Iron Age Keys, Locks, and Chests: Exploring Locking Practices and Social Identities at Birka, Helgö, Lovö, Sanda, and Vallhagar

The use of keys, locks, and chests in the Scandinavian Iron Age is a subject overshadowed by the assumed connection between keys and the housewife with her administrative role on the farm. The key is sometimes even seen as the very symbol of this role. The present thesis instead focuses on locking practices, to which locks and chests also naturally belong. This includes assessing, but also looking beyond, the role of the housewife in order to broaden the analysis and explore which roles or social identities may be connected with these. This is achieved through studying keys, locks, and chests and their contexts, and by considering what their presence could imply in terms of control, access, private property, responsibility, accountability, trust, mobility, and social status. The study also includes exploring which types of structures or objects were locked, as well as some of the symbology connected with keys, locks, and chests. The theoretical framework used is based on ideas involving social identities, structure, agency, and practice, and the idea that material culture is polysemous – that its meanings can vary depending on its particular social history, the position of specific social agents, and the contexts in which it was used.