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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.

Dieser Beitrag präsentiert Ergebnisse technologischer, funktionaler und stilistischer Analysen von Keramik zweier frühneolithischer Fundplätze auf Öland- Resmo und Runsbäck. Die Analysen enthalten Dünnschliffuntersuchungen und Röntgenfluoreszenzanalyen von Rohtonen und Keramik, ebenso wie Lipidanalysen und stilistische Untersuchungen. Die beiden Fundplätze liegen 15 km voneinander entfernt auf der Westseite der Insel. C14-Daten weisen jeweils auf Aktivitäten im Zeitraum von ca. 3900-3600 BC und 3600-3100 BC. Trotz genereller Ähnlichkeiten sind einige Unterschiede in Stil und Warenart zu verzeichnen, wogegen die Gebrauchsmuster der Gefäße auf den beiden Fundplätzen auffallend ähnlich sind. Grundsätzlich ist für das Resmo-Inventar charakterisiert durch eine große Homogenität, wogegen die Runsbäck Keramik größere Variabilität zeigt. Die beobachteten Unterschiede werden auf unterschiedliche Funktionen und Belegungsdauer der beiden Fundplätze zurückgeführt. This paper presents results of technical, functional and stylistic analyses on pottery from two Early Neolithic sites on Öland – Resmo and Runsbäck. Analyses include thin sections and XRF of clays and wares, lipid residue analysis and recording of stylistic attributes. The two sites are situated 15 km apart on the west side of the island. C14 dates place the activities at the sites at c. 3900–3600 BC and 3600–3100 BC respectively. While overall similarities are obvious, some structured differences are noted in the design as well as in the wares whereas vessel use patterns are strikingly similar between the two assemblages. In general, the Resmo assemblage is characterised by great homogeneity while the Runsbäck pottery displays more variation. It is suggested that the observed differences reflect differences in function and duration between the analysed sites.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian society faced a new reality. The new reality involved consolidation and transformation of collective identities. The reinvigoration of national identity led to a change in the emphasis on how the past was dealt with – many things which were regarded as negative by the Soviet regime became presented as positive in independent Ukraine. The war-time nationalist movement, represented by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), became one of the re-configured themes of history. While most of the studies of memory of the OUN and UPA concentrated on the use of the history of the OUN and UPA by nationalist parties, this study goes beyond the analysis of such use of history and scrutinizes the meaning of this history in nation- and state-building processes in relation to memory work realized on the small-scale regional and local levels with the main focus on Rivne and Rivne oblast’. Moreover, this book focusses not only on the “producers” of memory, but also on the “consumers” of memory, the area which is largely understudied in the field of memory studies. In the book the main emphasis is put on monuments which are regarded as catalysts and symptoms of memory. The present study showed that the OUN and UPA are used more as the metaphors of the anti-Soviet and anti-communist struggle for independence than as historical entities. This past is largely mythologized. Functioning as a myth the memory of the OUN and UPA obliterates difficult knowledge that the historical research reveals on the questionable activities and ideology of those organizations. As a result, the past of the OUN and UPA is re-imagined, re-filled with new meanings so that it is used along even with the democratic and pro-European claims in the present. It was especially well-observed during the Orange Revolution in 2004 and during the Euromaidan in 2013-2014, when the European Union’s flags were seen next to the OUN’s red-and-black flags or when the pro-European slogans were proclaimed alongside the OUN and UPA slogans. At the same time, the results demonstrated an intricate complexity of memory work shaped by intensive dynamics of private and public, grassroots and official, local and national encounters. Although there have been attempts made by political actors to draw a direct link between the national identity, political allegiances and proposed heroic version of memory, the study showed, that such attempts did not really work. In the pluralistic context the meanings are too fluid and adherence to one version of history does not preclude adherences to other versions of history which are presented as diametrically opposite in the political sphere. As result, on the recipients’ grassroots level, the memory reveals its amalgamated characteristics. Drawing on studies about post-colonial subjectivities and theories of remediation developed in memory studies, this book explores the changes in memory culture of contemporary Ukraine and examines the role of memory in producing new meanings under the rapidly changing conditions after the collapse of the Soviet Union up to 2014. The book contributes to the studies of memory culture in post-Communist countries as well as to the studies of society in contemporary Ukraine.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar gammal DNA från 32 människor från den prehistoriska byn Ekwen belägen in nordöst Asien. Proverna har blivit masskopierade med hjälp av PCR och sekvenserad med FLX pyrosekvensering. Autentiska sekvenser har blivit bedömt genom användningen av PhyloNet och c-statistik och senare anpassad och jämförd med en referens sekvens (CRS). Tydliga C-T, T-C och A-G skador har upptäckts vid nukleotidpositioner vilket visar sig vara utmärkande för just den här populationen. 

