Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar Institutionen för historiska studier

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Thegns Around the North Sea: Elite, Nobility, Aristocracy of the Late Viking Age
(2024-08-19) Sukhino-Khomenko, Denis
This cross-disciplinary doctoral thesis examines thegns (OE/ON þegn) in late pre-Norman England and Viking-Age Scandinavia, departing from the problem of interpreting thegns commemorated in 45 runic inscriptions from around 1000 AD. The thesis highlights that thegns’ socio-conceptual roles stemmed from concrete historical processes and changing social meanings. Studying them provides insights into the social order and interconnectedness of the North Sea region. The dissertation comprises five research chapters, five accessory vignettes for historical context, and two excursuses into related but not decisive matters. CHAPTER 1 presents the problem and research questions on: 1) social structures communicated through OE/ON þegn; 2) power distribution illuminated by thegns’ socio-economic and political conditions; 3) interactions between England and Scandinavia that follows from the answer to the former two questions. The chapter also charts the historical and theoretical background, methodology, and study design. It emphasises the need to sidestep the few and potentially problematic sources and to instead use digital language corpora for a maximum range of contextualised meanings of OE/ON þegn. CHAPTER 2 outlines the historiographical background, summarising previous scholarship and potential hurdles in interpretation of primary sources: Archbishop Wulfstan of York’s texts in England; post-Viking-Age English sources and native toponymic material in Scandinavia. CHAPTER 3 establishes that OE þegn always connoted non-humiliating service by a free man to a lord, usually a king. Through royal co-optation during the studied period, the term evolved to denote lay landowning aristocratic elites. This process involved tenurial and interpersonal relationships, which in the monarchocentric discourse attracted the name “bookland” for the landed property and “thegn” for its owner. The chapter wavers to definitively pronounce if such elites internalised the thegnly identity as a master status and became a historical ontology. With that, the chapter concludes by offering a new possible reading of Wulfstan’s writings. CHAPTER 4 shows that ON þegn rarely meant “servant” and instead denoted lay elites and/or kings’ junior partners, and that Scandinavian kings sought to turn the former into the latter. The chapter argues that their common trait was an economic powerbase in ancestral landed property, the “odal”. The chapter explores the hǫldar status group associated with “odal” and the thegnly elites’ transition from royal liegemen to subjects through an expanding royal lordship. The chapter concludes by interpreting runic thegns as local magnates rather than immediate royal agents. CHAPTER 5 summarises the conclusions, positing that pre-Conquest England’s social order was strongly affected by a monarchocentric discourse, unlike in Scandinavia. The chapter emphasises recognising the bias in the term “thegn”, especially in England, and that in Scandinavia, senses imbued in ON þegn appear independent of each other and irreducible to one “core” meaning, unlike in England. The chapter harmonises these conclusions by suggesting that thanks to a closely knit socio-conceptual space, social ideas traversed the North-Sea region. A possibility is entertained that due to significant interactions at the turn of the 9th–10th and 10th–11th centuries, Old Norse inherited late OE þegn senses in received forms and adapted them to local social conditions, the results of which, among others, got engraved in the 45 runic inscriptions in question.
Navigating Relationships in Exile: Norway, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Small State Diplomacy in Second World War London
(2024-05-13) Jakubec, Pavol
This portfolio thesis maps the management of inter-state relationships by small power foreign policymakers in Second World War exile. German, Italian and Soviet aggression during the late 1930s and early 1940s forced eight European governments—including that of Norway, Czechoslovakia, and Poland—to continue the struggle for the survival of their states in exile. By mid-1941, they had settled in London, making it a unique diplomatic hub where politicians were socialising, collaborating, and learning about and from each other. Norway’s relationships with Czechoslovakia and Poland serve as a platform for analysis of this unprecedented historical episode. In exile, these relationships were reinforced by the physical proximity of political leaders and activists. While the Second World War is often studied as an apogee of internationalism, the historiography of the London-based governments-in-exile manifests a narrow, nationalist focus. By contrast, the present study zooms in on the political elites’ socialization and communication. More broadly, it underscores the value of diplomacy for the agency and legitimacy of small power representatives facing displacement and contestation of their mandate. The synthesis (kappa) presents the previous research on the Czechoslovak, Norwegian and Polish governments-in-exile and identifies both the need and the possibilities for a change in approach. It outlines the international society as the locus of inter-state relationships and exile as a condition defining them in Second World War London. Furthermore, charting Norway’s, Czechoslovakia’s, and Poland’s record in inter-war international society, it situates exile policy-makers’ international outlooks. Article 1 is a case study attesting to a swift change in Norway’s approach to recognition. The 1939 application from Slovakia, a Nazi Germany satellite, delivers an example of how the Norwegian foreign ministry coped with volatility. Its echoes revibrated in wartime exile, impeding the Czechoslovak exiles’ struggle for recognition as legitimate state representatives, preconditioning the resumption of the bilateral relations. Article 2 discusses the Czechoslovak, Norwegian, and Polish experiences in Second World War London, focusing on Norwegian perceptions of the Central European exiles. It displays how the governments’-in-exile collective identities formed the bedrock of socialization for state representation. Moreover, it shows how relationships with Czechoslovakia and Poland aided the refinement of Norwegian foreign policy-making. Article 3 zooms in on Norwegian efforts to generate awareness, reciprocity, and status. International publicity transmitted self-perceptions of identity, in-group and Inter-Allied relationships. It mediated the express turn of the Norwegian exile policy-makers towards a ‘realist’ comprehension of internationalism, mirroring the ongoing great power debates on international organization. Furthermore, it signalled the geography of Norway’s prospective partnerships within the emerging international order, including those with European small powers. Thus, wartime international publicity enriched Norway’s diplomatic toolkit and became the precursor of its post-war cultural diplomacy. This study demonstrates how and by what means Norwegian foreign policy-makers mastered and converted, respectively, the challenges and opportunities that came with the expanding diplomatic field. It proves Norway’s privileged position in Second World War London. Finally, it explicates how the participation of the small power governments-in-exile in negotiations over post-war security and international organization helped them retain international credibility, circumvent the asymmetry of power separating them from the superpowers, and manifest prowess for their domestic audiences.
