The Castle of Kastelholm – Medieval archaeology and natural sciences in a joint project

The castle of Kastelholm is Åland's only larger building with a medieval past if the churches are left out. lt is situated on the shore of a bay in the north-east of the main island. First mentioned in 1388 as a property left by Bo Jonsson Grip, the castle later came into the hands of the crown which soon afterwards put it on lease to different landlords for several hundred years with short interruptions. After the 17th century the castle slowly disappeared from the scene and feil into a state of decay. At the turn of the 19th century antiquarian interest for the castle was stimulated by the Finnish archaeological commission in its attempts to restore the castles of Finland. Archaeological work at Kastelholm started in 1950 and was followed up with excavations on varying scales during the 60's and 70's. In 1983 the present five-year project was started. A problem during the earlier excavations has been understanding the different building phases which the castle has undergone and establishing the relationship between the rather fragmentary remains and the archaeological finds. As part of the five-year plan an intensiv study of Kastelholm and its immediate surroundings will be undertaken. During the course of this work medieval archaeologists will with the help of different natural sciences try to recreate the natural environment and conditions for the medieval inhabitant of the castle and at the same time reconstruct its different building phases

Från skärva till kärl : ett bidrag till vardagslivets historia i Uppsala.

Abstract From Sherd to Pot. A Contribution to the History of Everyday Life in Uppsala tackles the question: how is the culturally created reality produced, fixed, and changed, and how can this be related to the social structure as a whole? The hypothesis is that changes in society result in new cultural patterns which can be read in objects. The work consists of three main parts, an extensive summary in English, an appendix with archaeological data from the Studentholmen, Atle, Sandbacken and Bryggaren blocks in Uppsala and a catalogue with drawings of c. 850 different vessels. The object of study is Uppsala, an urban setting of significance for many people in Central Sweden in historical times. This study aims to produce new knowledge to explain changes in the households of Uppsala in the period 1160—1702. The study proceeds from the hypothesis that changes in society are also reflected in the vessels used in the households. To clarify the discussion of changes through time, potsherds are regarded here as a form of archaeological source material which, in certain general conditions, can increase our knowledge of the way people think and behave. Potsherds are viewed as fragments of a larger historical stage on which roles were played by the people and the objects with which they surrounded themselves. The processing of the material involved ordering the occurrence of different characteristics and distinctive elements in the sherds. The account show the span in wares and shapes in order to answer the question: what do the vessels look like? The processing of the material distinguish chronological variations, a time scale, which answers the question: when did particular vessels first come into use in Uppsala? To understand whether the changes are the result of changes in the mentality of the people who used the vessels or are a consequence of competition between different types of material used for making vessels, I confront the archaeological sources with sources describing the development of some functionally equivalent vessels of alternative material. The third, concluding part is an attempt to summarize and present an overall view of the chronology and forces behind cultural change in Uppsala. The vessels are used as a source for cultural history. The empirical findings from the second part of the study are put in a broader societal context. Information about changes in vessels, the care and consumption of food and drink, the educational level in society, and other changes in Uppsala can be summed up in a model with six phases, showing the approximate dates of changes and some of the underlying motive forces

"Positive people always win" : en studie av hur kvinnor som livestreamar på Twitch.tv upplever interaktionen med sina tittare i kanalchatten

I denna studie har vi undersökt kvinnor som livestreamar sitt datorspelande på hemsidan Twitch.tv och deras erfarenheter gällande chattkommentarer på deras livesändningar. Vi har främst fokuserat på negativa chattkommentarer och hur dessa påverkar kvinnorna, då tidigare forskning redan har visat på att kvinnor utsätts för fler trakasserier än män, både generellt på internet och på Twitch.tv (Nakandala, Ciampaglia, Su & Ahn. 2016). Vidare ville vi också se hur kvinnorna hanterar dessa negativa kommentarer, och vad de tycker om kommunikationen i sin chattkanal generellt. För att samla in data utformade vi en nätbaserad enkät genom Google Forms, som vi sedan skickade ut till kvinnliga sändare genom Twitch.tv eller meddelanden på Facebook. Enkäten var anonym och innehöll både kvantitativa frågor samt kvalitativa frågor med frisvar. För att analysera vår data tog vi hjälp av John Sulers The online disinhibition effect samt The social identity model of deindividuation effects av Lea and Spears, båda teorier tolkade av Fox and Tang (2014). Även Burroughs och Ramas forskning kring Twitch.tv har varit till hjälp. Resultatet och analysen av datan visade att många kvinnor påverkades av de negativa chattkommentarerna, och även om några menade att detta är normalt för en offentlig person uttryckte andra oro och önskade att de blev mer respekterade på hemsidan och inom spelvärlden överlag. Alla förklarade dock att de huvudsakligen får positiva kommentarer, och många valde att fokusera på positiva meddelanden och fördelarna med interaktionen på Twitch.tv snarare än negativa nackdelarna.In this study we aimed to examine the experiences of female broadcasters on the gaming website Twitch.tv, regarding chat comments in their live stream channel. We mainly focused on negative chat comments and their impact on the broadcasting women, since previous research has proven women to get more targeted by online harassment than men, both in general but also on the website itself (Nakandala, Ciampaglia, Su & Ahn. 2016). Furthermore, we also wanted to explore how the broadcasters deal with the comments, and what they think of the community's communication overall. To collect data we designed an online survey through Google Forms that was sent out to female streamers via Twitch.tv and Facebook groups. The survey was anonymous and included both quantitative questions as well as qualitative questions with open text answers. In order to aid the analysis of our data, we used John Suler’s The online disinhibition effect as well as The social identity model of deindividuation effects“ by Lea and Spears, both interpreted by Fox and Tang (2014). Burroughs and Rama’s (2015) research about Twitch.tv was also used. The result and analysis showed that the women were indeed affected by the negative chat comments, and although some argued that this is normal for a public person, others expressed concerns about being objectified and wished for more respect in the gaming community overall. However, all agreed that they get more positive messages than negative, and seem to focus more on them

6 Material Culture and Diasporic Experiences: A Case of Medieval Hanse Merchants in the Baltic

The Hanseatic League, a late medieval merchant association with roots in northern German towns, is credited with the establishment of extensive economic and geographic connections and considerable impact on the development of urban culture around the Baltic and the North Sea. Its merchants, regularly crossing the Seas and settling in foreign ports, created a network of diasporic communities often maintaining close physical and emotional connections with their home towns. This chapter focuses on the late medieval German diaspora in Kalmar (Sweden) and Tallinn (Estonia) and examines cultural and material practices of these communities. It theorizes about the role and meaning of everyday material culture for Hanseatic merchants and their families, and investigates how the material objects figured in the experience of relocation. It discusses the centrality of everyday things in rebuilding the migrants’ lives after relocation, constructing a sense of diaspora community and maintaining connections with families they left behind