Glimmande artefakter och vendeltida social struktur : En studie av järnålderslandskapet i Vallstena socken på östra Gotland

Sammanfattning: The exclusive bronze and gold objects found in the Iron Age ship and rider burials of Vendel, Valsgärde and Sutton Hoo are well known. Less known, however, is the grave field of Vallstenarum on Gotland, where some similar finds have been made. Vallstenarum is located in a highly interesting landscape with former bays and lagoons, Bronze Age monuments, hill forts and a long continuity of human activity. While many of the impressive Bronze Age graves and monuments are widely visible in the landscape, Iron Age burials are more descrete. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the people in the Iron Age Vallstena community, their social organisation and their communication with the rest of the world. This will be achieved by analysing grave objects in relation to status and hierarchy, but also in relation to the surrounding landscape and in chronology with nearby archaeological sites. By comparing where similar finds have been made, the paper also discusses the location of Vendel Period central areas and Iron Age trade and communication. The results show a highly symbolic landscape, where the domestic area was separated from the grave fields. The find material also implies that the Vallstena area was involved in a vast communication network during the Vendel Period and possibly functioned as a trade hub through its strategic location next to the Gothem river. The grave activity in the central area of the parish seems to peak during the Vendel period, and the peripheral areas of the parish starts to get more intensively populated in the Viking Age.