Stenålder i Mälardalen

Sammanfattning: In this thesis the signifi cance of certain places during the Early- and Middle Neolithic is examined. By investigating the meaning of places, narratives of the Neolithic based upon the archaeological constructions of the “Funnel Beaker culture”, the ”Pitted Ware culture”, and the “Battle Axe culture” are questioned. Sites previously characterised as settlements are re-contexualised, some of which are understood to be special places of cultivation, whilst others are labelled places of the dead where mortuary ritual was performed.By investigating the religious aspects of production, as well as the productive aspects of religion, new interpretations of Neolithic places are put forward. The narrative that this thesis consists of also explains how meanings ascribed to the practice of agriculture differed during the Early Neolithic, the Middle Neolithic and the Late Neolithic. Animals; especially wild ones, were also imbued with different kinds of signifi cance during the course of the Stone Age. Wild animals were probably perceived of as ancestral beings.