Rapport från utgrävningarna i Valsgärde

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 2013

This article deals with the maritime and shipping conditions of early Sigtuna, Sweden (late 10th to 13th Cent. AD). It includes the study and interpretation of clench bolts and other items that testify to boat building, excavated in the town's occupation layers. NB: An error in page 199, right column, line 8: should read about 25 tons (not 7.5 to 10 tons). Author's apologies. --

Wet Organic Archaeological Materials 2025: Proceedings of the 16th Conference of the ICOM-CC Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Working Group, Göteborg, 2025, 2025

Just north of Varberg's city centre, the small town of Getakärr was established in the early Middle Ages. Getakärr was one of Varberg's predecessors and existed until 1578 when it lost its privileges. A large infrastructure projectstruction work all around the site. This provided a great challenge, further compounded by the uncertain fate of the shipwrecks post excavation. Should they be conserved and exhibited or discarded? If conserved, who would be willing to take on such a long term and massive economical as well as managerial responsibility? The paper will give an overview of the excavation and documentation of the two cogs and the conservation of the finds as well as discuss the assessments undertaken and decisions made during the excavation in the hope of conserving the shipwrecks. It will highlight the problems that arise when streamlined contract archaeology meets a slower political processstruction work all around the site. This provided a great challenge, further compounded by the uncertain fate of the shipwrecks post excavation. Should they be conserved and exhibited or discarded? If conserved, who would be willing to take on such a long term and massive economical as well as managerial responsibility? The paper will give an overview of the excavation and documentation of the two cogs and the conservation of the finds as well as discuss the assessments undertaken and decisions made during the excavation in the hope of conserving the shipwrecks. It will highlight the problems that arise when streamlined contract archaeology meets a slower political process – a new train station as well as a railroad tunnel in the old, now infilled, harbour outside Getakärr – called for archaeological excavations to be conducted between 2019 and 2022. In the spring of 2022, the wrecks of two cogs from the middle of the 14th century were found. The Varberg Cog 1 consists of the port side with part of the rigging preserved while the Varberg Cog 2 consists of the lower forward section of the hull. Finds such as spare parts for the ships as well as utensils and personal belongings of the crew were found in both shipwrecks. The excavation and documentation had to be carried out within a short and constricted space of time, with construction work all around the site. This provided a great challenge, further compounded by the uncertain fate of the shipwrecks post excavation. Should they be conserved and exhibited or discarded? If conserved, who would be willing to take on such a long term and massive economical as well as managerial responsibility? The paper will give an overview of the excavation and documentation of the two cogs and the conservation of the finds as well as discuss the assessments undertaken and decisions made during the excavation in the hope of conserving the shipwrecks. It will highlight the problems that arise when streamlined contract archaeology meets a slower political process.

Medieval Archaeology, 2008

The main aims and goals of this article are to present two assemblages of the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) in the province of Scania, southern Sweden. One comes from an inland site named Na, located on the northern shore of Lake Ringsjön. Na was excavated in the 1880s. The other site, Jonstorp, is located in northwestern Scania and is a coastal site. The sites have historically been connected by a river, Bråån, which makes them good subjects for studying to the use of inland and coastal sites of the PWC. Much of the economy of the sites complement each other, even though there are some differences in hunting, lithic technology and pottery. The secondary aim of this article is to present how archaeological assemblages can be perceived in different ways due to statistics. During my work with this article I discovered quantities of formerly unknown material from the Na site, changing the statistics. This is also true regarding Jonstorp. The large assemblage excavated in the 1970s is included here, which alters the known statistics. The problem is illustrated using projectile points as an example.

Viking Gjellestad, 2024

This article examines Gjellestad as one of many archaeological sites containing ship burials. These burial sites are our most important source of information about boats and ships in the Late Iron Age. They also shed light on religious practices and reveal past power distribution and the political dynamics of their contemporary society. Instead of focusing solely on Gjellestad as an example of such an archaeological context, the article goes through the entire inventory of ship burials from the Nordic countries, as well as relevant examples from beyond this core region. The focus here is on ship mounds as political messengers; the chapter demonstrates that ship burials were primarily a phenomenon of the Viking Age and clearly indicate a burial practice associated with the elite and ruling class of society. Ship burials were placed in local centres of power, areas that must have held central functions in terms of long-distance trade, political administration, and the exercise of power.

Excapades

Uppland museum has carried out a study of Terraces I and III in Building Group 2 at Helgö, Ekerö parish. The study was based on the documentation and publications of the excavations from 1954 to 1959 (Excavations I–III. 1960–4) and involved digitizing the plans and processing and analysing the features on the two terraces. The aim was to see whether it was possible to extract building plans from the very numerous features on the terraces and in the area between them. The results have been as follows: Nineteen buildings have been identified: six on Terrace I, eight on Terrace III and five on the area between. On Terrace I there were post-built houses (four aisled and one unaisled), and one ‘sill house’. On Terrace III there were post-built house (seven aisled and one unaisled). On the area between there were smaller houses including corner-post houses, small aisled houses and one SFB. The earliest occupation (Roman Iron Age) was on Terrace III (Houses 12 and 13) and the area between the terraces (House 11), with the shape and size of the buildings suggesting that the settlement was fairly normal for the period. In the Late Roman Iron Age–Migration Period and possibly also (early) Vendel Period, the settlement was dominated by four big buildings (Houses 14–17) which were 30–35m long and of a rather unusual character. The eastern end of each building seems to have been a large open room, possibly serving as a hall. Occupation did not begin on Terrace I until the Migration Period, first perhaps as a working area with hearths etc. It came into full use during the Vendel Period, with some buildings which could be interpreted as halls on account of their construction and the finds associated with them – such as gold foils, glass, weapons etc. It is noteworthy that by this time the occupation on Terrace III had either changed character, now with smaller buildings, or had ceased. Both the terraces and the area between them were still occupied in the Viking Age, but less intensively than previously. More recent work has shown that there were houses on Terraces V and VI during the Roman Iron Age, the Vendel period and the Viking Age (Gӧthberg 2015).

2003

To the memory of those who buried their dead at Barshalder, and of those who have documented their observations there.