PREHISTORIC RESIDENTS IN MARGINAL AREAS — AN EXAMPLE FROM WEST SWEDEN

Summary. The purpose of this article is to give an idea of the settlement history of a marginal area of the Swedish West coast. The presence of Stone Age man is evidenced by a great number of hitherto unknown, very small quartz quarries throughout the area. The Bronze and Iron Age settlements are evidenced by the ancient grave monuments. As the location at different altitudes of these graves cannot be explained by a lowering sea level, another explanation has to be sought. The area seems to have developed away from contact with the coastal zones and there is no evidence of settlement expansion.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CAIRNS AND SETTLEMENT SITES

Summary. This article discusses the problem of how to relate a special grave construction to a particular settlement site. An example from the West Swedish Bronze Age is presented to pinpoint the difficulties of the chronological criteria and the drawbacks of using 'nearness' as a criterion.
The idea presented is that a relationship between a grave monument and a settlement site may be reflected in areas where the building material, the stones, were picked up. Such areas can be demonstrated in a test example from West Sweden, which showed that, under special circumstances, such a link may be valuable for solving the problem of how to relate a cairn to a settlement site.     

POWER AND INFLUENCE IN THE LATE STONE AGE. A DISCUSSION OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FLINT DAGGER MATERIAL

Summary. In this study, the flint daggers in three areas on the Swedish West Coast are used to show the connection between powerful and influential groups and warlike activities. The variations within the flint dagger material are interpreted in terms of social status and the current flint dagger typology is rejected.