The adoption of pottery technology by hunter-gatherers in the Baltic region has mainly been placed within the concept of resource intensification, as a cultural choice that assisted an increased economic focus on aquatic resources. In Finland, a non-specialized pottery use has earlier been suggested on the basis of lipid residue analysis data for Early Neolithic ceramics from a number of sites on the south-west coast that involve processing of both aquatic and terrestrial animal products. Our study is an attempt to further explore the relationship between the early pottery use, diet and environment in this particular region. For this purpose, we expanded the range of early pottery traditions and localities to be analyzed, and applied gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric (GC-MS) analysis on the absorbed lipid residues. The study material comprises ceramics of the Säräisniemi 1 (Sär 1), Sperrings 1 (Ka I:1) and Sperrings 2 (Ka I:2) pottery traditions, as well as of the Jäkärlä Ware group, from coastal and inland sites spanning a period from ca. 5100 to 4000 cal BC. Our results strengthen the above observation for Early Neolithic Finland and further suggest that both aquatic and terrestrial animal resources were processed in vessels belonging to most of the analyzed groups, irrespective of coastal/inland site division and pottery ware culture. This additionally indicates a variability of motives behind the introduction of pottery within the Baltic Sea region, considering pottery use evidence in the neighbouring Estonia, where the earliest local and contemporaneous Narva pottery culture had a more specialized use focused on the processing of aquatic resources.

The everyday practices of maternity and beauty are important for the enactment of femininity. This dissertation deals with femininities created in the context of changing ideas about “normality” in Soviet Russia during the mid 1930s-1960s and explores a diversity of norms, discourses and rituals. The main sources are women’s magazines, advice books, and interviews with women living now in three different cities of the Russian Federation – Moscow, Saratov (Volga region) and Ufa (capital of Bashkortostan Republic). The results of the research suggest that some parts of the Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty turn out to be similar to those that were characteristic for other European countries of the same historical period. At the same time the interviews show that the modern practices of medical and welfare institutions, the consumption of clothes as well as advice about appearance and childcare were situated in the context of shortages of goods, women’s work outside of home, rhetorics of the “naturalness” of maternity for every woman as well as that of a woman’s particular need to care about looking nice. Together with the home reproduction of many rural/patriarchal rituals of maternity and beauty it led to a contradictory everyday performance of femininity. Fluctuating categories of social status, ethnical belonging, geographical location and generation also contributed to a diversity of femininity constructions. Common sense normativities concerning practices of becoming a mother, caring for a baby and making oneself beautiful suggest that Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty were only partly accepted and reproduced by women. They were also partly rejected and subverted in everyday practices. The analysis of maternity and beauty practices shows that performative femininities were utterly complex. Boken innehåller en sammanfattning på ryska.

Sandby borg, an Iron Age ringfort on Öland, Sweden has been and is still at the center of attention in media and archaeological research. The massacre uncovered at the site during recent years opens many doors for analyses on the Migration Period (c. 400-550 AD) Iron Age skeletal remains. Eighteen teeth (molars) from 12 individuals and three rodent teeth were chosen for strontium (87Sr/86Sr) analyses. This was done to establish whether these individuals were locals or non-locals to Öland. The analyses displayed a, for the most part, local 87Sr/86Sr ratio. Two non-locals were identified, as well as a pattern of higher 87Sr/86Sr peaks on numerous of the individuals during a certain age span, which could indicate a local weaning process with a special food. Sandby borg

The Chronica regni Gothorum is the first Latin national history of Sweden. Completed after 1471 by a canon of Uppsala, Ericus Olai, it testifies to the articulation at the Swedish arch see of the dominant political issues of the day: the status of the Swedish realm in the union with Denmark-Norway, and the relations between the king, aristocracy and ecclesiastical leadership. This thesis analyses the discourse on authority in the Chronica. It investigates the normative basis of Ericus’s treatment of contemporary political issues as a source for the social-political outlooks of Sweden’s ecclesiastical power elite, a group not previously studied in this respect. In particular, it argues for the importance of two prescriptive assumptions on social order, which lie at the heart of the authority discourse in the Chronica: God divided the world into self-governing peoples and realms, and He instituted the lay and clerical orders as parallel hierarchies of societal authority. The thesis situates the production of the Chronica within the educational concerns of the Uppsala institution. It scrutinizes the commonplaces – derived from various fields of knowledge – through which Ericus articulated his dualist and nationalist assumptions. The realization of these notions in his historical account is examined in sections of the text where matters of importance for the Uppsala church are evident. Special attention is paid to Ericus’s account of the royal martyr, St Erik, the so-called Engelbrekt rebellion, and the contemporary strife between the Uppsala church and the kings. The thesis ends with a study of the reception of the Chronica in the 1520s, a time when the Reformation and the consolidation of a strong national monarchy in Sweden brought the authority issues addressed by Ericus to conclusion.