We present the organic residue analysis of sherds of 50 cooking vessels from the 16th-century town of Nya Lödöse, Sweden. We confirm previous analyses showing that lipids are absorbed by glazed ceramic. By analyses of biomarkers and compound-specific stable carbon isotope analyses of fatty acids, we show that pipkins and pans were used for cooking ruminant carcass products, dairy, and plant foods. The dominance of ruminant fat and dairy reflects the importance of oxen and butter in the local food culture. The vessels included in the present study show some degree of specialized function. Pipkins had more traces of ruminant carcass fats compared to pans. Medium and large-sized pipkins contained a combination of animal fats and plant traces, possibly representing the preparation of stews. In contrast, the smallest pipkins showed no traces of plant foods and might have been used to melt animal fat. Pans had more traces of butter and had been exposed to higher temperatures, indicating frying. Flat pans were, to a higher degree, used for the frying of fish than the deep ones, but fish seem nonetheless to be underrepresented in the lipid residue data. According to zooarchaeological and historical data, fish, pork, and poultry were important parts of the diet, but as traces of these foodstuffs are scarce in the organic residue analysis, it may be inferred that they were prepared differently—boiled in metal cauldrons, roasted on metal spits over the open fire, or consumed in their dried, salted, or smoked state without further preparation.

Denna rapport behandlar den arkeologiska undersökningen av Lenstad fornborg (L1956:5511, Torslunda RAÄ 9:1) som genomfördes i maj 2023 av Arkeologiska forskningslaboratoriet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur vid Stockholms universitet. Undersökningen ingår i forskningsprogrammet "Kris, konflikt och klimat – samhällsförändring i Skandinavien år 300–700", ett samarbete mellan Arkeologiska forskningslaboratoriet (AFL), Stockholms universitet, Linnéuniversitetet och Kalmar Länsmuseum. Resultaten baseras på arkeologiska utgrävningar, geokemisk kartering, arkeobotanisk analys, ¹⁴C-datering samt en specialinriktad drönarflygning med laserscanner. Resultaten visar att aktiviteterna vid Lenstad borg är relativt tidiga då de dateras till tidig romersk järnålder samtidigt som de flesta andra av Ölands ringborgar dateras till folkvandringstid. Dateringen är baserad på en ¹⁴C-datering av ett förkolnat sädeskorn från en grophärd inuti borgen till 79-235 cal CE (2s). Det saknas starka spår av intensivt boende och hantverk i Lenstad borg men här finns lämningar efter viss brandaktivitet, odling och insamling av växter, samt eventuellt textilhantverk. Vi har inte hittat några hus längs insidan av muren, vilket förekommer i flera andra borgar, men möjliga strukturer finns i den centrala till södra delen av borgplanen. Själva ringborgens murkonstruktion är fortfarande oidentifierad, och vi ifrågasätter om den yttre "muren" i norr och väster faktiskt hör till denna anläggning.

This report deals with the archaeological investigation of Lenstad borg (L1956:5511, Torslunda RAÄ 9:1) carried out in May 2023 by the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University. The survey is part of the research programme "Crisis, conflict and climate - societal change in Scandinavia 300-700", a collaboration between the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, the Linnaeus University and Kalmar County Museum. The results are based on archaeological excavations, geochemical mapping, archaeobotanical analysis, radiocarbon dating and a detailed topographic laser scanner drone investigation. The results show that the activities at Lenstad borg are relatively early as they are dated to the Early Roman Iron Age, while most other ringforts on Öland are dated to the Migration Period. The date is based on a radiocarbon analysis of a charred grain from a pit-hearth inside the fort to 79-235 cal CE (2s). There are no strong evidence for intensive dwelling acitivities in Lenstad borg, but there are remains of some fire activity, cultivation and collection of plants, and possibly textile crafts. We have not found any houses along the inside of the wall, which has been observed in several other ringforts, but possible structures do exist in the central to southern part of the yard. The wall construction of the ringfort itself is still unidentified, and we question whether the outer 'wall' to the north and west actually belongs to this fort.

The Maderö wreck was discovered in the 1960s in the Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden. An archaeological investigation undertaken in 2022 included the inspection and documentation of visible ship parts, sampling for dendrochronological analysis and sampling for ICP analysis from the brick cargo. The results show that the wood originates from the Baltic Sea area and was felled after 1467, while the clay for the brick originates from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern area. The ship's technical analysis shows that it is a large clinker-built merchant ship. Traces of iron on a recovered stone shot indicate that the ship was armed when it sank.

Why was pottery adopted by Late Mesolithic societies in the northwestern parts of Eurasia? This paper investigates new insights and results from recent studies in Finland. In this region, pottery was initially adopted by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities ca. 5300–5100 BCE, which in local terminology marks the beginning of the Neolithic era, even though other aspects of the Neolithic (e.g., agriculture, animal husbandry) were not yet adopted. Though the introduction of pottery in a non-agricultural sphere has recently been the subject of intense discussion, the motives behind mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher communities adopting pottery remain unsubstantiated. The earliest pottery has commonly been thought to have had a highly specialized function, in particular in the processing of aquatic food resources. To test whether the function of the earliest pottery in Finland was linked to subsistence, or diversified beyond economic necessities, we compared the results of pottery lipid analyses with animal osteological records across inland and coastal sites in the Late Mesolithic (ca. 6200–5300 BCE) and Early Neolithic (ca. 5300–3900 BCE). The zooarchaeological evidence, which remained consistent throughout the period studied, shows a versatile use of animal resources. It did not, however, converge with the inferred pottery function. Organic residues analyzed from ceramic cooking ware point to a non-specialized use of pottery that does not track the overall diet or subsistence among Finnish Stone Age cultures. We hence argue that the uptake of pottery in Finland was not a result of change in economies, but that pottery—a new and useful cooking and storage utensil at the time—was taken into household use in various environments and subsistence strategies. The reason why pottery was not in use in some areas and periods of time may thus be sought elsewhere, e.g., among communities with distinct sociocultural and even ethnic backgrounds.

Archaeologists have traditionally framed the impacts of natural disasters in terms of societal collapse versus cultural resilience. The 7.3ka cal BP Kikai-Akahoya (K-Ah) ‘super-eruption’ in south-western Japan was among the largest volcanic events of the Holocene. Here, the authors deploy a multi-proxy approach to examine how K-Ah devastated Tanegashima Island. While local Jōmon populations were annihilated, surrounding communities survived and eventually returned, adjusting their subsistence base to survive in the damaged environment. The article concludes that neither ‘collapse’ nor ‘resilience’ fully capture the complex dynamics of this process and that more research is needed to understand how disasters shape cultural trajectories.