Pots, Females and Food

Abstract

Thirteen graves at the Migration Period burial-ground Hamre, middle Sweden, contain ceramic pots. The technical features of these pots are related to the grave-ritual. Cooking or storage pots as well as table-pots had been used. Independent of these qualities, the pots had been used as bone-containers in the male graves, while in the female graves they had been placed on the pyre, possibly containing food, and afterwards deposited as sherds. In this way the female role of housewife was stressed.