De tjänstvilliga vännernas samhälle: Abraham Brahe och den svenska eliten 1590–1630
(2023-04-11) Thorelli, Johanna
This dissertation traces the culture and agency of the Swedish elite during the years 1590–1630, focusing on lived practice rather than normative texts. It examines how culturally determined ways of thinking guided actions in concrete situations, and covers various aspects such as the public and the private, favors and reciprocity, aristocratic status, office-holding, and by extension the human aspects of state formation. Bringing these different topics together creates a holistic picture that contextualizes each aspect in light of the others, and thus uncovers the interdependency between noble culture and the early state. The wide thematic scope is accomplished by focusing narrowly on one aristocratic individual and his circle of relatives, friends and associates, and by using previously under-utilized source materials such as personal correspondence. Swedish society circa 1600 worked through honor, by the unwritten cultural expectations that made it necessary to present oneself as an obliging friend to equals, a generous master to subordinates, and a willing servant to social superiors. Every interaction – including between office-holders – was seen as a personal relationship, and exchanging friendly favors functioned as a framework for cooperation without bureaucracy. However, these expectations were flexible and could be exploited in various ways in order to get one’s way and to pressure others to comply. Additionally, a fundamental flexibility is visible in various aspects of life. Oral communication was preferred but meeting in person was not always possible, which led to a culture of proxies where one person physically stood in another’s place. Time was not planned in detail, and explicitly stated dates for meetings were no more than guidelines. High office-holders usually had to juggle their time and efforts between several different offices, as well as their economic and familial duties. A nobleman had obligations to many people, and the state as such was not necessarily the top priority.
Afloat and Aflame: Deconstructing the Long 19th Century Port City Gothenburg through Newspaper Archaeology
Hjertman, Martina
In line with the international historical-archaeological discipline, this study aims to increase knowledge of marginalising processes and disenfranchised groups in the past and to contribute to the recognised Swedish need to augment the know-how of researching people ‘of little note’ in urban environments. The study aspires a theoretically engaged empirical alternative for developing new knowledge about urban places which are not possible to excavate or where archaeological data is insufficient, while evincing how digitized historical newspapers can step in as a multifaceted historical- archaeological source. By merging historical archaeology with digital history, the study has fashioned a newspaper archaeology, encompassing text-cavation and critical discourse analysis, and applied it to the empirical case, and fringe settlements of the port city Gothenburg, through local newspapers during the long 19th century. The suburbs have been hot topics discussed in, and by newspapers, and furthermore floating (signifiers), variously charged with meaning dependent on situation, correspondent, and text genre. By employing the concept of worldmaking, the study has recognised how inclusion and exclusion of people and spaces through text, encompasses international images, local events, notions of space and architecture, as well as actors − including newspapers and newspaper genres. The concepts of counter- voice and counter-narrative have acknowledged opposing perspectives which have shed light on inequal societal structures and grand narratives and displayed how people ‘of little note’ already from the late 1700s, took part in and reacted to what was printed, and negotiated values. Of the empirical chapters, chapter 6 demonstrates how the name Majorna was geographically floating, but the debate from the 1840s about the suburb Majorna’s integration with the city, anchored the name to a designated space, as well as ushered in a new sense of identity and attempts to fill this location with social meaning. Chapter 7 shows how from around the 1830s, newspaper genres and engaged citizens created in-groups and out-groups through the broadcasting of a mix of internationally spread notions of mariners and workers and bourgeois ideals, and how the space of the port district Majorna from the 1840s, intensifying from the 1860s, was intimately associated with deviant behaviour. Chapter 8 establishes how print representations of urban fires in the fringe had their own worldmaking effects on the creation of communities that bridged geographical and social borders and widened the urban landscape. Chapter 9 evinces how the genre of urban travelogues created othering and typecast representations of the suburb’s built environment and populace, by using internationally known tropes, sensual qualities, semiophores, characters, and narrative techniques, but also was complex and played a less-known role in upholding an informal donation culture. Newspapers as source may carry the only remaining information on erased landscapes, materialities, and social practices and newspaper archaeology can present us with voices from those ‘of little note’ and lesser means. The study demonstrates how newspapers are worldmakers and vehicles in the making of social and spatial inclusion and exclusion, with possibilities of steering debates and halting or accelerating urban change. Consequently, newspapers are not only a pertinent historical-archaeological source, but also affected the very society we study through the newspapers’ contents.
Stone Age Companions: Humans and animals in hunter-gatherer burials in north-eastern Europe
(2022-05-17) Macāne, Aija
This thesis examines the relationships between humans and animals in their mutual environment and how these relationships were expressed in the burial practices of northern foragers. The empirical research material consists of animal remains, particularly animal tooth pendants, deposited in graves at Zvejnieki (Latvia), Skateholm I and II (Sweden) and Sakhtysh II and IIa (Russia) cemeteries. The Zvejnieki cemetery (8th–3rd millennium cal BC) represents the largest assemblage and has a central place in this study, while Skateholm (ca. 5600–4800 cal BC) and Sakhtysh (5th – early 3rd millennium cal BC) provide additional material from more narrowly delimited periods and different geographical areas. T he interdisciplinary toolkit includes a re-evaluation of previous zoo-osteological analyses and their supplementation with new ones, an extensive archival and literature survey, as well as a spatial and contextual analysis of the cemeteries and each excavated burial. The interpretative framework builds on the relational approach and hunter-gatherer ontologies, and the relationship between humans and animals is approached through the perspective of companionship. In this thesis, animals are considered not only as a source of food and raw materials, but as companion species that inhabited a shared landscape with humans. Ungulates, notably elk, wild boar and red deer, were the most widespread animals in burials, especially during the 8th–6th millennium cal BC. An increase in the diversity of species in burials, particularly of carnivores, can be seen starting from the 5th millennium cal BC. This is partially paralleled by a shift from animal tooth pendants to more strongly modified artefact forms made from other animal remains (bone and antler). The relationships with animal species at each site were shaped by multiple factors, including environmental and ecological conditions (availability of particular species) and the socio-cultural context (preferences and restrictions arising from traditions and cosmological concepts). Ungulate incisors and carnivore canines are most commonly used for making pendants, but local preferences for the use of other bones, such as beaver astragali, bird wing bones, and red deer antlers, can also be observed. The study shows that fragmentation and selection of specific body parts was important, and that animal individuality and personality were essential to establishing relationships between them and humans. Animal-derived materials had a central role in mediating social communication and cosmological beliefs. They were not just ornaments of the body or wrappings, but their materiality and embedded qualities suggest multiple potential uses, including social identification, protection and transformation. Reading all of this from a companionship perspective shows that human–animal relationships were ontologically fundamental for the Stone Age hunter-gatherers, while at the same time being rather fluid and situational. Companionship in Stone Age north-eastern Europe was forged at an individual level, and both humans and animals participated in the creation of interspecies relationships and environments. Despite the spatial, temporal and cultural variation, animal companions were never far away from the Stone Age hunter-gatherers.
