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A Bronze Age tour in Sweden
As part of the EU project “Pathways to Cultural Landscapes" in the “European Culture 2000" program I took part in a seven day staff exchange to get insight into the work of the Swedish project partner.
The exchange focused on two main objectives: firstly, exchanging experiences made with the geographical information systems (GIS) and educative museum programs and secondly, to visit the study area of the Swedish project partner, the Bjäre peninsula. Jenny Nord Paulsson, the Swedish project coordinator planned an extensive but extremely interesting program, enabling me to collect many ideas for our project at the AÖZA in Albersdorf in numerous discussions with the Swedish colleagues.
The Bjäre peninsula has been the subject of numerous years of study, during which a large amount of digital data was acquired. Several institutions are involved in this work, building a prosperous base for interdisciplinary work between archaeologists, botanists, other biologists and geographers.
During the first two days, Galle Sanglert of the Malmö Kulturmiljö and Anders Edring of the Regionsmusset Kristianstad showed me the GIS set-up, the extensive collection of map material, the corresponding databases and the first project results.
The archaeological monuments and objects were digitised by Riksantikvaria; for the whole of Skäne they number around 30 000, for the Bjäre Peninsula 1 500. Presently the objects are being described and categorised in an Access® database, which shall then be linked with the ArcView® mapping. The Access® database also contains information on vegetation and landscape characteristics, a differentiation in pasture and crop land, monuments, living areas, rock drawings and burial sites. To get more detailed information on the Bronze Age vegetation in the area, selected areas are studied with pollen analysis. Digitising in ArcView® is done in line, point and polygon layers.
Topographical, economical, historical and special monument maps serve as a basis for the project. Lantmäteriverket has already digitised some of these, others are being processed and geo-referenced within the project. Analyses of aerial photographs from the 1930s are also planned. They shall be clustered using digital image processing methods. SD-Images using altitude shall complement these.
On a two-day round trip over the Bjäre Peninsula I learned about the archaeological monuments and specialties of the study area. Among other sites visited were Drottningshall, Flata Kuli, Glimminge Plantering and Hovs Hallar.
At the centre of our visit stood the Bovigärden in Boarp. The Bovigärden is in development since 1998, but already since 1995 students in the area are learning about the Bronze Age in Hembygdspark. Here a model of a Bronze Age house was built based on a 2800 year-old finding in Köinge, Halland in 1992. The house is operated for the public and owned by the Föreningen Bronstid club/association/society. Volunteers and participants in a job creation scheme constructed the house. The construction was funded by the community, charitable institutions and a small company named Kulturmakama (Gunilla Roos and Marianne Orsander ). The community of Bästads has even included regional cultural history in its schooling program so third grade school children can visit the house. Here the children can “travel in time” and experience a day of Bronze Age daily life - preparing food, making cloth and farming by traditional means. Gunilla, an archaeologist and Marianne, a teacher are employed by the community with 1/3 positions. Thus a minimal income is secured. Annila Sterner of Föreningen Bronstid , Marianne Orsander and Gunilla Roos run the house, coordinate the program and raise funds for the project.
A visit with Lennart Karli, a project partner of the Halland Project enabled me to see and experience the study area Hallandsäsen. Besides field research and GIS mapping to describe the change in the cultural landscape, the project primarily aims at raising public awareness and public education. This is to be achieved by signposting special objects and areas in the landscape and establishing cultural pathways.
Gunilla Kaiser
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