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Excavation report of an important site close to the farm from the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period site at Gene, in northern Ångermanland. The reported site shows new aspects of the transition from the traditional mobile and semi-mobile hunter-gatherer society to the new way of life style with three-aisled longe house and stalled animials. The closeness in time and space illuminate in a new way the how this transition took place. On this world-wide issue it is suggested that regional causes may be seeked.

During the course of the 14th century the Swedish Crown and the Catholic Church made robust attempts to include the areas beside the Bothnian bay within their central fiscal and clerical organization. Salmon fishing in the productive river rapids became major targets for external commercial interests. Written records inform us about the situation from the perspective of the exploiters. However, there is a story running in parallel – that of the local population already occupying the lands and the fishing grounds. The study aims to analyse the significance of hunting and fishing to the overall subsistence of coastal communities in northern Sweden during the period AD 500–1600. The social context is of particular interest, specifically in relation to the successive conformation by the local communities to the Swedish fiscal system. The study draws on archaeological records and on historical records from the 14th to the 17th century, in addition to ethnographic accounts for hunting and fishing. We conclude that the legal cultures embraced by the indigenous population and that of the Swedish central powers were in essence incompatible. The acquisition of land and fishing rights was never settled between two equal parties, but one-sidedly enforced by the party holding the pen.

Although the productive fishing grounds had long attracted the Crown and the Church to northern Sweden, it was not until the sixteenth century that the judicial and fiscal powers of the Swedish Crown were exercised in full. Records show that the regular fishing in interior lakes formed a prominent enterprise among coastal farmer communities. This paper examines the social and economic context of farmers engaged in interior fishing with respect to the internal organization of village communities, principles of private and collective ownership, land-use strategies and inter-community relations. There are no a-priori assumptions about the coastal population being “Swedish”. Instead of applying ethnonyms, the terms “farmer” and “coastal” are used throughout the paper. The main area of investigation includes the coastal area of northernmost Sweden and the western parts of Finnish Lapland. The study shows that interior lakes fitted into village resource areas, long sanctioned by usage, and that usufruct belonged to village members collectively. A large part of the fishing lakes are situated in interior Sámi territory. Fishermen were internalizing Sámi place names, implying close relations between the groups. Archeological investigations point to subsistence strategies including systemic interior lake fishing being established before AD 1200. The authors propose that coastal and interior communities should be perceived as two economic strategies representing indigenous and pre-colonial land-use schemes.

A tax register (Gustav Vasa's jordebok), from 1543, shows that there were 148 tax units or farms in Lövånger parish at the time. This paper records excavations conducted in 2014 in one of the villages named Böle. Two farmsteads were partly excavated. One (Lövånger parish no. Raä 508) consisted of two house foundations and an ancient field with clearance cairns, and another (Lövånger parish no Raä 621) consisted of three house foundations, a cellar and clearance cairns.

Radiocarbon datings show that the farmsteads were used during the 12th–15th centuries. A coin was found, a so called "klipping", which can be dated to the early reign of King Gustav Vasa, 1521–1523. Most of the artefacts found came from refuse deposits, containing large amounts of burned and unburned bone fragments. Nearly all of the identified bones (c. 97–98 %) came from domesticated animals, such as cattle, sheep and goat. Sources of the few identified bones from wild game included seal, hare, pike and perch.

Areas covered by house foundations on the two sites varied from c. 20 - 50 m2. All foundations had cairns in one corner, marking fireplaces. The houses on the foundations were probably timber-framed, like most houses in the area during historical times. In and outside the houses, pieces of bricks and burned clay were found, showing that the farmers used bricks, at least to some extent in the fireplaces, as early as the 14th century.

