The Iron Age in southern Scandinavia 7,5 hp

Offered w 03-12 Spring term 2016. Master level.

The course explores how Iron Age society in southern Scandinavia (ca. 500 BC-AD 1100) developed and stratified, how its complexity changed over time, and how it manifested in social structure, economy and burial ritual.

Focus is also placed on the Iron Age world-view and how cosmological ideas developed in a milennial perspective. The course objective is to identify and discuss the key social transformations that shaped the emerging Scandinavian kingdoms and their political geography.

Objectives
After passing the course examination, students should be able to:
- describe and discuss how social complexity during the Iron Age changes over time and is expressed in social structure, economy and burial rituals
- describe how the Iron Age society's view of itself, and of cosmology, manifested and changed in a millennial perspective
- identify and analyse relevant past and current research in the field