Bröd vid död i Kalvshälla : Analys av förhistoriskt organiskt grav- och boplatsmaterial från Barkarby i Järfälla socken, Uppland

This paper deals with prehistoric charred organic material, interpreted as bread, found in graves and in the underlying settlement at Kalvshälla, Järfälla parish in Uppland. The aim was to categorize the organic material morphologically and with the help of Fourier transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to see whether it was bread or not. Material from 13 graves (dated to Late Roman Iron Age until Viking Age) and 3 finds from the settlement have been analysed. Differences were noted both in shape, porosity and structure. Some of the material has been interpreted as cereal based foodstuff instead of bread due to morphological discrepancies. No clear differences between material from the graves and the settlement can be seen. One find from a posthole can be dated to late Bronze Age, which is unusual. The bread in the graves was intentionally given to both adult females and males maybe as a symbol of their roles as the good householders. Several finds of root tubers of dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris) were identified in female graves from Early Iron Age, but also in two male graves with bread from Vendel period. The FT-IR method does not give a clear answer to whether the organic material can be bread or not. The method requires careful sampling procedures and several samples from each concretion to get good results