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

Americans At Heart But Not On Paper: A Normative Study of Amnesty in U.S. Immigration Politics

The initiative Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is an example of the use of amnesty within American immigration politics. Enacted in June 2012, it addresses the delicate situation of young undocumented immigrants so called childhood arrivals. They are part of the society in many ways, but not on paper. The dilemma is characterized by a conflict of interest – the rights of the sovereign state to control its borders and territory, and the individual's right to belong to a society where it can get political membership and protection. The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the two perspectives and to answer the question of whether granting amnesty to childhood arrivals can be justified. I use the normative, “given-that” method as the central aspect of the question is best answered with reference to values. The analysis is centered around the value “sovereignty” regarding the state and the right to membership in a society regarding the individual. I conclude that while amnesty can be justified with reference to the rights of the individual, it cannot on behalf of state sovereignty. I therefore find that other values are of importance to the state regarding decisions in immigration politics

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