Keramik och samhälle

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study the middle Neolithic funnel beaker pottery of Falbygden in the central parts of Västergötland, Sweden. This area displays a large number of densely situated megalithic tombs. The ambition is to compare the ceramics found at different investigated passage graves and to examine if the pottery displays such a diversity that it would be possible to discuss this material in terms of different social units belonging to different megaliths with individual expressions and styles in their ceramic traditions. The thesis will also discuss ceramic production where both funeral pottery and pottery found at different settlement sites will be taken into consideration. The production of pottery is seen, underpinned with Marxist theory, as a way to produce and reproduce different power structures that could have existed on Falbygden during this time. On a lower analytic level, the pottery production is seen as a way for groups and individuals to produce and reproduce identities but also power relations which is a part of such social dynamics.