Estrid - moder, mäktig och maskulin? : Berättelser om en rekonstruktion av en senvikingatida kvinna

Abstract

This paper investigates the stories that unfold and are created after an excavation in 1990s in Sweden of a few Late Viking Age burials. The excavation is followed by excavation reports, articles and an exhibition that also showcases a reconstruction made of one of the buried persons. The analysis is made from three perspectives; from the archaeological, the museum and the municipality. It is demonstrated that the stories presented on different levels contain both fictional and factual components. By acknowledging this, it is argued, it is possible for everyone to become involved in the interpretations and discussions of the past. The research paper appears in an inter-disciplinary book where several researchers from different academic disciplines investigate what is fiction and what is reality in a variety of societal areas, and how the relationship between the two concepts fiction and reality is full of tensions