Reproduction of archaeological material was a significant and serious enterprise for antiquarians and museums in the long nineteenth century. Replicas embed many stories and embody considerable past human energy. Behind their creation, circulation, use, and after-life lies a series of specific social networks and relationships that determined why, when, and in what circumstances they were valued, or not. Summarising the context of their production, circulation, and changing fortunes, this article introduces the ways in which replicas are important, and considers the specific benefits and aspects of a biographical approach to their study. Beyond the evidential, the study of existing replicas provides a historical and contemporary laboratory in which to explore the concepts of value and authenticity, and their application in cultural heritage and collections management, offering us a richer insight into the history of ourselves as archaeologists and curators.

This paper focusses on animal remains associated with archaeological contexts dated to the middle and later phases of the Scandinavian Iron Age, which corresponds to the first millennium AD. The main question to be addressed is whether this record can be used for identifying human impact on certain animal populations for modelling faunal exploitation and interregional trade. In the first part of the paper, we undertake a detailed inventory of animal finds recorded in published excavation reports, research catalogues, and in existing databases maintained primarily by the Historical Museum in Stockholm. We compare the chronological pattern identified in the burial assemblages with a chronological sequence retrieved from pitfall hunting systems located in the Scandinavian inland region. The chronologies of the animal finds from burials and the pitfall systems are then compared with dated pollen-analytical sequences retrieved in the inland region and additional archaeological assemblages, such as graves and hoards of Roman coins. In our discussion, we outline an interregional model of faunal exploitation between AD 300 and 1200, including the possible location of hunting grounds and end-distribution areas for animal products. The paper provides deeper insights into the burial record of the middle Iron Age, arguing for the need for broader interregional approaches, and focussed archaeological research in the inland regions of Scandinavia.

Our article seeks to determine the functions of visual communication design through the lens of modern conflict and public archaeologies. The Battle of Aslıhanlar, which took place in the triangle of the villages of Çal Köy, Allıören, and Yüğlük in Kütahya from 29 to 30 August 1922, was the focus of our experimentation. Our archaeological survey project was carried out in 2013; interviews with local people, a review of the literature available and our observations of local myths and traditions that emerged after the war constitute the basis of our article. We categorized these sources for the project design in order to form a storytelling narrative, so that the viewer could participate in the process of conflict as well as the ongoing research. We foresaw three major challenges while categorizing this complex dataset: equivalence of visual language; variable outputs of the multi-dimensional research methods; and interactivity for creating a live social platform. We responded to these challenges by developing a graphic design concept and an interactive map of the data. Our design surrounds the viewer with a historical timeline, which includes all of our research findings in one interactive interface.

In 2010, the largest find of exquisite gilded silver brooches ever made in Scandinavia came to light during a metal detector survey in a small fort on Öland in the Baltic Sea. It consisted of five hoards buried in five different houses within the fort. The brooches were of the Dreiknopfbügelfbeln/radiate-headed and relief types. Three of the hoards also contained large quantities of beads and pendants, some quite exclusive and rare. In addition, the upper part of another relief brooch probably belonged to a sixth hoard ploughed up in the late nineteenth century. In 2011, Kalmar County Museum excavations at the site of these hoard finds also revealed the traces of a massacre. Though a connection between the deposition of the hoards and the massacre is plausible, several elements suggest that the deposits are ritual in character and unrelated to the attack on the fort. The regular placing of the hoards in the right corner inside the entrance of the houses suggests ritual acts, and the composition of the hoards demonstrates that the deposits are symbolic. We conclude that the hoards and the brooches are props belonging to the interior of the forts and to activities conducted inside them; they may have been worn by some women during rituals. Why these hoards were left in the Sandby fort is, however, no doubt related to its destruction.

The post-medieval castle is often neglected in English archaeology, with most analyses focusing on whether the castle was built for status or defence, a debate which has become known as ‘the Battle for Bodiam’. However, in the English Civil War between 1642 and 1651, many castles were fortified either for King Charles I or his rebellious Parliament. Although the fortification of castles during this period is often attributed to acts of desperation and a lack of more suitable defences, an examination of the Royalist occupation of Sandal Castle in West Yorkshire demonstrates how this view is simplistic. The decision to fortify Sandal can be directly linked to the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, when Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, the father of King Edward IV and Richard III, was killed outside its walls. This episode heavily influenced subsequent events, culminating in the occupation of the castle at the outbreak of the English Civil War. The importance of the past during this later conflict is reinforced by the faunal and artefactual assemblages, and the locations in which they were found (and consumed). The complexity of the social discourse at Sandal challenges current approaches in castle studies and highlights the need for a biographical approach which sees the interpretation and interaction of the castle through time and space as far more important than the motivations behind its initial construction. Such a way of proceeding complements existing methodologies but also relies on material culture and history to create a subtler interpretation of these complex buildings.

This article examines the wide range of grave disturbance practices seen in Viking-age burials across Scandinavia. It argues that the much-debated reopenings at high-profile sites, notably the Norwegian ‘royal’ mounds, should be seen against a background of widespread and varied evidence for burial reworking in Scandinavia throughout the first-millennium AD and into the Middle Ages. Interventions into Viking-age graves are interpreted as disruptive, intended to derail practices of memory-creation set in motion by funerary displays and monuments. However, the reopening and reworking of burials were also mnemonic citations in their own right, using a recurrent set of practices to make heroic, mythological, and genealogical allusions. The retrieval of portable artefacts was a key element in this repertoire, and in this article I use archaeological and written sources to explore the particular concepts of ownership which enabled certain possessions to work as material citations appropriating attributes of dead persons for living claimants.

This article investigates the production of textiles in Thrace during the first millennium BC. It presents a functional analysis of textile-production tools from three towns in Thrace: Koprivlen, Adzhiiska Vodenitsa near Vetren, and Seuthopolis, and from Kastanas in Macedonia. The analysis shows that over the course of the Iron Age, textile production became more diversified and intensive. This process unfolded parallel to the emergence of opulent elite burials and urban communities. By examining a wider range of archaeological, iconographic, and textual data, the article contributes to our understanding of how the demand for textiles, and their consumption in different socially meaningful ways, connects to changes in production.