Huset vid vägens slut
en studie om hussymbolik under bronsåldern i relation till gravar
Nordic Bronze AgeHouse symbolismHouse urnsCult housesLonghousesTradeMediterranean areaAncestor cultNordisk bronsålderHussymbolikHusurnorKulthusLånghusHandelMedelhavetFörfäderskult
During the Nordic Bronze Age, houses were not exclusively connected with profane contexts, but did also feature in burial places, a peculiar fact when considering the careful separation of settlements and graves. What kind of houses do we find in these sacred contexts? What did these houses stand for? Why was the house symbolism chosen to accompany the dead? And why did the house symbolism flourish during the Nordic Bronze Age? To answer these questions three representatives for the house symbolism in Sweden are discussed in more detail, such as the burial in longhouses, peculiar houses called cult houses and house urns. Further, the phenomenon has been put in its temporal, geographic, social and ideological context, where aspects such as trade and settlement structure are presented. The house symbolism is, however, not confined to northern Europe. Through comparison with contemporary parallels in southern Europe and ethnohistoric analogies different possible viewpoints are detected.