Stridens symboler & maktens märken : en studie av gotlands bildstenar

Sammanfattning: This thesis is concerned with the earliest picture stones on Gotland. The study will focus on the interpretation of the motives and symbols that are shown on the stones. This will partly be done by compounding the various motives into one synchronic statement and also partly by studying the manifests of the contemporary roman armed forces on the continent. Instead of earlier interpretations, suggesting that the expressions of the picture stones basically are about religion, myths, sagas and conceptions about the death, my idea is that the expressions shows coherence with roman warfare. My aim in this thesis is to propose that the motives on the picture stones of the Migration Period on Gotland deals with the organisation of power and warfare in this time, both on and outside the island.