Settlement Scaling and Urban Infrastructure: A Comparative Approach to Settlements from the Ancient Indus society
(2022-01-17) Gulzar, Sidra
The scope of the present thesis is to analyze the major variabilities among Indus settlements and urban infrastruc ture of the ancient Indus society during 2600-1900BCE. This includes the process of urbanization in relation with population, settled area, and location of the major urban centers. The impact of urbanization on the regional environment is also discussed. Thus, the aim of the thesis is to analyze the urban infrastructure of the Indus society by comparing the available archaeological data from the largest urban settlements. In addition, urban process and development of the Indus region is compared with the Mesopotamia region. Mesopotamia and the Indus society are Bronze Age (6000-1900BCE) urban societies that present large, dense, and planned cities, but the study of urban processes and the environment is limited. The urban process from specific regions of both ancient societies is compared at different levels. At the primary level, comparative method and urban scaling theory is applied to examine the similarities and differences among major urban settlements of the Indus re gion during 2600-1900BCE. Available archaeological material from the largest settlements of Indus society are used to compare. A limited set of artefacts from Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala are analysed and compared by SEM-EDX method. Results of SEM-EDX analysis shows that these artefacts were produced locally. Special attention is given to Ganweriwala settlement that is the least investigated settlement of the Indus region. The major shortcom ing to understanding urban infrastructure of the Indus society is the lack of knowledge about Ganweriwala settle ment. That shortcoming is addressed in the present work. The urban scale of Ganweriwala settlement is analyzed by an attribute-based approach. The results from the surface and artefacts study of Ganweriwala suggest that it was a major urban center during Indus urban period 2600-1900BCE. It shared the similar cultural expression with other major urban centers such as settlement plan, types of artefacts, written script on tablets and some types of figurines. Using Ganweriwala data as a case study for Indus urban infrastructure, I suggest that the Indus urban infrastructure is a complex phenomenon with greater similarities and lesser variabilities. Five major urban centers had different urban and socio-economic scales. The results of the present study suggest that Ancient Indus society exhibits complex patterns of urbanism that are rare in other ancient society. Indus society was regionally more expanded than Mes opotamia, but had a limited number of major urban centers. These urban centers were operated at different scales and exhibit greater similarities and fewer variabilities. The present research also contributes to the theoretical and empirical understanding of Ganweriwala settlement in relation to the environment, which has never been studied or reported before. At the secondary level, the settlements of the Diyala region of Mesopotamia are compared with the Cholistan region settlements of Indus society to analyze the similarities and differences of urban process and its impact on the environment. The largest settlement from Mesopotamia known as Uruk and the largest settlement from the Indus region known as Mohenjo Daro are also compared. The conclusion reached by comparing the settlement data of the Diyala region of Mesopotamia and the Cholistan region of Indus society suggests that settlements of the Cholistan were denser than the Diyala region. In the Cholistan region, a total abandonment of settlements happened around 1900BCE. However, in the Diyala region there was still continuity of settlements around 1900BCE. Major urban settlements from both societies also contain variabilities such as they had different settlement plan, they were con structed with different materials, and they had different type of environment. It is also concluded that the nature of urban development and the process at respective macro regions was different.
Iron Age Keys, Locks, and Chests: Exploring Locking Practices and Social Identities at Birka, Helgö, Lovö, Sanda, and Vallhagar
(2021-11-08) Nordström, Emma
The use of keys, locks, and chests in the Scandinavian Iron Age is a subject overshadowed by the assumed connection between keys and the housewife with her administrative role on the farm. The key is sometimes even seen as the very symbol of this role. The present thesis instead focuses on locking practices, to which locks and chests also naturally belong. This includes assessing, but also looking beyond, the role of the housewife in order to broaden the analysis and explore which roles or social identities may be connected with these. This is achieved through studying keys, locks, and chests and their contexts, and by considering what their presence could imply in terms of control, access, private property, responsibility, accountability, trust, mobility, and social status. The study also includes exploring which types of structures or objects were locked, as well as some of the symbology connected with keys, locks, and chests. The theoretical framework used is based on ideas involving social identities, structure, agency, and practice, and the idea that material culture is polysemous – that its meanings can vary depending on its particular social history, the position of specific social agents, and the contexts in which it was used. The first part of the thesis provides a background to the subject and the theoretical framework, followed by a section dealing with medieval sources, in the form of Old Norse literature and medieval laws, mentioning keys, locks, or chests. Since the assumed connection between keys and the housewife is heavily based on a narrow selection of these medieval sources, it was necessary to include and evaluate these. However, a wider selection of texts was also included to give a fuller account of the contexts in which these objects occur. The third part of the thesis deals with the previously excavated archaeological material from Birka, Helgö, Lovö, Sanda, and Vallhagar, which includes both settlements and graves. While the settlements mostly gave information that can relate to locking practices, the graves provided clues concerning the individuals who were involved in these. Some of the more important points of the thesis, as discussed in the fourth and final part, are that the very presence of keys, locks, and chests on the settlement sites demonstrate that some form of restricted access and control was in place. This indicates that there was some form of social differentiation or inequality where some had access to things and/or spaces that others did not. It also suggests the presence of private property. Additionally, the locking device facilitated the mobility of people by taking over the role of physically guarding property. The results also point to a connection with travelling and trading, and to inheritance and the right of occupancy. When it comes to the graves, the results show a varied picture and that the individuals buried with keys, locks, or chests were not a homogenous group. Most of these graves did however contain costly grave goods. Placing a key, lock, or chest in the grave was a rare practice, suggesting a rather exclusive or special expression. This study shows that there was variation and complexity in locking practices and the individuals who were involved. Focusing on the connection with the role of the housewife is greatly limiting for the analysis and does nothing to increase our knowledge of Iron Age society. The hope is that this study can lead to more nuanced interpretations of keys, locks, and chests in the future.
