Dödens former och material

Abstract

This text concerns recent excavations and interpretations about the large Early Iron Age burial ground Jordbro in Österhaninge, south of Stockholm. During three years between 2017-19, six low cairns, eleven small deposits of cremated bone, ceramics and bronze fragments without superstructure, and sixteen trial trenches were excavated in the previously untouched north-eastern part of the burial site. The small deposits were found close to the rock in the northernmost part of the burial ground and comprise a hitherto unknown phase of Bronze Age burials at Jordbro. The low cairns also provided novel information about the Early Iron Age view of death and burial. For example, the consistent asymmetry between the burial pit and the superstructures indicates a prolonged burial ritual where the latter was erected some time after the inhumation of the bodies. Moreover, the careful selection and use of stone and different minerals in the burials is interpreted as an intentionally compiled assemblage arranged for generative purposes rather than only to constitute memorials of dead individuals.