Living in the Late Iron Age. A proposal for integrated theoretical studies of households and farmsteads as lived social spaces in Vendel Period and Viking Age southwestern Scania, Sweden
(2026) ARKM34 20261Department of Archaeology and Ancient History
- Abstract
- Southern Scandinavian and Scanian settlement archaeology has in the past four decades been able to highlight overarching shifts in prehistoric and especially Iron Age settlement organisation, and thus developed methods of rigorous typo-chronological analyses. Within the past two decades several publications by Late Iron Age scholars have under the influence of household archaeology emphasised the need to focus on individual site-biographies and have been able to offer alternative perspectives regarding the study of Scandinavian settlement remains, by means of deconstructive and ontologically challenging theoretical approaches, in order to highlight social aspects of daily settlement life in the context of unique site-biographies.
... (More) - Southern Scandinavian and Scanian settlement archaeology has in the past four decades been able to highlight overarching shifts in prehistoric and especially Iron Age settlement organisation, and thus developed methods of rigorous typo-chronological analyses. Within the past two decades several publications by Late Iron Age scholars have under the influence of household archaeology emphasised the need to focus on individual site-biographies and have been able to offer alternative perspectives regarding the study of Scandinavian settlement remains, by means of deconstructive and ontologically challenging theoretical approaches, in order to highlight social aspects of daily settlement life in the context of unique site-biographies.
Following such endeavours, this thesis conducts an analysis of the three Late Iron Age settlement sites of Hjärup, Västervång and Eskilstorp in Southwestern Scania, Sweden, by re-examining the archaeological record captured in excavation reports. Against the background of said household archaeological and Late Iron Age settlement archaeological research traditions, this thesis aims to illustrate the applicability of a theoretical framework which encompasses assemblage, multispecies and space syntax theory and sensory studies, in order to highlight the individual components of each case study’s farmstead-assemblage and by extension hopes to offer a reconstruction of daily household-activities that would have consequently represented meaningful lived and social spaces.
The analysis was able to provide overall useful results and alternative perspectives on dynamic household activities, while it simultaneously acknowledged the significant limitations posed by the overall poor preservation of the case studies’ recorded material in order to achieve detailed reconstructions of on-site activities. The individual theoretical approaches and the degree of their successful practical application varied significantly depending on the extent of the occurrence and preservation of the differing structures and features. Nonetheless, the alternative perspectives generated during the analysis enabled an awareness of how significant multitemporal, spatial, relational and affective qualities of farmstead-assemblage’s components are for a differentiated understanding of Late Iron Age daily life. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9247463
- author
- Daubner, Steven LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- ARKM34 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Late Iron Age, Scania, household archaeology, settlement archaeology, household activities, farmsteads, multi-theory, ontological turn
- language
- English
- id
- 9247463
- date added to LUP
- 2026-10-01 13:22:30
- date last changed
- 2026-10-01 13:22:30
@misc{9247463,
abstract = {{Southern Scandinavian and Scanian settlement archaeology has in the past four decades been able to highlight overarching shifts in prehistoric and especially Iron Age settlement organisation, and thus developed methods of rigorous typo-chronological analyses. Within the past two decades several publications by Late Iron Age scholars have under the influence of household archaeology emphasised the need to focus on individual site-biographies and have been able to offer alternative perspectives regarding the study of Scandinavian settlement remains, by means of deconstructive and ontologically challenging theoretical approaches, in order to highlight social aspects of daily settlement life in the context of unique site-biographies.
Following such endeavours, this thesis conducts an analysis of the three Late Iron Age settlement sites of Hjärup, Västervång and Eskilstorp in Southwestern Scania, Sweden, by re-examining the archaeological record captured in excavation reports. Against the background of said household archaeological and Late Iron Age settlement archaeological research traditions, this thesis aims to illustrate the applicability of a theoretical framework which encompasses assemblage, multispecies and space syntax theory and sensory studies, in order to highlight the individual components of each case study’s farmstead-assemblage and by extension hopes to offer a reconstruction of daily household-activities that would have consequently represented meaningful lived and social spaces.
The analysis was able to provide overall useful results and alternative perspectives on dynamic household activities, while it simultaneously acknowledged the significant limitations posed by the overall poor preservation of the case studies’ recorded material in order to achieve detailed reconstructions of on-site activities. The individual theoretical approaches and the degree of their successful practical application varied significantly depending on the extent of the occurrence and preservation of the differing structures and features. Nonetheless, the alternative perspectives generated during the analysis enabled an awareness of how significant multitemporal, spatial, relational and affective qualities of farmstead-assemblage’s components are for a differentiated understanding of Late Iron Age daily life.}},
author = {{Daubner, Steven}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Living in the Late Iron Age. A proposal for integrated theoretical studies of households and farmsteads as lived social spaces in Vendel Period and Viking Age southwestern Scania, Sweden}},
year = {{2026}},
}