Mobility, Subsistence and Mortuary practices. An interdisciplinary study of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age megalithic populations of southwestern Sweden
(2021-11-02) Blank, Malou
The main objective of this thesis is to gain new knowledge of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age societies constructing and using megalithic graves in inland southwestern Sweden. The aim is addressed with an interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological, osteological, radiocarbon, Sr isotope, and stable isotope data, genetic sex assessment and mtDNA haplogroup determination. The thesis encompasses four themes: the use-time of megalithic graves, mobility and exchange networks, diet and subsistence practices, and mortuary practices. This research mainly focuses on the skeletal remains, even though grave architecture and artefacts are also part of the investigations. The megalithic graves and the material recovered from them are used as a source for understanding individual life stories and the past living societies. The main study area is Falbygden, located in the southwestern Swedish region of Västergötland. Falbygden has one of northern Europe’s largest concentrations of passage graves, along with many gallery graves. The clear spatial structure of the geology and the well-preserved human and animal bone material make it an unusually fruitful study area for investigations combining bioarchaeological and archaeological methods to understand prehistoric economy and society. This thesis relies on a vast range of source material from Falbygden and the surrounding area of Västergötland. For this study, 61 water sources and five archaeological animal remains were sampled for baseline Sr isotope analyses. Nine domestic animal bones from five megalithic graves and one settlement were analysed for radiocarbon dating, and stable isotopes. ZooMS were performed on six of these samples. Furthermore, 221 human remains from 47 megalithic graves and one wetland deposit were sampled for dating and isotope analyses, and some of these for genetic sex assessment and mtDNA. The most important results are that the megalithic chamber forms are more varied than previously thought and that in some cases, Late Neolithic gallery graves can be difficult to separate from Early/Middle Neolithic megalithic graves. The construction and burial use of the megalithic graves appear in two phases, ca. 3500 to 2600 cal BC and ca. 2200 to 1100 cal BC. The two phases are separated by a time of disuse, which corresponds to the Battle Axe Culture period. The data acquired within this thesis demonstrate a distinct increase in human mobility and genetic diversity in the late use-phase compared to the early phase. The mobility in the early phase seems to be dominated by adults moving into the area, while in the later phase, mobility also involves migrations of groups, perhaps families with children. Furthermore, movements of artefacts, cattle and humans seem to have been part of different, only partly overlapping networks. No clear indications of a more stratified society or intensified agriculture could be observed in the Late Neolithic material from Falbygden. Instead, the results point to a less regulated and ritualized society, with more extensive farming and more varied agropastoral strategies in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, compared to the earlier phase.
Encountering Environments. Natural conditions for subsistence and trade at Monte Polizzo, Sicily, 650-550 BC.
(2021-08-30) Sandström, Cecilia
The overall aim of this thesis is to deepen our knowledge about indigenous western Sicilians commonly called the Elymians and, ultimately, to recognise them as independent actors in Sicilian history. A vital part of this endeavour is to assess the Elymian role in regional trade and to evaluate the subsistence challenges they faced. Monte Polizzo, inhabited for just 75 years (625-550 BC), has been considered suitable as a model for discussing these topics. Situated in western Sicily it was strategically situated with an excellent vantage point between the Phoenician settlement of Motya, the Greek settlement of Selinus, and the indigenous settlement of Segesta. The first step on this path is to balance representations of various ancient peoples and their actions. The theoretical approaches applied bring the focus to how peoples in the region interacted. Greco-centric discourse is bypassed in favour of approaching the archaeological record from the Elymian perspective. In addition, a holistic theory about nature-human interaction and the functions of various subsystems implemented in the settlement structure is applied. An important factor in this work is to understand in full the environmental complexity of the site and its surroundings. The methodology used to address this is compiled available palynological and geomorphological information. In order to understand the significance of and navigational possibilities of the rivers draining Monte Polizzo, a geomorphological river assessment have been commissioned. In a second step, I evaluate imported archaeological material found at the site--with specific regards to faunal and palaeobotanical analyses--as well as imported transport amphorae. The significance of the Monte Polizzo amphorae assemblage is compared in quantity and variety to other indigenous settlements in the region in order to understand the trade network in a wider Mediterranean context. This included gateways through which the Monte Polizzians acquired imported products. An overall analysis of the archaeological material at Monte Polizzo shows there were different levels of economic resources in different domestic contexts. Nevertheless, the large number of imported transport amphorae from Etruria, Corinth, and Eastern Aegean production centres found in all the domestic and communal contexts suggest that trade was a vital part of this society. The study further shows, that the Monte Polizzians were not limited to trading in the markets of Selinus or Motya. Instead, rivers and estuaries were an important component in how they connected with overseas traders and other various networks. The inhabitants initially had enough land for the settlements to subsist within a radius of about 5-10 kilometres. Adjoining river valleys were used for agriculture, as pastures, and short distance transhumance. The Monte Polizzians were engaged in a multi-cropping fail-safe system to secure subsistence if environmental changes occurred. However, the investigation demonstrates that the Monte Polizzians exceeded the settlement’s carrying capacity only in 75 years. This is based the on combined results of environmental studies exhibiting considerable ground on which to draw such a conclusion. For example: deforestation due to increasing need for timber, degraded soils due to pastoral activities, and a constant evolvement towards marshier landscapes and possibly, consequently, malaria. These factors combined to result in less land for agricultural and pastoral usage. The fire that ruined the settlement in 550 BC might have been just one catastrophe out of many long- and short-term environmental changes that caused the permanent abandonment of the area. If that was in fact the case, then this final blaze was not merely something that happened to the Monte Polizzians but an event that arose - like much else this work has shown - out of a complex of decisions made by an active and engaged people.
När andra ser. Gravmonument, social praktik och aktörskollektiv under 1100- och 1200-talen i Vänerlandskapet
(2021-05-21) Nyqvist Thorsson, Anna
Grave monuments showing rich imagery were made to a remarkable extent in the area around Lake Vänern during the 12th and 13th centuries. This thesis is about these monuments and about the physical remains of burials that were carried out over 800 years ago. The production of such grave monuments, especially in the province of Västergötland, has no equivalent in other provinces in Sweden. The rich sculptural and pictorial representations on the monuments have earlier mainly been discussed on the basis of symbolism and iconological interpretations within the field of art history. However, the specific occurrence of these monuments in the area around Lake Vänern implies that visually prominent monuments became an important part of the burial practice of the social elite during this period. This thesis therefore examines the social dimensions of the monuments in terms of burial practices, visual practices and how they were involved in the social and political transformations of society during the period. The primary source material is comprised of trapezoidal grave slabs with images of trees of life and crosses as well as multi-part monuments with raised gable slabs and beveled grave covers. The study examines monuments and burials from an archaeological perspective, but sources as inscriptions, images and historical texts are also included. In this study archaeologically examined graves with a monument in situ are used to identify burial practices involving different kind of monuments. Attention has also been given to bodily remains, and practices involving both manipulation and reuse of these remains. This also includes handling of bones from holy persons as relics. In relation to this, the reuse of older grave monuments, especially early Christian grave monuments, in the burial practices of the 12th and 13th centuries is discussed. Throughout the study, variability has come forth as an important aspect in many ways. Different style elements are here understood as active and deliberate choices of style. In addition, the inscriptions in runes and in Latin letters on the grave monuments are considered as a specific burial practice. Grave monuments from the 12th and 13th centuries were deeply entangled in the burial practices of the social elites and part of how one viewed and related to death and the dead. The monuments were linked to the strategies of the living to ensure that the dead were included in the resurrection. In the performative encounter with the viewer, the monuments could, through form, colour and imagery be transformed into protectors and signposts in the passage of the dead from earthly life to heaven. Through form, image and inscription, they were also able to maintain a relationship to dead ancestors and past contexts. By considering choices of style as a social practice, variations in the burial practice that either emphasise or exclude the past have been identified. These choices can be linked to different social formations and groups within the social elite. In addition to more visible groups of actors such as the monarchy and the church, other social groups emerge e g the old aristocracy and a new social group with ambitions for socio-economic advancement. All of these groups had ambitions to maintain and/or gain influence in the socio-political development of societal processes. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the grave monuments were an important part of the formation of different groups in this period of social turbulence. The grave monuments were thus complex material phenomena that were active both as performative transition objects and as statements in socio-political strategies.
