Järnålderns bebyggelsearkeologi i backspegeln

Abstract

The article aims at reviewing Iron Age settlement archaeology before the 1990s. This is done with special regards taken to ‘historism’, i.e. taking into consideration the knowledge and values at the time when the interpretations where made. Early settlement archaeology in Scandinavia regarded settlement development as ever continuous and expanding and starting with a few farms in the Early Iron Age. In the absence of settlement sites, place-names and cemeteries were used to indicate the settlements. This was possible since cemeteries, place-names and modern day’s farms were comprehended as a unit while situated at the same place. From the 1990s the settlements sites themselves, when discovered, revealed a different spread in the landscape as well as a development with both expansions and regressions. The article discusses the weaknesses and defects with the construction farm-cemetery (gårdsgravfält ) and with place-names when used in settlement archaeology.