Läkande örter i gravar : Medicinskt och rituellt örtbruk i gravar från yngre järnåldern

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this essay is to analyse grave goods of botanical origin in 24 graves from the later Iron Age in Scandinavia. I will shed light on how the subject of botanical grave goods has been interpreted throughout history. My aim is to get a deeper understanding of prehis- toric ritual and medical healing through archeological and archaeobotanical contexts pre- sented in this paper. I have found repeated contexts that support the hypothesis that plants were deposited in graves to be curative through rituals with healing aspects in mind. This is in line with botanical grave goods of both of ritual and medicinal purpose. I also highlight de- posited plants in graves as a form of status marker for the buried. Plants as symbolic markers in graves can provide information about whether the individual belonged to the healing pro- fession. In this analysis five of 24 graves most likely contain individuals with connections to the role of physician.