Häst i gravkontext. : Relationen mellan människa och häst i kremationsgravar från yngre järnålder vid Bådstorp.

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores human-horse relations in the Late Iron Age through an analysis of cremation burials at the Bådstorp grave-field complex (Kvillinge 12:1 and 106:1), dated c. 700-900 CE. Using osteological and contextual data from Seiler & Sjölin (2022) and relational perspectives in human-animal archaeology, the study examines how horses appear in graves, whether their deposition changes over time, and what a local, non-elite cemetery adds to the interpretations dominated by boat and chamber graves. The results show that horse remains occur repeatedly but selectively and are linked to adult individuals rather than being a universal element of burial. Horses are typically deposited together with other animals, most often in combination with dogs, and in graves that suggests greater ritual and material investment. Human and horse bones display similar burning and fragmentation and are commonly mixed within the same cremation deposits, indicating co-cremation and post-cremation handling rather than consistent spatial separation. A late-phase decline in horse occurrence is discussed as a local shift in practice within broader Late Iron Age change, while acknowledging the interpretive limits of cremation taphonomy and recovery. Bådstorp demonstrates that horse deposits were not restricted to elite contexts and that, in cremation burials, human-horse relations may be expressed through material entanglement rather than the spatial staging visible in inhumation graves.