Tunas Storkvinnor i Rörelse? : En strontiumanalys av båt-, kammar och brandgravar från Tunagravfältet i Badelunda

Sammanfattning

The Tuna grave field on the outskirts of Västerås in Västmanland county of Sweden, is one ofonly a few known boat grave fields in central Sweden. The boat graves are unique in thesense that they only contain women. This thesis analyses skeletal material using strontium(Sr) to determine whether the type of grave (boat-, chamber- or cremation grave) has to dowith migrations or if the occupants are from the local area. The skeletal material consists ofpetrous bone (pars petrosa) from the cremation graves and is analyzed using MC-ICP-MSwhereas the material from the boat and chamber graves consists of enamel and is analyzedwith LA-MC-ICP-MS. To determine if the petrous bones were sufficiently cremated to showthe incorporated Sr, FTIR was utilized before sending the samples for analysis. Usingreference materials such as plant material and water samples the local Sr-ratio wasdetermined, and the skeletal material was compared to this local ratio. Out of all analyzedgraves only one had a bulk non-local value (cremation grave 65). Despite numerous theoriesabout the locality of the inhabitants of the boat and chamber graves the Sr-analysis indicatethat the great women of Tuna had largely local values and were within the local range for theformation of the tooth/bone analyzed.