Östra Aros - In the shadow of Old Uppsala

Östra Aros (now Uppsala) is undeservedly overshadowed by its legendary neighbour, Old Uppsala. The project’s aim is to activate and revitalize research on the site’s oldest history. This is done through an innovative analysis on a pluralistic basis.

The hypothesis is that Östra Aros was already an established central site in the middle of the 12th century with political and religious agency, long before the arch-seat was relocated from (Old) Uppsala in the 1270s.The basic questions are: What did the topography look like? What does the character/quality of the objects in the settlement say about its age and social status?

Were there pre-Christian graves? When and where were the oldest cemeteries and churches established? Did these connect with adjacent farms? Did stone churches/monasteries have older predecessors? Where were the runestones placed?

Can the historical roads clarify the locations of farms and ports?Source materials are churches, graves, objects, runestones, cultural layers, topography, historical maps, written sources, and archival material. Methods will be landscape analysis, chronology, typology, comparative analysis, and masonry analysis.

The project team consists of seven well-experienced scholars in archaeology, agrarian and art history.The purpose is to create a credible synthesis that utilizes the sources to their full potential.

The final aim is to position Östra Aros in relation to Old Uppsala, and to place it in its Scandinavian, geopolitical context.