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Three-dimensional (3D) laser scanners are becoming increasingly more affordable and user-friendly, making 3D-modeling tools more widely available to researchers in various countries and disciplines. In archaeology, 3D-modeling has the particular advantages of facilitating the documentation and analysis of objects that are fragile, rare, and often difficult to access. We have previously shown that 3D-modeling is a highly useful tool for shape analysis of archaeological bone material, due to the high measurement accuracy inherent in the latest generation of 3D laser scanners (Sholts et al. 2010; 2011). In this work, we explore the utility of 3D-modeling as a tool for Viking Age artefact analysis. To test the usefulness of 3D-modeling when analyzing artefacts with a very complex morphology, we chose highly ornate Viking Age baroque shaped brooches as study objects. These baroque shaped brooches constitute a group of dress ornaments mainly encountered in eastern Viking Age Scandinavia. Due to their large cast and/or attached bosses they obtain an almost baroque appearance, hence their name (cf. Jansson 1984: p. 81). They appear in two major versions, i.e. circular or equal armed, and in two kinds of material, i.e. silver- and copper-based alloys. Because of the position of bronze brooches in burial contexts, it appears they were used to fasten the cape or shawl in the female dress (cf. Jansson 1984: p. 75ff., Aagård 1984: p. 96ff.; Neiß 2006, figs. 3, 4; Capelle 1962: p. 106). For the present work a recently excavated brooch from Denmark was analyzed, together with three Russian brooches with nearly iconic status in the field of Viking Age studies. In the three case studies, we investigated possible uses of 3D-modeling for artefact analysis, artefact reconstruction, and tool mark and motif analysis. Exploring the usefulness of 3D-modeling for these purposes allowed us to draw conclusions regarding how 3D-analysis can be best incorporated into future artefact analysis. In addition, the case studies allowed us to gain new insights about the baroque shaped brooches and their uses. Forskningsfinansiärer: Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, Svenska institutet (Visby-programmet), Kungliga vitterhets historie och antikvitets akademin (Montelius minnesfond); Svenska fornminnesforeningen 3D-laserskanning som verktyg vid vikingatidsstudier

Det stora intresset för "den egna historien" i form av släktforskning, gårds- och bybistoria och hembygdsforskning, har skapat ett brett behov av god handledningslitteratur. Författaren Sven Lindqvist försökte 1978 med "Gräv där Du står" att vidga "barfotaforskarnas" verksambetsfält från släktforskning och traditionell hembygdsforskning till studiet av den egna arbetsplatsens historia. Ett vällovligt irutiativ. "Verktyget" som "barfotaforskaren" behövde var just Lindqvists egen bok, enligt författaren själv. Man behöver dock inte vara särdeles väl bevandrad ilokalhistoriskt material för att inse att Lindqvists "verktyg" helt saknade skärpa. "Verktyget" för att nå "arbetarnas sanna historia" var slött redan innan "barfotaforskaren" ens hann hugga i sten, vilket naturligtvis blev det självklara resultatet om enkom Lindqvists bok användes som handledning. Till skillnad från Lindqvists "Gräv där Du står" har Thomas Aurelius med Gårdens och hembygaens historia. Del 1 och 2 Uppsala 1988 arbetat fram en verkligt kunnig och användbar handledning för den lokalhistoriskt intresserade. Tidskriften Kronos: historia i skola och samhälle gavs ut vid Linköpings univeristet mellan åren 1988-1991.

Tidernas kyrka står öppen för dig. Lördagen den 26 april in­träffar kyrkobyggnadens dag då kyrkor runt om i landet hålls öppna för visning och samling.

This article considers colonial rhetoric manifested in representations of early settlement in the mining town of Kiruna in northernmost Sweden. Kiruna was founded more than 100 years ago by the LKAB Company with its centre the prosperous mine on Sami land. Continued iron ore mining has made it necessary to relocate the town centre a few kilometres north-east of its original location to ensure the safety of the people. The ongoing process of the town’s transformation due to industrial expansion has given rise to the creation of a memorial park between the town and the mine, in which two historical photographs have been erected on huge concrete blocks. For the Swedish Sami, the indigenous people, the transformation means further exploitation of their reindeer grazing lands and forced adaption to industrial expansion. The historical photographs in the memorial park fit into narratives of colonial expansion and exploration that represent the town’s colonial past. Both pictures are connected to colonial, racialised and gendered space during the early days of industrial colonialism. The context has been set by discussions about what Kiruna “is”, and how it originated. My aim is to study the role of collective memory in mediating a colonial past, by exploring the representations that are connected to and evoked by these pictures. In this progressive transformation of the town, what do these photographic memorials represent in relation to space? What are the values made visible in these photographs? I also discuss the ways in which Kiruna’s history becomes manifested in the town’s transformation and the use of history in urban planning. I argue that, in addressing the colonial history of Kiruna, it is timely to reconsider how memories of a town are communicated into the future by references to the past. I also claim that memory, history, and remembrance and forgetting are represented in this process of history-making and that they intersect gender, class and ethnicity.

