Djuren i husen : Om spår av rituell praktik i profana byggnader

Sammanfattning: The ritual practice of concealing animal bones and other objects in buildings has a long continuity, and occurs in both prehistoric as well as in late modern buildings. There is however a discrepancy between the prehistoric material and the later archaeological material, where there are a lot of signs of ritual concealments in Iron Age houses but a lack of archaeological sources from historical buildings. There are no written sources that mentions the custom of concealing objects in buildings during prehistoric times. However, folkloristic sources tell us of a practice during historical times, much like the prehistoric building concealments. This study aims to make use of different sources to gain a better understanding of the custom during multiple time periods. This could help to fill in the knowledge gaps concerning the practice of building concealments in both prehistoric times as well as in later historical times. The analysis is based on three case studies of Swedish archaeological investigations; two concerns primarily Iron Age material and the third one concerns Early Modern and Pre-industrial material. All three are delimited by the fact that concealed animal remains, as well as other objects, have been recovered. Swedish folkloristic sources are used to make analogies to the different archaeological contexts found in the case studies. The main concern of this study is not on the symbolism of the action, but rather on the actual practice and the ritualization that underlies the archaeological material. This means that contextual aspects such as spatial contexts, the treatments of the objects or choice of species are important to take into account, and could also be interpreted as distinguishing aspects in the ritualization. This study shows how the use of multiple sources can help create new knowledge and give different perspectives on the ritual practice of building concealments in both prehistoric and historical times. It also illustrates similarities of the practice between different time periods, and how we can relate the Iron Age custom to the concealments made during much later times.