Rings of power : A statistical study of amulet rings in Late Iron Age Sweden

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores and investigates a certain type of artefacts from Late Iron Age Sweden: Amulet rings. These artefacts, often deemed as religious items by researchers, are generally viewed from a ritualistic perspective. Their depositions indicate a general and repeated behavior regarding their use, with possible symbolic connotations. The main aim of the thesis is to cover gaps in the research as well as explore amulet rings as archaeological objects with minimum references to historical literary sources. In order to do so, the study examines a large corpus of material, mainly collected from the Swedish History Museum (SHM). The thesis applies the theory of ritualization of remains of practices that can be observed. By using statistical analyses, it is possible to see associations between the amulet rings and certain factors as find province, depositional context and morphology.