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- Linderholm, Anna, 1972-
(författare)
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Migration in Prehistory : DNA and stable isotope analyses of Swedish skeletal material
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main aim of this thesis is to show how scientific methods may be used to look at migration in prehistory on the basis of archaeological material. The individuals examined represent the period 4 000 BC to 1 000 AD and have their geographical origins in various parts of Sweden.Ancient DNA analysis is employed in three cases. The first is an investigation of the genetic profiles of the two main cultural groups, which existed in Sweden during the Neolithic, the Funnel Beaker (TRB) and Pitted Ware (PWC) cultures. We can deduce from these genetic data that they were two separate populations, and can see that the TRB genetic profiles continue into the Bronze Age whereas the PWC profiles seem to disappear. In a second analysis based on the same material we explore the ability of adults to digest milk, i.e. lactose tolerance, a genetic trait found in high frequencies in northern Europe. We can see that the TRB population had a higher frequency of this allele than the PWC population. The last paper based on aDNA analysis tackles a very important topic, that of contamination, which has to be understood and recognised, as it is fundamental to such analyses.Stable isotope analysis lies behind the remaining papers, in three of which sulphur isotope analysis is used on skeletal material from Rössberga, Birka and Björned. The individuals buried at Rössberga appear to have been of local origin, in contrast to those buried at Birka and Björned. At Birka separate geographical origins can be deduced for individuals buried in different cemeteries or having different occupations. Whereas the people buried at Björned seem to have come there from different regions in order to establish a Christian colony. In the study on Öland, were the stable isotopes δ13C and δ15N were analysed in order to identify diet and the dietary shift connected with the Neolithic transition, this transition was found at the end of the Neolithic rather than at the beginning as previously hypothesised.
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| 2. |
- Papmehl-Dufay, Ludvig, 1976-
(författare)
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Shaping an identity : Pitted Ware pottery and potters in southeast Sweden
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis is concerned with pottery and culture during the Middle Neolithic (c. 3300 – 2300 cal BC) in southeast Sweden. Its purpose is to investigate and discuss the significance of pottery in the Pitted Ware culture, particularly on the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea. The history of research concerning this subject area is recounted and the known Neolithic remains from the island of Öland are reviewed. The two Pitted Ware sites so far excavated on the island, Köpingsvik and Ottenby Royal Manor, are presented in detail, and ceramics from these two sites are used in the pottery analysis that makes up the empirical core of the work. The assemblages are approached by similar methods and by posing similar questions, and the analytical methods used include recording of the large ceramic assemblages (aspects of design), microscopic analysis of ceramic thin sections and raw clay samples (aspects of raw material use and pottery technology) and lipid residue analysis performed on extracts from pulverised ceramic ware (aspects of pottery use). The results clearly point to a rather elaborate and socially embedded ceramic craft tradition, with a strong preference for decorated vessels and clearly defined ideas on how the pots should be produced and what they should look like. The technological analysis revealed a rather complicated and restrictive raw material situation, with which the potters coped partly by developing local tempering traditions. The functional analysis revealed a striking variability in pottery use between the two sites. The various differences in pottery observed between the two sites are discussed in terms of local sub-traditions within the overall Pitted Ware ceramic tradition, that may have developed through the work of individual potters and contacts with different areas and groups of people. In this way an attempt is made to view pottery and the ceramic craft in the Pitted Ware culture from a more dynamic perspective.
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