electromagnetic survey and settlement analysis. Two 20x20 meters areas have been prospected. As Alsike hage contains several Late Iron Age burial fields, large splendid zones for settlement location, closeness to water as well as farmland there was a hope of locating remains of prehistoric settlement in the area. None of the prospected areas showed any distinct evidence of settlement remains.

This essay is focused on the re-use during the Bronze Age of the Stone Age passage grave RAÄ 85 in Mysinge, Öland. To increase the knowledge of the phenomena of re-use in general and that which occurred in Mysinge passage grave in particular I?ve looked at other forms of re-use on Öland and the re-use of passage graves in Falbygden. The research has been limited to the Bronze Age. My goal has been to see what this might tell us about the relationship people during the Bronze Age had towards the abstract subject of ?non-existence?, in other words death.

This paper deals with hill-forts located on and directly south of Selaön, in the center of Mälardalen, Södermanland, dated to the late roman period and the migration period. Of special interest is differences and similarities between the forts when it comes to their morphology and the hills where they were built. Furthermore, their landscape has been examined and I have tried to put the hill-forts in relation to any iron age settlements..