Gyllene landskap : En landskapsstudie om brakteaters kontexter i Sydsverige

Sammanfattning: In this theses I have investigated what a landscape perspective can say about communities during the Migration Period and what variations may have existed between them. I have done this by using landscape analysis on 16 selected south Swedish localities of bracteates. By analyzing the sites contexts, monument images and landscape formations I have been able to see similarities between places that indicate that the communities had interregional as well as continental contacts. My analysis has also shown that there were variations between sites in how the bracteates were deposited. Most of the bracteates have been found in hoards or as stray find, which indicates that they were not used as personal items. Instead it is more likely that there was some type of organization behind the deposits of the bracteates, that possibly even decided who got to wear bracteates when they were in use. Since the sites are all located close to different types of water sources it is possible that there were also religious reasons to why the bracteates have been deposited in these landscapes.