Generalization from a case study is a perennial issue in the methodology of the social sciences. The case study is one of the most important research designs in many social scientific fields, but no shared understanding exists of the epistemic import of case studies. This article suggests that the idea of mechanism-based theorizing provides a fruitful basis for understanding how case studies contribute to a general understanding of social phenomena. This approach is illustrated with a reconstruction of Espeland and Sauder's case study of the effects of rankings on US legal education. On the basis of the reconstruction, it is argued that, at least with respect to sociology, the idea of mechanism-based theorizing captures many of the generalizable elements of case studies. Peer reviewed

This thesis aims to build upon previous research into contamination and its effects on isotopes by focusing on the strontium isotopic ratio (87Sr/86Sr), which is used in mobility studies to study the movements of past humans and animals and to build past economic trading networks. Contamination is a broad topic, and in the scope of this thesis, it concerns the introduction of contaminants from the soil after interment and the post-excavation preservation efforts. Due to these effects, this thesis analyzed three types of adhesives and consolidants that were or are still in use. These include strontium-containing glues, specifically animal-based glues, as well as “Karlsons klister,” which was identified as polyvinyl acetate, and epoxy resins. The latter are used to stabilize and mount small materials, such as otoliths. In addition, this thesis aims to focus on the methodological development of pretreatment methods for bones, using the Swedish Early Christians as a focus and comparing the results to the tooth enamel of the same individuals. The Christianization period in Sweden overlaps the Late Viking Age and the Early Medieval period, between the 8th and the 11th centuries. This period saw dynamic changes, which initiated the movement of people to Christianized areas. Two sites were the primary focus of this thesis, Varnhem in southwestern Sweden, which contains one of the earliest Christian communities in Sweden, and Västerhus, a well-studied site in northern Sweden, which was constructed during a period of rapid infrastructure growth. These two sites not only differ in period of use, and cemetery size, but also in regard to whether individuals were local or non-local based on their 87Sr/86Sr results. In addition, this thesis introduces the differences in individual diets using carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. Four experiments were conducted for this thesis: two were manual contamination experiments on uncontaminated modern skeletal tissues, horse bone and cod otoliths, which were contaminated with animal-based glues and epoxy resin, respectively. These experiments tested the effects of the contamination on the biogenic 87Sr/86Sr values. The final two experiments focused on the two early Christian sites and evaluated these individuals' mobility using their enamel and bone. The enamel recorded the intra-individual strontium consumption during tooth formation so that they could be aged to site arrival. The bones from these sites were tested for diagenesis, and the coating on the Västerhus bones was identified. Then the efficacy of two pretreatment methods was tested against these types of contamination. The adhesives produced varying effects on the 87Sr/86Sr values. The strontium-containing glues affected the biogenic values of the horse bone, the resin did not appear to affect the otolith values, and the “Karlsons klister” did not appear to affect the 87Sr/86Sr values in the Västerhus bones. Neither the ashing nor the washing method effectively removed the contamination from the animal-based glues; however, it did appear to affect the values in the diagenetically altered bones.

On September 23, 2013, the leading Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, published a front-page story revealing that a classified listing of Roma had been found on a server belonging to the regional police of Skåne. The illegal database comprised a register of 4,029 persons of Romani descent, more than 1,000 of whom were children living all over Sweden. This news understandably elicited horrified reactions in Sweden and throughout the world. But how exceptional is the concept of such a register to Sweden? To answer this question, we must examine Sweden’s treatment of Romani people during World War II.

This report presents the documentation and summarises the preliminary results from the 2016 excavation season at Buttle Änge, Buttle parish, Gotland. The surveys of 2016 was conducted as a direct continuation of the 2014 and 2015 excavations, focusing on the Iron Age settlement site surrounding Raä Buttle 43:1-5. Five larger trenches and eight test pits, covering an area of a 160 square meters, was opened and excavated down to sterile soil. The excavations were partaken between the 26 th of April and 27th of May 2016. The fieldwork was led by Alexander Andreeff, Alexander Sjöstrand, Paul Wallin (all Uppsala University) and Victor Niels Love Melander (The Australian National University).