Samples

Otto Frödin’s excavations

In his book of 2011 Hans Browall discusses samples of bark, birch bark, twigs, botanical samples and charcoal (Browall 2011:350 ff; tabell 192, 193, 195). Appendices 4 – 8 comprise reports from various specialists regarding soil, wood and pollen samples.  Appendix 15 lists all the wood and other botanical samples (apart from cereals) taken during Frödin’s excavations.

A great number of the samples collected during the older excavations remain unregistered in the museum database.  If 18% of Frödin’s total assemblage remains unregistered in the museum database, around one third of these 18%, i.e. 6% of the total assemblage, consists of the samples discussed here.

Fig. 1. Samples from Frödin’s excavations registered in the database (file will be downloaded shortly).

Mats P. Malmer’s excavations

A large number of samples was collected during Mats Malmer’s excavations. Fig. 2 shows the samples from the later excavations registered in the database.

Fig. 2. Samples from Mats P. Malmer’s excavations registered in the museum database (file will be downloaded shortly).

Samples were all recorded in ledgers kept during the excavations for each individual trench. These ledgers have now been scanned and are available digitally. Samples from the Trial trench and the New Trial trenches are listed in the same ledger as those from the Western trench.

The types of samples collected are as follows. The table shows how the various samples are designated in the field documentation.

Fig. 3. Designation used for samples collected during Mats P. Malmer’s excavations

Hans Göransson and Hans Browall have described the system used for the sampling of macrofossils, soil samples, during Mats Malmer’s excavations of the Eastern trench (Göransson 1995:17; Browall 2016:25). One series of samples was taken in a fixed system vertically from the ground surface down to the limestone gyttja layer and horizontally at specified points where excavated profiles intersected. These samples were designated with three letters and a number. The first two of the letters designated the kind of sample and the last designated the trench. The samples were numbered, for example JPÖ5 (the fifth (5)  jordprov (soil sample) (JP) from the Eastern trench (Ö).  The other series of samples was taken wherever samples were deemed necessary. This series was called the flexible series and designated by two letters only: J for jord (soil) and Ö for Eastern trench. This system seems to have been used in the Eastern trench only.  The samples were analysed and published by Hans Göransson who used a numbering system of his own (Göransson 1995). Cross references between Göransson’s numbering system and that used by the excavation team are featured in the fourth column from the left in lists of samples taken in the Eastern trench.

Some of these sample numbers were encountered in the material registered by the present project (see under sample above) and in this case they are registered under find number in the database.  This is why the first letter in the designation is F for find number.

In other cases, the samples we have registered are without these numbers and were probably found by archaeologists directly during excavation, i.e. they were not part of the sampling strategy.  It may also be the case that the present project has created the type word sample for some records in the database. For example, if charcoal was found among the finds, it was registered as a charcoal sample. If the filling of a posthole has been collected and saved, it has been registered as a sample, sub-type posthole filling. If, again, the remains of the sieving process have been collected once artefacts have been removed from the sieve, these are designated by the present project as a sample. Also, if bark or peat has been saved from a specific context in the excavated area, it has been registered as a bark or peat sample.

Wood samples

A huge number of wood samples were taken during the excavation. In the Eastern and Trial trenches field documentation lists over 2000 wood samples. In the Middle trench over 800 are registered, in the Western trench nearly 300 and in the New Trial trench 155 wood samples. Only 14 are registered in the database.  The other samples are perhaps stored at the Department of Quaternary Geology in Lund where Thomas Bartholin worked during the time he was employed within Mats Malmer’s Alvastra project. A letter to Stefan Bergh from Thomas Bartholin in 1988, stored in the Alvastra archives, indicates this.

All wood samples have been studied by Thomas Bartholin. He identified the species of wood and the part of the tree from which the wood derived. For the Middle, Trial and Western trenches (see Bartholin 1987 ) Bartholin has made special lists of these identifications. For the Eastern trench they have been entered into the actual ledger of wood samples.

Radiocarbon samples

These are designated C or CP in the field documentation. They have, however, most often been registered among carbon samples in the database. No radiocarbon samples are preserved in the database but some of the results can be seen in the file entitled C-14.

Soil samples

282 soil samples are registered in the database. About half of these are numbered, i.e. they were collected as soil samples during the excavation as part of the sampling strategy. The other half are soil samples created by the present project as described above.

There is often a great discrepancy between the number of samples registered in the excavation ledgers and that preserved in the collections (see fig. 4-5). This is perhaps explainable when the samples have been destroyed by analysis (e.g. radiocarbon analysis) but in other cases it is more difficult to understand. As discussed above, this difference is especially notable as far as the wood samples are concerned.

Fig. 4. Samples according to ledgers in the excavation documentation

 

 

Fig. 5. Samples preserved in collections. Numbered samples derive from sampling during excavation

 

Geological samples

A series of samples which differs from all the others described here are the geological samples which have been registered as such by the present project. The following text document is a translation of a report filed in the database of the Swedish History museum. It is written by Sandra Söderlind in 2017 when she recorded these samples digitally and it has been translated by Jackie Taffinder.

 

Geological / petrographic samples from the Alvastra area

Between 1982 and 1983 geologist Erik Åhman and archaeologist Hans Browall conducted petrographic field investigations in the area around the Alvastra pile dwelling. The aim of these was to compare the excavated material from the pile dwelling with material collected in the area in order to establish whether the users of the pile dwelling had a preference for any specific stone or soil type (Browall 1986; 2011:251).

The investigations mapped the occurrence of soil and rock types in the area around the pile dwelling. Ten areas (P1-10) were selected for this study. In these areas a number of 1 m²  squares were dug and all rock types from the upper layer were counted and identified petrographically. A total of 17 squares of this type were excavated (Browall 2011:251ff).

In connection with this investigation a number of different rock types were saved. These petrographic samples might be useful in the understanding of landscape use and the selection of raw material in the area. They can also be used as reference material for the stone used in the pile dwelling. For these reasons they were preserved, being registered as geological samples.

During registration by the present Alvastra project the samples received a find number in accordance with the structure used for other samples in Mats Malmer’s excavations, i.e. GP (geological sample) 1, 2, 3, etc. listed in the find number field of the database, i.e. FGP1 where F simply means find number. The samples are stored together with the archaeological assemblages of the Alvastra pile dwelling (accession number 34984: fig. 6). Translations into English of the type of stone found in the geological samples can be found in chapter 5.12:2.

Text: Sandra Söderlind. Translation: Jackie Taffinder

Fig. 6. Geological samples from Mats P. Malmer’s excavations

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The references from this page cited below have no web link:

Browall, H., 1986. Alvastra pålbyggnad: social och ekonomisk bas. Theses and papers in North-European archaeology 15. Stockholm.

Browall, H., 2011. Alvastra pålbyggnad, 1909-1930 års utgrävningar. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Handlingar. Antikvariska serien 48. Stockholm.

Browall, H., 2016. Alvastra pålbyggnad. 1976-1980 års utgrävningar. Västra schaktet. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och antikvitets akademien. Handlingar, antikvariska serien 52. Stockholm.