Previous archaeological excavations along the 'Ostlänken' Railway Corridor 1965:2012: Early Iron Age graves at Gerstaberg

In October 1987, a small cemetery at Gerstaberg, Ytterjärna parish, Södermanland, was investigated & removed (Ancient monument 185). The excavation was preceeded by a trial excavation in order to establish whether the monuments were indeed ancient. Existing records showed a mound-like and a stone-setting-like structure.

The trial excavations revealed that the mound-like structure was modern, while the stone-setting like structure was in fact a group of burials, consisting of a square stone-setting and two or three smaller stone-settings. The subsequent investigation brought to light further burials, bringing the total to 17.

All graves has cremation burials, although the mode of burial was varied. Osteological analyses brought forth that all burials were adult, though none could be sexed. Four features lacked burials, and may have been children's graves. One feature (A18) may not have been a grave at all.

Burial assemblages consisted mainly of pottery, both as bone receptacles and as subsidiary vessels. The pottery is of typical Iron Age type.

The graves were dated to the Early Iron age, possibly used by one family, although this could not be confirmed. The cemetery is part of a small Iron Age complex.

Purpose:

The aim of the investigation was to explore a fairly small cemetery at Gerstaberg, Ytterjärna parish, Södermanland. The excavation was occasioned by the planned construction of a new service road over the railway line to the country mansion. The excavation was preceeded by a trial excavation to establish whether the recorded features were indeed ancient monuments.

The ZIP-file contains two Shape files with information on trenches, ancient monuments, archaeological finds and other data from the archaeological survey, as well as a geo-referenced map (© Lantmäteriet i2014/00696) of the survey in GeoTIFF-format.