Svenska djur och åländska människor?: En jämförande analys av handlingar i gropkeramiska lerfigurinmaterial med förekomst av både antropomorfer och zoomorfer

Sammanfattning

This essay intended to analyze and compare assemblages of both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic clay figurines of Pitted Ware Culture settlements in order to gain insight into how these two types of figurines were handled in comparison to each other in these particular, less common contexts. The compared aspects included quantities of the motifs, fragmentation and find context. Through comparison of these aspects in four such materials, from Tråsättra, Fräkenrönningen, Fagervik and Jettböle, and with the utilization of practice theory, further questions could be asked about interactions between the figurine assemblages, and whether these could be ascribed to a common way of use in relation to the present motifs. The extensive fragmentation and general distribution of figurines in the cultural layers were interpreted as a shared, and perhaps normative, approach as to how the figurines should be handled regardless of the motif. The more specific similarities between the anthropomorph-dominated assemblages, as shown in figurine finds of primarily anthropomorphs in connection with distinct archaeological features, suggest that particularly the mobile anthropomorphs play a crucial role in reproducing more limited and specific social structures regarding the figurines. Consequently, the zoomorphs are proposed to remain a stationary and local matter, which could have given the zoomorph-dominated assemblages more average characteristics in relation to the understanding of the total figurine material.