The archaeology of the Bronze Age cultural landscape - research goals, methods, and results

The article describes the methods used to determine Bronze Age peoples' use of the landscape in southern Scandinavia. The study is part of the Ystad Project, a large, interdisciplinary project with the aim of studying people and landscape from the advent of agriculture about 6000 years ago. Methods used included studies of archive data and maps, fieldwalking, and excavation. Results showed that the main settlement zone followed the coast, with only sporadic indications of activity further inland

Edge-wear analysis in Archaeology. The current state of research

The analytical method by which macroscopic and above all microscopic traces of wear are studied, in order to reach conclusions about how flint tools were employed, has been applied with varying success in western archaeology since the 1960s. Two main approaches can be distinguished, where each approach examines somewhat different wear traces using different microscopic equipment. The scanning electron microscope provides a complement to these. The problems associated with each approach are discussed, and the article concludes with a brief description of examples of how the method has been used in archaeology

Where have all the Settlements Gone? Field Survey Methods for Locating Bronze and Iron Age Settlements in a Cultivated Landscape

The article is a description and evaluation of extensive and intensive field survey as a means of locating sites from the bronze and early iron ages in the cultivated landscape of southern Sweden. It includes a discussion of other field survey efforts and recommendations about survey technique. Surface survey in December proved to be a fairly successful means of locating bronze age remains in clay till soils

Review of John C. Whittaker, Flintknapping. Making and understanding stone tools. University of Texta Press, 1994.

Review of John C. Whittaker. Flintknapping, Making and understanding stone tools

Different Strokes for Different Folks. Possible Reasons for Variation in Quality of Knapping

The article describes the results of a survey of contemporary flintknappers. the aim of the survey was to investigate whether it was possible to identify inherent qualities in knappers which would indicate that some individuals possess an inherent ability or talent for knapping. Control over such individuals would provide a means of enhancing one's status through well-made knapped objects. It is argued that most members of a stone age society would have been capable of ordinary knapping. However, there are elements of natural aptitude whch enabled certain individuals to excel at flintknapping so that they were able to create objects of exceptions size and beaury

Talking Axes, Social Daggers

Tingen med vilka vi omger oss har symboliska såväl som praktiska innebörder - även bristen på krusiduller på saker är ju i sig en markering. utmaningen för arkeologen är att kunna utläsa hur människor använder sin materiella kultur i sociala manipulationer såväl som för att utföra praktiska göromål. Ett viktigt sätt att kunna utöva makt över tingen är vid tillverkning, där det finns möjlighet att kontrollera något moment. Artikeln tar upp hur vi kan undersöka de sociala förutsättningarna för tillverkning av tingen. Exemplifiering gäller steget från talande yxor till social dolkar under sydskandinavisk neolitikum

The "Mental" in Monumental : Battle Axe Culture in megalithic tombs in southern Sweden

It is reasonable to consider that those who arranged the material accoutrements of mortuary practices, i.e. the burial, were making a more or less conscious statement about cultural identity. At least we archaeologists usually assume this to be so. An interesting case can be found in the mortuary practices ascribed to the Battle Axe culture from the later Middle Neolithic1 (2800–2350 cal BC) in southern Scandinavia. When we look at burials which we archaeologists ascribe to the Battle Axe culture we can identify several variations: flexed inhumation of a single individual in a stone-lined pit (referred to as flat-earth burial), flexed inhuma- tion of multiple individuals in a stone-lined pit, and cremation burial. Additionally, we often interpret the presence of Battle Axe artefacts and/or radi- ocarbon dates falling within this period in mega- lithic tombs as evidence that burial in such tombs was also part of the Battle Axe mortuary repertoire

Burial in the Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe Culture : questioning the myth of homogeneity

Since its publication in 1962, Mats P. Malmer’s book Jungneolithische Studien has heavily influenced subsequent work on the Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe Culture. Malmer characterized burial customs as strictly regulated and conservative. Recent archaeological activity in the province of Scania, southern Sweden, provides us with an augmented empirical basis for testing Malmer’s conclusions. In addition, osteological analyses give us new information on e.g. age and sex of buried individuals. The aim of the article is to re-examine Malmer’s tenants, using both his data and new data available to us, emphasizing variability rather than similarity. While the overall picture of homogeneity painted by Malmer remains, it is also apparent that the rigid strictures he emphasized did not fully apply