Status,Estate, or Profession?

This article focuses on how social stratification was performed in everyday practice in 1730s Sweden. By studying the titles people were given in the court material of three communities – Uppsala town, Lagunda härad, and Sala town with its silver mine – three factors defining social categorization can be identified: status, estate, and profession. Only people who rose above the commoners were entitled, which means that all titles denoted status. Some titles were shared by different social groups that had little in common, and therefore cannot be said to mark anything other than status. Other titles were exclusive to definable groups. Among those, some were given to groups whose exclusivity was based on legal and fiscal privileges, rather than education or competence. They were simply feudal corporations, or estates. In other groups – all defined by occupations – the members had completed specialist education that included formal exams. In those, social stratification was the result of professionalism.     

The use of stereoscopic images taken from a microdrone for the documentation of heritage – An example from the Tuekta burial mounds in the Russian Altay

To analyse, interpret and manage our cultural heritage it is important to have an accurate and realistic representation of it. Documenting this heritage involves geographic techniques such as photogrammetry, for which a lot of rather expensive and extensive platforms are already in use. However, a microdrone, a recently developed unmanned aerial vehicle platform is a cheaper and easy to handle tool. To test the very limits of the microdrone and its accompanying data-acquisition and data-processing software, we collected data from a remote area in Tuekta, in the Russian Altay Mountains. This paper presents the challenges faced during the whole photogrammetric procedure from planning the flights to producing the final deliverables.     

Radiocarbon dating of the bronze age bone pins from Eurasian steppe

Bone catapult and hammer-headed pins played one of very specific roles in funerary offerings in the Bronze Age graves uncovered in the Eurasian Steppes and the North Caucasus. Scholars used different types of pins as key grave offerings for numerous chronological models. For the first time eight pins have been radiocarbon dated. ¹⁴C dating of bone pins identified the catapult type pin as the earliest one. They marked the period of the Yamnaya culture formation. Then Yamnaya population produced hammer-headed pins which became very popular in other cultural environments and spread very quickly across the Steppe and the Caucasus during 2900–2650 cal BC. But according to radiocarbon dating bone pins almost disappeared after 2600 cal BC.     

Artificial Intelligence, 3D Documentation,and Rock Art—Approaching and Reflecting on the Automation of Identification and Classification of Rock Art Images

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - Rock art carvings, which are best described as petroglyphs, were produced by removing parts of the rock surface to create a negative relief. This...     

The Formation of Swedish Independent Local Lists, 1990–2015.

In this comparative case-study, elements of diffusion theory are used to examine local conditions conducive to political organization in terms of independent local lists (ILLs). Empirical evidence supports the formulation of three hypotheses for future and more systematic research into the problem: a hypothesis of size, an elite-hypothesis and a mobilization-hypothesis. Although several factors are likely to play a role, the results suggest particularly that ILLs are less likely to occur in localities lacking historical legacies in terms of popular mobilization.     

Residential planning,driver mobility and CO2 emission: a microscopic look at Borlänge in Sweden

In a city there are hotspots that attract citizens, and most of the transportation arises when citizens move between their residence and primary destinations (i.e. hotspots). However, an ex ante evaluation of energy-efficient mobility and urban residential planning has seldom been conducted. Therefore, this paper proposes an ex ante evaluation method to quantify the impacts, in terms of CO₂ emissions induced by intra-urban car mobility, of residential plans for various urban areas. The method is illustrated in a case study of a Swedish midsize city, which is presently preoccupied with urban planning of new residential areas in response to substantial population growth due to immigration. In general, CO₂ emissions increase from the continued urban core area (CUCA), to the sub-polycentric area (SPA), to the edge urbanization area (EUA), where CO₂ emission of EUA is twice that of the CUCA. The average travel distances also increase in the same pattern, though the relative increase is more than four times. Apartment buildings could be more effective in meeting residential needs and mitigating CO₂ emissions than dispersed single-family houses.     

Anders Hagen: Et arkeologisk liv. Primitive tider,Oslo, 2002. 225 pp. ISSN 1501‐0430

Archaeologies of identity have enriched our interpretations of the past in the last 20 years; however, despite interest in the social construction of age there has been little consideration of the later part of the life span. This is rooted in a mixture of methodological difficulties and social attitudes to old age in present-day societies. This article explores the ways in which old age can be constructed on both a physical and social level, and asks how this might be relevant to archaeological examples. In addition, it proposes a new way of understanding skeletal changes with age which allows us to explore the specific way that old age is constructed in particular archaeological contexts. In this way, it becomes possible to explore the relationship between the ageing process and social change. This is explored using a case study from Early Bronze Age Austria.