Five hoards in eighty years. Landscape perspectives on new Bronze Age hoard finds around Lake Mälaren in Sweden

Abstract

Abstract Since 1941, only five Bronze Age hoards have been found in the four provinces around Sweden’s Lakes Mälaren and Hjälmaren: three in Uppland, two in Södermanland, none in Västmanland or Närke. The most recent one appeared in 2016. Here each hoard is discussed in terms of its date, the regional affiliation of its contents, and its landscape situation. They all date from Per. V–VI, c. 950–520 cal BC, and are entirely dominated by locally made objects. Two sites are apparently peripheral in relation to period settlement and to other deposition sites, while two are in an area of dense settlement and were found during the same military metal detector campaign. The steep drop in new hoard finds after World War II is discussed, and Sweden’s restrictive metal detector legislation is identified as the main reason that only five hoards have come to light in the area over the past eighty years.