Ad sanctos – de dödas plats under medeltiden

Ad sanctos – placing the dead in the Middle Ages By Anders Andrén Social analysis of graves is a recurring and problematic question in all kinds of archaeology. The question is also present in analyses of the often simple and uniform Christian graves from the Middle Ages. In contrast to pagan burials, in which social differences were mainly expressed through form and layout, it was above all the location of the grave that had social significance in the Christian Middle Ages. Normative sources like church laws clearly show that the fundamental principle in medieval burial customs was a principle of spatial closeness to holy spaces such as churches, altars, and relics. Ideas of closeness to the holy guided the principle of burial place in canon laws and Scandinavian church laws. According to Norwegian ecclesiastical laws the dead should be buried in different social zones in the churchyard, from slaves in the periphery to the king’s men by the church walls. Analyses of several almost completely excavated medieval cemeteries in Lund show that the normative principle of closeness to the holy functioned in practice, although the actual spatial setting changed successively through time. In the 11th century no burials took place inside the churches, except maybe in one case, but in the surrounding cemeteries the graves were placed in different zones. Wooden coffins on charcoal were placed around the church, whereas more simple graves without coffins and graves containing lepers were placed in the periphery, along the border of the churchyard. In the 12th and 13th centuries some people were buried in stone or brick tombs inside the churches, above all in the naves. Some dead were also buried in stone tombs placed close to the churches. The people buried in the tombs inside and outside the churches probably represented the urban elite of the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 14th, 15th and early 16th centuries the burial customs were more uniform. Above all a difference between burials inside and outside churches can be discerned. Besides, members of the elite were buried by altars in the cathedral, and some archbishops even had a special grave chapel erected by the cathedral. Thus, the access to the holy was successively expanded during the Middle Ages in Lund. Finally, it is important to stress that the principle of spatial closeness to the holy was a principle not only for placing the dead but also for placing the living. Access to the cemetery, the church and parts of the church was regulated by church laws and customs. The differentiated access was also stressed by the very layout, architecture and furnishing of the church. Thus, graves were part of a large spatial configuration of the church, and consequently should be analysed in relation to the church building and its adornment

Integrating animal tracking datasets at a continental scale for mapping Eurasian lynx habitat

Aim: The increasing availability of animal tracking datasets collected across many sites provides new opportunities to move beyond local assessments to enable de-tailed and consistent habitat mapping at biogeographical scales. However, integrating wildlife datasets across large areas and study sites is challenging, as species' varying responses to different environmental contexts must be reconciled. Here, we compare approaches for large-area habitat mapping and assess available habitat for a recolo-nizing large carnivore, the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx).Location: Europe.Methods: We use a continental-scale animal tracking database (450 individuals from 14 study sites) to systematically assess modelling approaches, comparing (1) global strategies that pool all data for training versus building local, site-specific models and combining them, (2) different approaches for incorporating regional variation in habi-tat selection and (3) different modelling algorithms, testing nonlinear mixed effects models as well as machine-learning algorithms.Results: Testing models on training sites and simulating model transfers, global and local modelling strategies achieved overall similar predictive performance. Model performance was the highest using flexible machine-learning algorithms and when incorporating variation in habitat selection as a function of environmental variation. Our best-performing model used a weighted combination of local, site-specific habi-tat models. Our habitat maps identified large areas of suitable, but currently unoccu-pied lynx habitat, with many of the most suitable unoccupied areas located in regions that could foster connectivity between currently isolated populations.Main Conclusions: We demonstrate that global and local modelling strategies can achieve robust habitat models at the continental scale and that considering regional variation in habitat selection improves broad-scale habitat mapping. More generally, we highlight the promise of large wildlife tracking databases for large-area habitat mapping. Our maps provide the first high-resolution, yet continental assessment of lynx habitat across Europe, providing a consistent basis for conservation planning for restoring the species within its former range.publishedVersio

Religious transformations in the Middle Ages: towards a new archaeological agenda

The study of religious change in Europe between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology but has been riven by period, denominational and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting a holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, comparative perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives

Cohort Profile: Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study

The Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study was established to assess the prevalence of chronic airflow obstruction, a key characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and its risk factors in adults (≥40 years) from general populations across the world. The baseline study was conducted between 2003 and 2016, in 41 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Oceania, and collected high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry from 28 828 participants. The follow-up study was conducted between 2019 and 2021, in 18 sites across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. At baseline, there were in these sites 12 502 participants with high-quality spirometry. A total of 6452 were followed up, with 5936 completing the study core questionnaire. Of these, 4044 also provided high-quality pre- and post-bronchodilator spirometry. On both occasions, the core questionnaire covered information on respiratory symptoms, doctor diagnoses, health care use, medication use and ealth status, as well as potential risk factors. Information on occupation, environmental exposures and diet was also collected

Lund : tomtindelning, ägostruktur, sockenbildning

The aim of the present report is to discuss a medieval town - in this case Lund - primarily on the basis of the documentary material. In the first place the sources concerning medieval conditions in the town have been worked through and systematized. In the second place follows an analysis of the sources, dealing among other things with the structure of ownership and the division into parishes in the Middle Ages. Only in the third place is the report directed towards consideration of principles mainly as regards the relationship between town and country in the early medieval period. The report has been written in connection with the present author's work on a doctoral thesis about urbanization in medieval Denmark. [...