Medeltiden materialiserad – om etablerandet, aktiverandet och bevarandet av minnesplatser i Ranrike
(2021-02-25) Alexandersson, Henrik
This thesis revolves around medieval material culture and the way it has been activated, circulated and used in arrangement and creation of memories in a long-term perspective. Focus is on medieval churches, church sites and the furnishings of churches in Ranrike, which is the medieval name of the northern parts of the province of Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden. The following questions are central to the study: Where has the medieval material culture been located over time, and how and when is it activated and rearranged? Based on material culture, the purpose is to investigate and problematise the formation and maintaining of a culture of memories. The theoretical perspective of the thesis involves a discussion and problematising of the creation and maintaining of places for memories, which may, as shown in the study, be of a temporary or long-term nature. The methodology can be characterised as a close-up study of materiality, text, pictures, landscape and places. Particular emphasis is directed towards archives as depots of memories and communicators of knowledge about material conditions. Several layers of time, activation and movement can be revealed by following the material culture in different categories of sources. The Middle Ages materialise not only physically in various forms of spatiality but also through the information of the written material. Further, the conditions for collecting know-ledge are considered, as well as the standard of documentation and archiving. The three first case-studies of the thesis deal with the places of the local community and their religious, political, economic, social and cultural functions. The two final case studies are thematic. The first focuses on abandoned churches, memory and forgetting, and the other discusses the exhibition of ancient church art at the Gothenburg tricentennial Jubilee Exhibition in 1923. The study shows that it is difficult to tie an artefact to a specific placement, site or time. Objects change direction, meaning and significance over time. A particular object may have had a broad range of simultaneous meanings at the same point in time. Activation and circulation of the creation of memories has been uncovered at a local, regional and national level. The preserved medieval material culture of Ranrike is greatly varied, even though the major part of it has disappeared. Items and memories stretch out in time, but get a foothold and materialise in different places, in diverse forms of spatiality and in various categories of source material. The concept of the Middle Ages is loaded, and each period produces, arranges and maintains its own ideas of the Middle Ages.
Vernacular buildings and urban social practice – Wood and people in Early Modern Swedish society
(2020-08-19) Nilsen, Andrine
Wooden houses were major components of the early modern Swedish townscape. Yet, today these buildings have largely disappeared due to fires, demolition and modernity. The main themes of the thesis are the study of what kind of wooden building techniques were used within the urban environment. The research questions addresse the organisation of wooden buildings within urban space, through a series of micro studies. The social dimensions of the buildings are investigated, in terms of function, layout and how these changed over time, as well as queries concerning internal comfort such as insulated/ uninsulated and heated/ unheated spaces. Themes such as production of space, regarding how the urban was formed, built and organized, but also populated and used are addressed. The study researches multi-disciplinary sources with mainly archaeological data, supplemented by investigations of preserved early modern wooden buildings, dendrochronology as well as historical records and images. The production, use and function of the early modern wooden building stock has been investigated through five micro studies focusing on the towns of Nya Lödöse, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Jönköping and Falun. The first one deals with the building culture connected to log timber construction, its layouts, use and function as well as place in society. The second one concerns the prevalence of timber-framing in terms of mapping, function, use and construction. The third case study examines post and plank construction in urban settings also in relation to mapping, use and function. The fourth deals with the storeyed building as a cohesive part of the urban building stock, with focus on layouts, function and dating of preserved buildings but also in searching for traces to find the storeyed house archaeologically. Finally, the fifth case study investigates and compares the building stock in the urban centre and the archaeologically less researched urban periphery through historical records to link people, places and activities from these interconnected spaces. The combined studies show how the wooden building stock was ubiquitous in the early modern Swedish townscape at all levels of society. Timber-framing was usual as a building practice and well integrated, in addition to being spread over a much wider geographical area than previous research has acknowledged. All three building techniques were commonplace often in a mix of constructions. Variability has come forth as an important aspect throughout the study. The little Ice Age influenced new strategies for creating warm housing, clearly affordable to the populace. Changes as well as continuity in layouts featured simultaneously within the building stock, while the storeyed house became an increasingly important part of the urban. Wooden buildings housed the bulk of the urban population. Despite the destructive results of the reoccurring urban fires, the population kept on building in wood continuously producing similar however differently iterated built environments and spaces.
Processing death: Oval brooches and Viking graves in Britain, Ireland and Iceland
(2020-05-19) Norstein, Frida Espolin
Burials with oval brooches from the Viking Age settlements in Britain, Ireland, and Iceland have frequently been interpreted as the graves of a specific and uniform group of people: (pagan) Scandinavian women of relatively high status. This interpretation is partly a result of the way in which the material has been treated, as static entities with more or less fixed meanings. How similar were these graves, however, and can they be interpreted as belonging to a specific group of people? By studying oval brooches and the graves in which these appear, this thesis examines how grave-goods were used in life and in death, and how the funerary rites themselves were performed. It provides an approach to grave-goods and graves that allows for the identification of variation in the material. Seeing the material as processes rather than objects is accentuated in order to identify variation. Through a theoretical framework emphasising ritualization, the focus is placed on ritual practice as meaningful in and of itself, rather than as reflective of uniform ideas and concepts. The meaning of funerary rites is also acknowledged as relational rather than essential; they must be understood in relation to each other and to other ways of acting. The thesis comprises two in-depth case studies. The first case study (chapter 2) demonstrates that there are considerable differences in how oval brooches were used in both life and death and argues that these variations in use affected the brooches’ abilities to evoke remembrances in funerary rites. Instead of regarding their meaning as static, the chapter emphasises how their meaning was relational and dependent on people’s previous experience with oval brooches, both as a category and as individual objects. The second case study (chapter 3) examines how the funerary rites themselves were performed. It demonstrates that there were norms governing the funerary practices, but also that these practices in several cases varied or deviated from the norms. These variations and deviations highlight funerary practices as responses to an actual and contemporary situation: the death of a specific member of the community. Whereas earlier studies have regarded graves with oval brooches as clearly defined and uniform, this study has demonstrates that there was considerable variation in how the actual practices were performed. The graves with oval brooches were not uniform. Therefore, interpretations should not be uniform either. The considerable differences in how artefacts were used and funerary practices performed strongly suggest that there would have been distinctions in the intentions and effects of the funerary rituals. Although burials with oval brooches could at times be regarded as informative about the identities and social groups of the dead, this would have depended on factors other than merely the presence or absence of specific objects. Overall, the thesis argues that studies of burials with oval brooches – and Viking graves more generally – have been too concerned with the supposed paganism and ‘Scandinavianess’ of the graves. Such research stands in danger of reducing all parts of the Viking graves to questions about identities, and leave little room for the funerary rites as responses to the death of specific individuals. Instead, by decentralising the significance of grave-goods, both as an ethnic and religious marker and also as the unifying feature of the rituals, the approach presented here opens up for the possibility to explore communal as well as case-specific approaches and attitudes towards death and dying in Viking Age Britain, Ireland, and Iceland.
