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During the early 17th century, Finns migrated within the Swedish kingdom from interior Finland to virgin spruce forest areas in Sweden. There they settled in finnmarker, areas with Finnish-speaking households conducting large-scale swidden cultivation, huuhta in Finnish. Eventually they were called Forest Finns. Their farms were centered around a rökstuga, a living-house with a stone-oven without a chimney.Four Forest Finn farms have been excavated. The article discusses how the Finnish households were integrated in the local and regional market economy, thus acquiring the same kind of things also used by their Swedish neighbours, including status and prestige objects, e.g. display ceramics and window glass panes. At the same time, they continued to live in their traditional rökstugor, which owing to different space, light and warmth compared to a Swedish cottage with an open fireplace, conditioned other relations between the individuals of the households. The process of change, Swedification, of the Forest Finns was not unilinear.Ethnicity is the social process of meeting between two or more groups of people forming ‘us-and-them’-relations. The early-modern Forest Finns is an example of complex change as concerns materiality involved in ethnicity, in this case triggered by the meeting of ‘the others’ as a result of migration.

In this article, a dataset of burial grounds is considered in relation to the question of a probable demographic crisis in the 6th century AD, as a consequence of the cosmic event in AD 536-7. Although indications of an extensive crisis can be seen in a wide range of sources, it is difficult to make any estimate of the extent of the crisis. Some hypothetical social consequences are, however, discussed and compared to the Black Death in the 14th century AD. For the 6th century crisis, a widespread upheaval and renegotiation of property rights for land that has been abandoned is suggested, together with a possible redefinition of the nature of property rights. After the crisis there seem to be increased possibilities for private ownership of land, which enables the acquisition of large landholdings among a limited number of people. This is related to an increasingly stratified social structure in the Late Iron Age, where an elite is thought to have been able to take advantage of the crisis for their own benefit. It is argued that this is reflected in the Late Iron Age/Vendel Period burial grounds and their locations, as these might have been used to manifestrenewed property rights.

The emergence of Gamla Uppsala as a centre has been discussed for centuries. During the past years, old excavations have been incorporated into the frame-work of the archaeological research project Gamla Uppsala - the emergence of a mythical centre (GUAM), with GIS and excavations in combination with survey results and reinterpretations, as old excavations are placed in relation to new investigations. This article is based on the results from excavations in 2011 and 2015 and studies of previous investigations in the light of new results. We have chosen to present a stand der forschung of what we currently know about the 6th to 8th century estate in the centre of Gamla Uppsala, how it emerges as part of an un-paralleled monumentalization of the area, what we know of a Migration Period prelude and its transformation during the 8th/9th century. Today we can discuss the relationship between a multitude of elements in the complex, such as in-dividual mounds, the great hall, workshops, economy buildings, fences, paved courtyards, post-row monuments and not least landscape development and resource exploitation on a broad scale. In our strategic work, previously isolated monuments are tied together in a project that will continue in the years ahead. Gamla Uppsala - the emergence of a mythical centre

Review of The Viking Age in Åland. Edited by Joonas Ahola, Frog & Jenni Lucenius.Finnish Academy of Science and Letters Annales. Academiae ScientiarumFennicae. Humaniora 372. Sastamala 2014. Pp. 427; indices. 978-951-41-1098-6 paperback.

The literature is rich in descriptions of different forms of commons in the later pre-industrial agrarian society of northern Sweden. The industrial era resulted in a noticeable shift in the use of forests and in the introduction of firmer property rights and rigid land boundaries. A large number of commons from the pre-industrial period has never been officially registered and can therefore partly be seen as 'hidden' resources. The objective of this paper is to discuss the concept of commons in relation to a variable archaeological record, mainly associated with the forested regions of Sweden. Is it possible to identify commons by an archaeological landscape approach and to what extent can a long-term perspective contribute to current theoretical discussions concerned with commons? Commons as Hidden Resources - Analysing the Shifting Roles of the Commons in Rural Development Processes

In this article, a newly excavated Iron Age farm with an associated gravefield and its surrounding landscape outside the city of Lund is examined, discussed, analysed and placed in its context. The biography of the farm spans about 400 years, from the Late Roman Iron Age to the Early Vendel Period. Through all phases, the farm remains on a restricted plot and shows both stability and prosperity. It is argued that the farm, based on its size, the number and types of buildings and the find material, can be considered a magnate farm. As magnates, the farm owners must have played an important role in the local community during a time when society underwent change and transition. The farm and the farm owners’ relation to Uppåkra and the rulers of the central place are discussed.

The three Swedish gold collars are unique goldsmith masterpieces of the Migration Age, owing to the great number of small beings that inhabit them: animals, humans and hybrids. While most of these figurines were individually carved into the gold and ornated with filigree or granulation, the small masks of the Ålleberg collar stand out as seemingly being replicates. Which method was used to replicate these originally 43 masks on the collar? A thorough study of these masks is presented as well as of the bracteates decorated with replicated or unique masks. Two different techniques are proposed for the manufacture of these small masks, both going back to Roman goldsmith techniques. One of these techniques was widely used in the antique and Germanic worlds and it has its roots in Greek methods of the Archaic period. The technique used to make the masks on the Ålleberg collar and on a few of the bracteates is of a much rarer type, which only has parallels in Roman goldsmith techniques of the 2nd – 4th A.D.

This article presents an overview of methods used in south Scandinavian archaeology for identification and delineation of settlement space functions. The overview includes commonly utilised archaeological approaches, such as artefact distribution studies and inferences based on assessment of house and settlement morphologies, as well as archaeobotanical, geochemical and geophysical approaches to functional analysis. The theoretical potential and limitations of each presented functional parameter are outlined and thereafter applied and compared using material from five case study sites in east-central Jutland, Halland and Bohuslän. The presentation of the site of Gedved Vest in east-central Jutland also incorporates a comparison of two common approaches to geochemical sampling: 1) sampling and analysis of soil retrieved from feature fills, and 2) horizontal sampling of soil from the interface between the topsoil (A/ Ap) and the subsoil (C) - horizons along a pre-determined grid.

Ormen Friske, a Swedish reconstruction of a Viking ship, was wrecked in a North Sea gale in 1950, with the loss of its crew of 15 young men. At the time, the disaster was attributed to bad construction and poor seamanship, and this is still the customary interpretation. Although the wreck was available for examination, Swedish authorities decided that it should be discarded; subsequently, the tragedy was never seriously investigated. Any role by the US in the bombing of the island of Heligoland that coincided in time and place with the sinking of the vessel was also denied or downplayed. The bombing as such was later acknowledged by US military authorities, but its possible part in the Ormen Friske disaster is still unclear. The event is here examined within the context of the Cold War. In particular, the Swedish consulate in Hamburg wished to avoid annoying the British authorities, who at the time ruled this sector of occupied Germany. Several aspects from working with contemporary and recent sources are discussed. Some parts of the ship and personal belongings of the crew are held in museums or kept by relatives and are here treated as bearers of the narrative of the tragedy.

This article contextualizes some one hundred mid- to late 5 th century solidi and two hundred silver coins found in the grave of King Childeric in Tournai, Belgium. We argue that the coins in the grave must have been assembled for the specific purpose of the burial rite and that some of the participants in the burial rite were allowed to look at the coins before the grave was sealed. We argue that they were capable of identifying the various coins because they were literate and familiar with Roman iconography. It follows that the solidus hoard together with the other coins is a meaningful composition that has been manipulated for deological purposes by Clovis himself. The coins must hence be explained in a manner that considers Clovis’ ideological motives, as the grave and its contents run contrary to all usual explanations.