Gravar och Identitet i Kurland : Gravars roll i kommunicerande av identitet under Kurlands yngre järnålder

Sammanfattning: Late Iron Age burials in Courland have primarily been used as signifiers of ethnical identity for larger groups of people, mainly based on later written sources. Based on gender theoretical perspectives, the burials can be understood as communicating different and varying, socially constructed identities. Dress pins are discussed as markers for a female identity among people of higher social standing. After the introduction of cremation burials, the need to communicate this identity through dress pins seems to disappear and women, as well as men, are buried with penannular brooches. A child’s grave indicates that this identity might have been adopted when the child reached a certain age and was considered to have reached social adulthood.