Ertebølle pottery in southern Sweden - a question of handicraft, networks and creolisation in a period of neolithisation

In this paper the Ertebølle pottery will be in focus, and it serves as an entrance for a short discussion of its role in the time in question, as part of networks, creolization, and in the neolithisation. The interpretation of the meaning of the ceramics and the materiality gives further perspectives to interpret this early pottery handicraft, its technological conditions and artistic design. In this respect the Ertebølle pottery, and its grand and prolonged scientific interest, once again challenge preconceived notions to interpret Stone Age societies, and the meaning of material culture in a wider social context

Scandinavian Cave Archaeology

Abstract in UndeterminedSince the second half of the nineteenth century Scandinavian caves have been studied from various angles, to answer questions about their location, dating, and use. There was intensive archaeological interest in caves in the nineteenth century and at the start of the twentieth century. This has continued without interruption in Norway. There has been much less archaeological research on caves in Sweden, with nothing like the breadth and depth of its counterpart in Norway. However, in the last few decades archaeological cave research has seen a renaissance in both Norway and Sweden. This has been integrated not only in studies of landscape archaeology but also on other topics concerning cultural history, such as their practical function and symbolic meaning. Here a study of the caves at Kullaberg in southernmost Sweden helps to put Scandinavian cave research into perspective

Certain humans, certain animals : attitudes in the long term

Do certain humans and animals have greater value than other humans and animals? The question will be discussed using some examples from pre-Christian burial practices and other depositions of human and animal bones in Scandinavia. During the pre-Christian period it seems that certain humans and certain animals were buried in graves made for the purpose, while other humans and animals were deposited in other contexts, for example in settlements and wetlands. The classification of species seems to be different from that in modern urban Western societies, and this raises questions concerning attitudes to animals and humans in the long term. Archaeological findings challenge the anthropocentric worldview of a stable human/animal division that has been one of the fundamentals for the development of modern Western societies

Animal graves: dog, horse and bear

Abstract in Undeterminedhe atJthor dlscusses the relalionship betwccn peaplc and animals in a lime perspective of millcllnia. The starting point is the pre-Chri stian. $can­ dinavl:m. animal graves ofJogs and hoJ'SCs. the Saami hear-graves, as wdl as animal burials urmodern time. TIle occurrence ofanimal graves In pre­ Christian time and the wide mnge ofways to dispose of human and animal bodics complica!c our understanding of the com;cpt of a grave The rclatlonshJp between people and anima15 is complcx. The animal burials rene\:l the cx isltllccofa longstanding and very close bond hc::tW(."Cll pcoplc and ;;ammats, wbleb is based on emotion, prestige and rhe tIIualising ofIl dynamit nahm:. II seems that peoplc posItion themseh~ in t!leir SUf­ roundmgs with a kind ofmentality th~t has a long lime span. This gives unexpc(;led vicws of lhe eulrunll inheritance, of the idea ofpcoplc as Ihe crown ofcreation, and ofthe way in which the maUllhreads are interwoven in ourcultural history

Neolithisation: a Scanian Perspective

Neolithisation - a Scanian Perspectiv

Archaeology and pre-Christian religions in Scandinavia

Abstract in Undetermined Archaeological research on pre-Christian religion has increased greatly during the last two decades. Studies of ritual and religion appear frequently in scholarly, popular and antiquarian publications of the 1990s. Selected publications in Scandinaviau archaeology are presented in order to characterise and discuss different approaches. Central theoretical and methodological questions are discussed, as well as the co-operation with other humanistic disciplines