Skärvstenshögar och vatten : En studie av uppländska skärvstenshögars placering i landskapet

Sammanfattning: Heaps of fire cracked stones is an apparent feature of the Scandinavian Bronze Age. The heaps are built of stones cracked by fire and then placed in different constructions. The heaps are placed in different contexts in the Bronze Age landscape and for a long time, research neglected this site category owing to that the heaps were not considered important enough to dig. During the 1980s-90s the interest for the heaps of fire cracked stones increased and it became a wellresearched although debated site category. Earlier research has interpreted the heaps to be on the hillslopes in the landscape. This study’s research aims to understand the relation between shorelines and the placement of fire cracked stone heaps. This will be done through a landscape study of Uppland. The study indicates that the pattern in the distribution of heaps of fire cracked stones creates a correlation with the shoreline of the time the heaps were built, through their placement in the landscape. By creating a dynamic shoreline displacement, the essay will be able to look at the landscape in a more detailed way and will be able to investigate the relation between the heaps and the water edge. Through excluding the heaps that are under the waterline it is possible to in general determine the earliest possible production date. The fire cracked stone heaps have earlier been categorised to the Scandinavian Bronze Age but this research argues that some of the heaps should belong to the Neolithic Age as well.