Bronsålderns benbruk i östra Mellansverige : med exempel på variation i gravskicket vid Broby och Hallunda

• During the Late Bronze Age in the eastern parts of Central Sweden, the remains of the deceased were treated in many different ways. In addition to cairns and stone settings (which are usually regarded as graves), human bones, cremated as well as not cremated, have also been found in settlements, in heaps of fired cracked stones, wells, pits and in water. These "bone deposits" are made up of parts of people rather than complete bodies, and show a complex treatment of the dead (see, for example, Thedeen 2004; Eriksson 2005; Fredengren 2011). The purpose of this article is to study and discuss the highly varied practice of treating the remains of the deceased in eastern Central Sweden during the Late Bronze Age. This issue is discussed through two very well-known Bronze Age sites: Hallunda, Botkyrka parish in Sodermanland and Broby, BOrje parish in Uppland. In the article we argue that the bone deposits found in the area must partly be seen in a different way than a "grave" in the sense of a place for the deceased's last resting place. We highlight circumstances which indicate that the human bones that are found are the result of ritual processes with different phases, rather than individual "burials" with the grave as a last resting place for the dead. We also argue that a distinctive feature in the treatment of the remains of the dead in eastern Central Sweden is that the link between the dead individual and the "grave monument" (which is central to the concept of the grave) is weak.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- Archaeology (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Burial practices

Cremation

Bronze Age

Hallunda

Broby

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)