Tjänstefolk: Vardagsliv i underordning, Stockholm 1600-1635.
(2020-05-14) Borenberg, Paul
In early modern Europe, large parts of the young and unmarried popula- tion worked as servants in the households of others, until they could marry. The servants were subordinated their master in a patriarchal relationship, encoded in law and religious norms. While research on the institution of service is mostly focused on the 18th century, this thesis explores the early 17th century, a period for which relatively little is known about the institution of service. The thesis ex- plores the institution of service and the everyday life of the servants in Stockholm 1600–1635. The thesis shows that the institution of service was well established in the city, with at least one tenth of the city’s population consisting of servants. They performed simple tasks, guarding, carrying, fetching, etcet- era, that enabled a greater freedom of movement for their masters. The servants also had very little capacity to protest and bring their masters to court for abuse, but rather chose stealing and leaving service. Their social networks consisted mainly of other people in the city who were not mas- ters themselves. The thesis also shows the differences between the experience of female and male servants. While male servants performed work duties far away from the household, female servants were closely tied to traditional house- hold chores. While male servants were visible in taverns and the streets of the city, female servants’ social circles seem more closely tied to the home as well. Lastly, the female servant was more vulnerable to sexual abuse by their masters than the male servants were. The study therefore describes an institution of service, more informally organised than during the during the 18th century. It gave the servants few obvious opportunities, other than providing a somewhat honourable position, and a platform for socialising with their peers.
Pagan Pasts, Christian Futures: Memory Manipulation and Christianisation in the Cities of Western Asia Minor
(2019-08-15) Selsvold, Irene
Religion has always impacted how we structure the physical world around us, and the Roman world was no exception. Roman cities were constructed and shaped around religious life and religious practices. Religious art was omnipresent, and religious architecture monumental. When Christianity displaced all traditional cults and became the primary state religion in the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity, religious life and religious practices changed significantly. This study investigates how changed religious life and religious practices in Late Antiquity reshaped Roman cities in Western Asia Minor, concentrating on the three cities Ephesus, Aphrodisias, and Hierapolis. Written sources from Late Antiquity – laws and saints’ lives – can create the impressions that pagan material culture was violently destroyed, and that pagan statues and temple buildings were the main foci of Christian destruction. The fate of pagan material culture during the Christianisation has traditionally mainly been investigated using textual rather than archaeological sources. This has led to a persistent view of the religious transformation as characterized by polarisation, violence, and intolerance. Further, investigations have focused mainly on the types of material culture most frequently described in these texts: pagan temples and statues. The present study falls in line with several recent critical studies arguing that the Christianisation process was more complex and dynamic, and that the rapidly growing archaeological record should be used to reassess and nuance persisting narratives of destruction and decline. The study analyses how material culture can be used as agents of societal change, and what part pagan material culture played in the religious transformation in Late Antiquity (c. 350–620 CE). The analytical concept memory manipulation is employed in order to 1), reassess Christian responses to pagan material culture that are established in scholarly debate, such as conversion and destruction, and 2), reassess the categories of pagan material traditionally associated with the Christianisation, such as temple buildings and imagery. Rather than destroying pagan material culture, memory manipulation entails altering how material things are perceived and how material things interact with their surroundings through small and large alterations. Ultimately, memory manipulation alter how material culture is remembered by a society. By employing the concept of ‘memory manipulation’, the Christianisation process can be understood as constructive and future-oriented rather than expressions of intolerance and anger. Beyond temple buildings and statues, the study encompasses a wider range of material manifestations of cult than the traditional foci, and included monuments, sacred spaces, imagery, and inscribed materials in the public areas of the cities in the analysis. The study considers removal, mutilation, spoliation, disposal, appropriation, and reconfiguration as memory manipulation strategies in addition to destruction and conversion, The study demonstrates that Roman cities in late antique Asia Minor actively used pagan material culture to shape Christian presents and futures. Memory manipulation strategies were not restricted to temple buildings and sanctuaries, but were performed in the entirety of public space. Material culture from sanctuaries were moved into the cityscapes, and into Christian buildings. As a result, memory manipulation reached a larger audience than if manipulation had been restricted to the confines of the sanctuary temenos. Imagery, smaller monuments, and gates in public spaces were subject to Christian manipulation alongside the material culture in the sanctuaries. Streetscapes, thoroughfares, and necropoleis were likewise important arenas for memory manipulation. The aim of the religious transformation in Late Antiquity was to establish Christianity as the only religion, through making paganism and pagan cult practice a thing of the past. In social memory, the purpose of the past is to identify a group, define their past, and their aspirations for the future. An important issue during Christianisation was therefore to establish how paganism and pagan cult practice should be remembered, and how it could be used to define and realise a Christian future. Individual images, monuments, and environments played different roles in the social memory of the three cities Ephesus, Aphrodisias, and Hierapolis, and the same was true for the pagan cults and pagan practices they were associated with. Therefore, the social memory of each of the three cities differed from the others. The present study provides a foundation for the continued analysis of how material culture affected and shaped societal change in Late Antiquity. The concept ‘memory manipulation’ is a fruitful and stimulating concept that highlights the complex and changeable relationship between humans and material culture in the past. The study has shown that the entirety of our material surroundings is imbued with meaning, and that they are vital to our understanding of late antique attitudes towards the past
Könets krona. Representationer av svenska drottningar från stormaktsenvälde till medborgarsamhälle
(2019-06-05) Rotbain, Avigail
Representations of the monarchy have been the subject of many previous studies. These studies have almost exclusively focused on kings, based on the fact that kings wielded formal political power and have thus been perceived as the sole subjects of the monarchy. However, during the early modern period, the king and queen were understood to share a common rulership with complementary roles. In this structure, both a king and queen were necessary to create the royal equilibrium between traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, and to be able to present an example of an ideal marriage. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the representations of queens was constructed and negotiated and to analyze continuity and change in that representation. This is accomplished through a study of Occasion poetry of four Swedish queens from the late 17th century to the late 19th century. As previous research has indicated, the large dividing line in the role of the monarchy in society and its representation is between the ancien régime and the constitutional monarchies. However, it is noteworthy that the representation of the queens during the 17th and 18th century seems to have been largely unaffected by the changing political contexts. Instead, there is a great continuity in the representation of the queens even though the monarchy’s position differs a lot. What primarily creates change in the representation of the queen is not the political context, instead there are two other important factors that create the larger variations in the representation. The first factor is the queen's individual circumstances. Each queen, despite many common themes, also has her own clear theme or story which creates a distinct image for the individual queen. The second factor are greater social changes, such as secularization and mediatization, that go beyond or lie outside of specific political shifts. In the representation of the queen, a meaning is created regardless of the monarchy’s statutory power, and this can explain the strong continuity that does not seem to be affected by major political fluctuations: the monarchial system is anchored beyond the political context.
