De obesuttnas arkeologi och kulturarv (ca. 1700-1900)

This paper aims to present a recently started project about the heritage of subaltern people in Sweden. In the paper we focus on the parts of the project that concerns the rural history of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially crofters. The background to the project is the introduction of major changes in the Swedish Historic Environments Act in 2014. A radical novelty is that remains of human activity and buildings executed before AD 1850 now are legally protected sites. With this change a large number of remains, including hitherto un- or underresearched types, are to be included in heritage management, conservation and rescue archaeology. Here we present the background and starting points of the project, in order to show the potential of archaeological studies of landless subalterns in rural areas.