Storhögar i Vänerområdet under Vendeltid, en komparativ undersökning av fornlämnings- miljön i Sunnerby och Skalunda AE1333

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to contribute to a better understanding about two burial mounds and their environment from an archaeological perspective: the Sunnerby mound on Kållandsö and the Skalunda mound on Kålland in the western parts of Sweden. These mounds have been the objekt of recent research; they have been created fairly contemporary during the later Iron Age in the part called the Vendel period. The essay will mainly use a comparative approach with the aim to shed ligth on essential aspects about both burial mound. The teoretical framework of the essay is rooted in hermeneutics. The archaeological sources presented in the essay are successively brought together, according to the principle theoretical framework to highlights the functionality as well as social aspects embedded in the archaeological evidence from the burial mounds and their immediate surrondings. The problem formulation of the essay concerns the differences and similarities between Sunnerby and Skalunda mound in terms of the archaeological environment and the archaeological material; is it possible that differences and similarities between Sunneby and Skalunda can contribute to better understanding of the organisation of Iron age society? There is an imbalance between the two sites as Sunneby has a larger number of recorded archaeological remains while Skalunda represents a limited number of known evidence, which is estimated to be only half as many. It should reasonably be the other way around because the site of Skalunda is several times larger than Sunnerby. How can this discrepancy be interpreted? Skalunda is historically a predominantly agricultural area and earlier archaeological investigations of the area have revealed that a whole burial mound is missing, due to gain more arable land. Could it be that a number of ancient monuments once standing around the mounds have been decimated over the centuries? The results of this essay vill hopefully provide a clearer picture of the two grave mounds at Sunnerby and Skalunda, and also generate a renewed interest in those sites. It is hoped that future research may contribute to future interesting analyses of both burial mounds and better insight in the Iron Age society that constructed them. What future research will find here will be very interesting.