Gloria muliebris: Elite female status competition in Mid-Republican Rome
(2019-06-03) Webb, Lewis
Elite status competition permeated mid-Republican Rome (264–133 BCE). Struggles for superiority in status among the senatorial elite catalysed social growth and conflict in the res publica: competition and the desire for glory suffused elite society. Such competition was fostered by the ascendancy of the patrician and plebeian senatorial elite in the late fourth through early third centuries. This competition occurred during a period of increasing status differentiation between senatorial and non-senatorial equestrians and was funded by an influx of resources from warfare, trade, and agriculture in the third and second centuries. The practice of elite status competition encompassed capital conversions and conspicuous displays of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital in various interacting and overlapping domains. These resources and domains supplied the means and opportunities for status comparison and differentiation. Prior studies have focused almost exclusively on status competition among elite men, illustrating its domains, its resources, and the often-ineffective legislative and censorial regulation thereof. By contrast, in this study, a compilation thesis of four articles, I reconstruct the dynamics of elite female status competition by rendering explicit some of its domains, resources, and regulation. Article one highlights the interacting and overlapping domains of elite female status competition, namely sacerdotal public office, public religious rites, transport, adornment, religious instruments, retinues, family, patronage, houses and villas, banquets, and public funerals, many of which were similar to those for elite men. Article two and Article three show that elite women benefited from, and were integrated into, two domains of elite male status competition, namely magisterial public office and warfare, by virtue of their associations with the elite male status symbols of ancestor masks and triumphs. Article four underscores the importance of the domains of transport and adornment for elite women by focusing on their successful lobbying for the repeal of the lex Oppia in 195. Elite women had access to various resources for status competition, particularly wealth, a social network, and status symbols. Article one and Article four emphasise the wealth available to elite women in their dowries, inheritances, personal effects, and other forms of property. This wealth could be mobilised and converted into other forms of capital for and during conspicuous displays. These two articles underline the importance of the order of married women for elite female status competition, a social network of wealthy senatorial and non-senatorial equestrian married women with its own hierarchies and status symbols. These status symbols included the two-wheeled carriage, four-wheeled carriage, earrings, fillets, gold trimmings, purple clothing, and possibly funerary orations. Article four also indicates that elite women had access to gold rings, senatorial status symbols they shared with elite men and which differentiated them from non-senatorial equestrians. Article two and Article three illustrate how elite women were closely associated with and benefited from ancestor masks and triumphs, particularly through the inheritance and marital transfer of patrilineal and matrilineal ancestor masks, funerary processions, elite female presence in the triumphal chariot, and triumphal names, among other associations. Article four uncovers forms of legislative and censorial regulation that directly affected the practice of elite female status competition: the lex Oppia of 215–195 and a censorial action of 184. The lex Oppia restricted the conspicuous display of the two-wheeled carriage for secular purposes, gold heavier than a semuncia (half an ounce), and purple clothing for twenty years, while in 184 the censors increased census assessments tenfold on expensive jewellery, female clothes, and vehicles and determined a threefold tax liability thereon for at least five years. Both regulations restricted and/or punished conspicuous display in the domains of adornment and transport and some of the status symbols of the order of married women. These regulations temporarily curtailed some domains and resources for elite female status competition and thereby some opportunities and means for status comparison and differentiation. The repeal of the lex Oppia in 195 after the public lobbying of women and support of some elite men testifies to elite female and male investment in status competition, its domains and resources. This study demonstrates that elite status competition was a cooperative endeavour for members of an elite family and gens: an integrated, intergenerational family enterprise. During a period of increasing status differentiation, elite men and women mobilised, displayed, and expended natal and marital resources in various domains to compete, obtain competitive advantages, and attain, enhance, retain, and reproduce status, and deployed numerous strategies to do so. Both elite men and women sought glory. The domains and resources of elite male and female status competition were integrated and mutually supportive, affording elite families a variety of opportunities and means for status comparison and differentiation. Regulation failed to dampen their desire for glory and to curtail their competition indefinitely. Elite female conspicuous displays advertised personal, familial and gentilician capital, accruing benefits for their male relatives and vice versa. Without such competition, elite families could not compare and differentiate their status. An elite family rose or fell together: the struggles vital to the res publica were equally the struggles of elite women. More broadly, this study illuminates the remarkable publicity and visibility of elite women: these were no self-effacing, reserved women confined to marital subservience or producing wool. Elite women were prominent and visible.
Härskare i liv och död. Social exklusivitet och maktstrategi i Vänerbygd under yngre järnålder
(2019-05-03) Nitenberg, Annelie
Between 2000 and 2012, archaeological investigations were conducted in Sunnerby at Kållandsö. A large mound from the Vendel period, an elite settlement from the late Iron Age/Medieval Times, as well as the remains of a medieval church are some of the contexts investigated. The results form the point of departure of this thesis in which the traces from Sunnerby are studied from a Micro archaeological perspective. Material from other Scandinavian sites is taken into account in a comparative analysis. Large mounds as well as elite settlements are in focus. The aim is to study strategies of the social elite in their quest to reach the required position in society, and their ability to achieve power in the Late Iron Age. Written sources are analysed to further broaden the level of knowledge. The thesis is a contribution to a methodological development concerning how things and texts can work together in a constructive way in the interpretative process of the past. Another important result of the thesis is that it opens up a fairly entrenched research area: Västergötland in the Late Iron Age. With new approaches from a relational perspective sprung from Posthumanist theories, new questions are formulated based on well-known material. Central conceptions are social practice, materiality, agency, actors (living and non-living) and physical phenomena. In Kungshögen (The King´s mound) there were a number of physical phenomena (a broken gold ring, a glass cup, gaming pieces and falconry concept) that can be linked to power strategies in the elite’s ambitions for social and political positions. Together with the material from the adjacent settlement, it was concluded that the leaders of Sunnerby led an aristocratic life style with drinking ceremonies, gift exchange, exclusive hunting and gaming with board games. It was this aristocratic living that was in focus when the furnishing of the pyre and grave in Kungshögen was conducted. Different kinds of practices were also instruments of strategy in the socio-political tactics. Important practices/themes are: monumentalizing their own environment; falconry and exclusive hunting; eating, drinking and being merry; playing board games; burying leaders; taking objects out of circulation; storytelling; sacrificing in hall and mound; gift exchange; and belligerent activities. Monumentalizing and burying leaders stand out to be the most important strategies independent of time, place and source. The study also indicates that there is no general Scandinavian leadership to be found in the Iron Age; rather, variations over time and place with a differentiated leadership as well as a changing lordship ideology. The analysed material also shows the importance of relations. In the Lake Väner district there is an emphasis on family and kin, but different kinds of vertical relations are much less accentuated here than in other parts of Scandinavia. A few participated in violent activities and some were buried dressed as a warrior, but the warrior ideal and warfare have left relatively few traces here. The social elites of the Lake Väner district did not actively wage war, but they were locally established, self-assertive and had the ability to keep themselves relatively self-contained. They were aware of their surrounding world and had good relations. They were part of a general North European culture sphere, the content of which was used in socio-political contexts. The social elites of the Lake Väner district were eager to relate to the Merovingian kingdom, a condition accentuated in the material framework and the materialized lordship ideology.
