Dödens uppluckrade identiteter
Gravar på gränsen mellan hedniskt och kristet
The Christianisation of Sweden is not much about religion. Instead, there is much to be gained by looking at it as a colonial situation with changing social identities and power structures. This is evident by the prevalence of hybridisations in the archaeological material.Some of the material categories that show the clearest example of changes are the burials from the 9th century up until about AD 1200. This is exemplified by two different Iron Age burial sites in Stockholm county, Uppland, Sweden: RAÄ 59, Valsta, in Norrsunda parish and RAÄ 40, Lilla Ullevi, in Bro parish; They both show hybridisation by involving older elements with newer ones during a time period when the church was not quite established in the region yet.The Christianisation of Sweden is a colonial situation, but the research tradition has often also used a colonial lens from the 19th and early 20th century in its approach to the period. This means that the same questions, interpretations and conclusions, often based on written sources, have been continuously reused for a long time, which has had consequences for the archaeology in Sweden.