The article presents some new radiocarbon dates of burnt bones found in cairns and stone-settings in Northern Sweden. The author also describes the earliest known graves in the north. The low and discreet Late Mesolithic stone-settings, with red ochre and inhumations, seem to be elements of a northern burial tradition that continued into the Neolithic Period. The latest hitherto known of these descreet stone-settings was excavated west of Umeå in Västerbotten, and was radiocarbon dated to 1750-1520 BC. However, this grave lacked the typical red ochre. During approximately the same time monumental cairns were erected along the coast of Norrland. The oldest of these were traditionally believed to have been introduced during the Early Bronze Age and contain inhumations in long stone cists, which were replaced by cremations during the Late Bronze Age. However, new radiocarbon dates from five cremations in cairns and stone-settings strongly challenge that belief, placing all in the Early Bronze Age. The cremations in cairns are not necessarily the oldest monumental stratum. The author suggests that the cairns were linked to the introduction of agricultural activities along the coast during the end of the 3rd Millennium BC.

Storhögskomplexet i Högom (raä nr 1 i Selånger sn, Medelpad), utgjorde en central plats under yngre romersk järnålder och folkvandringstid. Platsen har varit föremål för omfattande arkeologiska undersökningar under åren 1949-1984. Resultaten av grävningarna blev sensationella och den först undersökta storhögen, nr. 2 (fig. 1), innehöll en av Nordeuropas rikhaltigaste kammargravar från folkvandringstiden (Selling 1952; Janson & Selling 1955). Det skulle dock dröja nästan fyra decennier sedan grävningarna avslutades 1952, innan mer omfattande, såväl nationell och internationell, publicering kom till stånd (Ramqvist 1990, 1992; Nockert 1991). Fram till 1960 undersöktes ytterligare två av storhögarna nr. 4 och nr. 3, samt några av de mindre högarna på gravfältet. Mycket litet av detta blev publicerat.

År 1984 inleddes ett internationellt samarbete kring publiceringen av det rikhaltiga materialet. Publicerings- och dokumentationsprojektet initierades prof. Evert Baudou och författaren, båda vid Umeå universitet, som genom ett fruktbart samarbete med prof. Michael Müller-Wille vid Christian-Albrechts Universität i Kiel och dåvarande riksantikvarien Margareta Biörnstad vid Riksantikvarieämbetet lyckades vi dokumentera och publicera hela Högommaterialet. Två större volymer av Margareta Nockert (1991) respektive författaren (Ramqvist 1992) har publicerats. Därtill en rad övriga publiceringar (bl. a. Ramqvist 1987a; b; 1988a; b; 1990; 1992; 1995a; b; 2000; 2014; Ramqvist & Müller-Wille 1988). Högom intar idag en central roll vid diskussionen om folkvandringstidens samhällen i Skandinavien och Nordeuropa och utgör en självklar del i läroböcker och uppslagsverk (t. ex. Ramqvist 2000; 2014). Mest ljus har av naturliga skäl fallit på den mycket innehållsrika kammargraven i hög 2, med det finns även helt unika företeelser i samband med hög 3 och 4. Föremålet för denna uppsats är främst bebyggelsespåren under hög 3, men det ska kort nämnas att även hög 4 bidrar på ett intressant sätt med nya iakttagelser.

During the years 1949-1984 large-scale excavations were conducted at the large mound complex at Högom in Medelpad, Central Sweden. Apart from the extraordinary chamber grave in mound 2, parts of a large and unusual building were found beneath the cenotaph mound 3. This paper presents new analyses and interpretations of this buildning´s foundation, and both its political and religious significance during the late 4th century AD. It has been attacked, burnt down and several (probably three) women were trapped by the fire. At the western gable end of the feasting hall there was a podium extending between the northern and southern long walls, directly in front of a dividing wall. A high seat was placed on the podium. Many details of the Högom material were described in an extensive publication in 1992, but only preliminary osteological analysis had been completed at that time. The new analyses concern radiocarbon datings and osteological determinations of the bones found in the feasting hall, which provide very different indications of the quantities and distributions of species consumed. Among other things large numbers of pig bones were found in the feasting hall and gable room of the building, indicating that the species was exceptionally important in the feasting cult at the site. The new osteological analysis also showed that burned and unburned parts of horse skulls and teeth bones were present, but only at each side of the high seat at the end of the podium. The building is interpreted as a hall dedicated to the fertility god Frey, and the place-name Högom is thought to have been preceded by something like Fröland.