Vid gränsen. Mottagningen av flyktingar från Norge 1940-1945
(2018-12-13) Hansson, Lars
Norway was occupied by Germany on the 9th April 1940. As a consequence, thousands of Norwegians fled to Sweden, and there are good grounds for asserting that Sweden experienced its first fairly extensive refugee crisis. The country was simultaneously badly equipped to cope with the large numbers of distressed people crossing the frontier. Neither legislation nor the refugee reception organisation was designed for such a scenario, so a more or less chaotic situation resulted. Most problems that arose had therefore to be solved directly when they occurred. Towards the end of the war, refugee reception had on the other hand developed into an effective organisation with frontier guards, healthcare, interpreters etc. Refugee politics had also changed radically, from very restrictive to more open. Earlier research on how Swedish refugee politics changed during the war has only to a limited extent paid attention to the Norwegian refugee problem. The focus has likewise mostly been on how the central authorities handled the waves of refugees during the war. This dissertation focuses instead on a local perspective on refugee politics and the theory advanced here is that experiences of refugee reception gained at the Norwegian frontier during the first years of the war were decisive for the development of refugee politics during the final years of the war. The main objective of this dissertation is therefore to explain how these experiences influenced the shaping of refugee politics. This in its turn presupposes a local perspective on how reception took place along the Norwegian frontier. The dissertation’s main question is thus how refugee politics developed at the intersection between local and central authorities. Among other sources, this study builds on previously uninvestigated information from almost 33,000 interrogation protocols about backgrounds and motives for flight. Above all, it was the efforts for the refugees at the Norwegian frontier that transformed Sweden’s refugee politics from within, enabling the country to cope with the great waves of refugees into the country at the end of the war.
A city on a hill cannot be hidden: Function and symbolism of Ancient Greek akropoleis
(2018-11-26) Rönnlund, Robin
En akropolis (plur. akropoleis), en befäst kulle högt över en antik grekisk stad, utgör en av de mest välkända vyerna från antiken, men ingen har än studerat akropoleis systematiskt. Ett forskningsfokus på Athens Akropolis och dess byggnadshistoria har skapat en bild av dessa platser som stämmer föga överens med den arkeologiska situationen i den övriga grekiska världen. I denna avhandling behandlar jag antika grekiska akropoleis genom att studera deras funktion och symbolism från ett diakront perspektiv. Jag menar att okritiska läsningar av antika texter under 1900-talet gav upphov till historiska modeller genom vilka akropoleis tolkades och förstods; modeller som, trots att de är föråldrade, än idag är vanligt förekommande i forskningen. Detta skedde när forskare sökte harmonisera de ofta motstridiga antika texterna till ett förståeligt narrativ. Genom att se akropoleis som diakrona monument i det antika landskapet undersöker jag hur förändringar i akropoleis’ funktion ledde till förändringar i ordets symboliska betydelse. Detta gör att man kan lösa upp de skenbara motsättningarna i antika texter mellan ordets denotationer och konnotationer, och samtidigt bringa samman textkällor och arkeologisk evidens. I stället för att besvara frågan "vad är en akropolis?” upprättar jag en lös definition av vad vi kan identifiera som en akropolis genom att analysera hur ordet ’akropolis’ förekommer i antika Grekiska texter från den arkaiska perioden fram tills 100-talet e.v.t. Resultatet är en formulering av ‘essenser’, vilka sedan används för att identifiera 39 akropoleis i det publicerade arkeologiska materialet från regionerna Thessalien och Boiotien. Genomgången av det antika bruket av ordet ’akropolis’ visar att det användes både bokstavligen och bildligt för att beskriva faktiska platser och abstrakta företeelser. Till skillnad från hur man vanligt förstår akropoleis så användes de tillsynes inte som tillflyktsorter under klassisk och hellenistisk tid. I stället verkar de från den senklassiska perioden och framåt huvudsakligen ha huserat utländska garnisonstrupper, vilka utplacerats för att kontrollera bosättningen. Det finns belägg för kultisk aktivitet på vissa akropoleis, men källorna för detta är förhållandevis få. Genomgången visar vidare att det var vanligt att använda ordet ’akropolis’ när man hänvisade till personer och tings egenskaper, och att dessa egenskaper över tid förändrades från att vara positiva till att bli huvudsakligen negativa. Inventeringen av det publicerade arkeologiska materialet från Thessalien och Boiotien bekräftar den bild som framträder från de antika textkällorna. Akropoleis i dessa områden är oftast små och opassande som tillflyktsorter för större grupper människor, men skulle fungera bra som garnisonsförläggningar. Väldigt lite visar på att akropoleis utgjorde boplatser, och huvuddelen av de arkeologiska lämningarna härrör från försvarsanläggningar. Befästningsverken är ofta överdrivna till storleken, vilket skulle kunna innebära att de syftade till att kommunicera ett budskap. Det samlade resultatet av studien visar att akropoleis har sin bakgrund i polis-statens tidiga historia och att de gick från att vara tillflyktsorter för en förurban befolkning till att bli garnisonsanläggningar under den hellenistiska perioden. Det är tydligt under hela den studerade perioden att byggherrarna på dessa platser syftade till att maximera befästningsverkens synlighet i landskapet, vilket ofta ledde till monumental storlek på murar och torn. Skiftet i funktion från försvar till förtryck, tillsammans med befästningsverkens ideologiska budskap, ledde till slut till förändringen i akropoleis’ symboliska betydelse. I vidare bemärkelse så utmanar resultaten av studien flera av de vanliga uppfattningarna kring tidiga polis-stater och understryker komplexiteten i urbaniseringen av det antika Grekland.

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