Fornvännen

Sök artiklar

Senaste numret av Fornvännen. Innehållsförteckning och abstracts till 2009:4

Noge, Anna-Sara. 2009. Skärvstenshögar med människoben i norra Mälarområdet. (Burnt mounds containing human bones in the region north of Lake Mälaren). Fornvännen 104. Stockholm. Sid. 241-252.
Burnt mounds consisting of fire-cracked stones are a typical feature of Swedish Bronze Age sites. They have usually been interpreted as waste heaps. But their function and significance seems to have been more varied than that. The paper focuses on burnt mounds containing human bones in the region north of Lake Mälaren. A detailed study of 98 excavated mounds has aimed at getting closer to an explanation for why human bones were deposited in them. With various osteological aspects taken into consideration, the study shows that human bones have been found in about a third of the mounds and that the mounds with human bones more often have kerbs. The same range of artefact ty - pes is found both in mounds with and without human bones. A significant difference is that mounds with human bones contain more categories of artefacts, in some cases including bronze items. Nothing indicates that the bones were depo - sited after the primary use of the mound. The human bones may therefore have been deposited at the same time as the apparent waste. The author suggests that the burnt mounds should no longer be interpreted simply as waste heaps.
Anna-Sara Noge, Flogstavägen 49 C, 752 73 Uppsala. E-mail: anna.sara.noge@gmail.com

Gustafsson, Ny Björn. 2009. Vikingatida blästerskydd av sten och lera från Mälardalen. (Viking Period bellows shields made of stone and clay from the Lake Mälaren area). Fornvännen 104. Stockholm. Sid. 253-261.
This paper presents nine bellows shields made of stone from the Lake Mälaren area in Sweden. Previously such objects have predominantly been reported from western and southern Scandinavia, but evidently they were also used at East Scandinavian localities. Additionally a tenth possible bellows shield, made of a shard from a broken steatite vessel is presented. Along with the bellows shields of stone a number of ceramic bellow shields are also brought to light and some doubts are expressed as to the common notion that most so-called round clay tuyères or bellows nozzles are all-but impossible to separate from ditto loom weights. This, it is argued, partly builds on old misconceptions which might be dealt with through comparative studies and thorough experiments with traditionally equipped for - ges.
Ny Björn Gustafsson, Arkeologiska forskningslaboratoriet, Wallenberglaboratoriet, Se-106 91 Stockholm. E-mail: bjorn.gustafsson.ny@arklab.su.se

Bäck, Mathias. 2009. Vikingatida bebyggelse funnen utanför Birkas stadsvall. (Viking Period settlement identified outside Birka’s town rampart.) Fornvännen 104. Stockholm. Sid. 262-273
Recently discovered building remains between the town of Birka and the High Medieval village of Björkö offer the first firm evidence of domestic occupations outside the town walls in the Viking Period. Two buildings, one sunken-floor hut and one timber-frame house with, probably, horizontal plank walls, where excavated with the aid of amateur archaeologists. These buildings intertwine and may have been contemporaneous, at least for a while. Finds and radiocarbon analyses point toward a date for the occupation from around AD 750 to 870.
Mathias Bäck, Riksantikvarieämbetet, Avdelningen för arkeologiska undersökningar, UV Mitt, Instrumentvägen 19, SE-126 53 Hägersten. E-mail: mathias.back@raa.se

Nicklasson, Påvel. 2009. Birkas belägenhet. En 1800-talsdebatt med sentida ekon. (The location of Birka. A 19th century debate with recent echoes.) Fornvännen 104. Stockholm. Sid. 288-301
Birka is perennial focal point in Swedish historical and archaeological research. This paper relates a debate about Birka's location that raged in Sweden around 1850. A central participant was Johan Haquin Wallman (1792–1853). Wallman reacted to writings by Peter Wieselgren and Gustav Volmar Sylvander, who wish ed to place Birka at Birkenäs outside Kalmar. In fact this was Wallman’s own idea that he had proposed some thirty years before. Since then he had done everything possible to withdraw his rash hypothesis, as he had reached the conclusion that Birka must have been in the Lake Mälaren area.
Påvel Nicklasson, Silvergården 7B, SE-261 43 Landskrona. E-mail: pavelnicklasson@bahnhof.se

Jensen, Ola W. 2009. Sveriges och Finlands gemensamma forntid – en ambivalent historia. Idéer om forntiden, kulturarvsbegreppet och den nationella självbilden före och efter 1809. (Sweden’s and Finland’s shared prehistory – an ambivalent story. Ideas about the past, cultural heritage and national self-image before and after 1809.) Fornvännen 104. Stockholm. Sid. 288-301
200 years ago, in 1809, both the territory and the population of Sweden were radi - cally reduced due to the loss of Finland to Russia in the Finnish War (1808–09). Previously the Finnish people played a significant role in the construction of a Swedish national identity. An influential 18th century theory even implied that the Finns together with the Sami had been Sweden’s original settlers. Due to the outcome of the war and the era’s nationalistic movement, this model was suddenly challenged and by many scholars even rejected. In this paper I investigate this process and the role of archaeologists in the reconfiguration of national self images and concepts of cultural heritage before and after the year 1809.
Ola W. Jensen, Riksantikvarieämbetet, Box 5405, SE-114 84 Stockholm. E-mail: ola.jensen@raa.se

Debatt

Wienberg, Jes. Absider med mening. Sid. 302-305.

Lovén, Christian. Svar till Jes Wienberg. Sid. 306.

Runer, Johan. Lovén och absidernas innebörd. Sid. 306-309.

Korta meddelanden

Owe, Jan. Runstenen från Näle Mellangård i Vallentuna – ett arkivfynd. Sid. 310-312.

Frei, Karin Margarita. News on the geographical origin of the Gerum cloak’s raw material. Sid. 313-315.

Recensioner

Dahlberg, Markus. & Franzén, Kristina. (red.). Sockenkyrkorna. Kulturarv och bebyggelsehistoria. Anmälan av Jes. Wienberg. Sid. 316-317.

Bailey, Geoff. & Spikins, Penny. (red.). Mesolithic Europe. Anmälan av Lars Larsson. Sid. 318-319.

Fendin, Titti. (red.). Döden som straff. Glömda gravar på Galgbacken. Anmälan av A. Sanmark. Sid. 319-321.

Olausson, Michael. (red.). Hem till Jarlabanke. Jord, makt och evigt liv i östra Mälardalen under järnålder och medeltid. Anmälan av K. Svensson. Sid. 321-322.