Från Ugarit till Uppland : En studie om kontakter mellan Skandinavien och Medelhavsvärlden under den skandinaviska bronsåldern

Sammanfattning: This thesis studies the contacts between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean area during the Scandinavian Bronze Age. These contacts have been the topic of controversy for a long time as one side of the debate believes in direct contacts between Scandinavia and the Mediterranean area, and the other side believes that contacts between the two areas could only have been by down the line trading contacts. This thesis then aims to see what evidence there is that the contacts would have been direct or otherwise. This is done by studying the archaeological evidence as well as the pictographic depictions on rock art in Scandinavia and painted pottery from the Mediterranean area, as well as ships and ship technology to understand if Scandinavian ships would have been able to travel to the Mediterranean in the first place. Further, this thesis also studies the urn burials introduced to Scandinavia during the Bronze Age from northern Italy to see the spreading of ideas, as well as isotope analysis of bronze from Sweden and Denmark together with strontium analysis of Bronze Age individuals to form a complete picture about these contacts and how they took place.