S. Semple, C. Orsini and S. Mui (eds), 2017, Life on the Edge: Social, Religious and Political Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe, Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 6, Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum with the Internationales Sachsensymposion. , 2017
During the Roman and Migration periods, farming populations with a focus on husbandry and cultiva... more During the Roman and Migration periods, farming populations with a focus on husbandry and cultivation occupied the coast of Norway. Central elements for these populations were timber-built long-houses, and burials in cairns and mounds. However, an additional feature was the extensive use of caves and rockshelters, which are often situated in agriculturally marginal areas. It is commonly argued that these shelters were used by people who lived lives on the edge; that they were subordinate, special, and marginal compared to those who lived in agricultural settlements. In this contribution, data on subsistence, seasonality, domestic activities, metallurgy, offering and funerary rituals, and site locations from the two types of site are compared. The analysis indicates that the similarities between these two kinds of settlement clearly exceed the differences, suggesting the people who occupied the shelters were not socially marginalised groups. Instead, it is argued that caves and rockshelters were tightly integrated in the utilisation of local environments, and that they were used on a temporary basis by people from the agricultural settlements.
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Museum of Bergen since its establishment in 1825 and,
today, more than 3000 artifacts are part of the collections
from Vestland county. Traditionally considered important
data for research, recent years suggest that their relevance is
diminishing, partly because of heterogeneous and outdated
classifcations, inadequate georeferencing, and an ever growing body of surveys and excavations led by the cultural heritage management (CHM) sector. However, because
they are found by non-professionals, stray finds represent a
sample unbiased by archaeological priorities and thus in this
presentation we argue that they still have a significant role to
play. During a collaborative project, Mesolithic and Neolithic
stray finds in Vestland county have been reclassifed, dated
and georeferenced, and the result is presented together with
the spatial distribution of surveyed/excavated residential
sites from these main periods. The two datasets are compared
horizontally (coast-to-fjord) and vertically (shorebound-to-hinterland). The results demonstrate marked differences
between the distribution of stray-finds and the residential
sites in Vestland county, and the discussion considers why
this is the case. Important obvious issues are source critical
considerations, and this article entertains the possibility that
stray-finds refect different ways of utilizing the landscape
otherwise invisible by archaeological CHM surveys and
excavations.
generally small. Despite a strong marine focus, the Mesolithic populations were not deep-sea operators; they conducted their main fishery in protected fjords, straits and archipelagos along the western coast. Angling with hook and line seems to have been
prevalent, with a lesser focus on several other methods. Because of these factors, fishing was open to most group members and provisioning was a shared activity.
Increased pressure to maintain control of favourable fishing grounds may hav contributed to a more sedentary settlement pattern with concomitant effects on social organization and interactions.
might also be associated with increasing numbers of people settling and living in Northern Europe at this time. In this article, we review the evidence for forager sedentism and territoriality and
relate it to large-scale fishing, during a time of global warming, in early-Holocene Scandinavia. We explore the requisites of using the archaeological record to study the long-term effect of
intense fishing on some of the best-preserved Stone Age sites in the area of study. We suggest that the archaeological record can enable a discussion of how aquatic life varies corresponding to human
exploitation and climate change. In addition, we discuss how these changes might be traceable through temporal fluctuations in species composition, within species size reduction/increases,
temporal fish age changes and within species dietary changes. In the end, we suggest that the archaeological record holds one of the keys to predict future impact on life below the surface, by offering a long-term perspective on aquatic exploitation in a period of climate change. At the same time as we acknowledge the potential hidden in the archaeological record, we also raise the dire warning that this record might be rapidly disappearing, because of an accelerated deterioration of archaeological organic remains in areas previously known for their good preservation.
and stone masons. An extensive study of medieval Icelandic saga texts, Eddic poetry and other written sources reveals that caves were often scenes of negative activities and incidents for humans. They are also portrayed as homes for giants and other supernatural beings and powers in Norse mythology. It is argued here that people in western Norway associated caves with these beings during the Late Iron Age and that these perceptions continued well into the Christian Middle Ages. This resulted in a general avoidance of caves and rockshelters for dwelling purposes. On the other hand, they were important sites for worship and rituals.
it has been relatively unclear what the mechanisms driving this process were. In particular, it has been difficult to understand how mobility strategies related to resource procurement changed as a result of increasing sedentism. A key to understanding this is to look at the changing relationship between different types of sites in a settlement system. In this contribution, we will focus on two fjord sites, the rockshelters Sævarhelleren and Olsteinhelleren, which were used for
short-term occupations by groups from coastal settlement sites during the period 7000–4800 cal BC. On the basis of faunal and other archaeological materials from these two sites, we argue that
activities, procurement strategies and the length of occupation changed significantly during this time period, and this was probably related to changes within the overall settlement system in Mesolithic western Norway.
Museum of Bergen since its establishment in 1825 and,
today, more than 3000 artifacts are part of the collections
from Vestland county. Traditionally considered important
data for research, recent years suggest that their relevance is
diminishing, partly because of heterogeneous and outdated
classifcations, inadequate georeferencing, and an ever growing body of surveys and excavations led by the cultural heritage management (CHM) sector. However, because
they are found by non-professionals, stray finds represent a
sample unbiased by archaeological priorities and thus in this
presentation we argue that they still have a significant role to
play. During a collaborative project, Mesolithic and Neolithic
stray finds in Vestland county have been reclassifed, dated
and georeferenced, and the result is presented together with
the spatial distribution of surveyed/excavated residential
sites from these main periods. The two datasets are compared
horizontally (coast-to-fjord) and vertically (shorebound-to-hinterland). The results demonstrate marked differences
between the distribution of stray-finds and the residential
sites in Vestland county, and the discussion considers why
this is the case. Important obvious issues are source critical
considerations, and this article entertains the possibility that
stray-finds refect different ways of utilizing the landscape
otherwise invisible by archaeological CHM surveys and
excavations.
generally small. Despite a strong marine focus, the Mesolithic populations were not deep-sea operators; they conducted their main fishery in protected fjords, straits and archipelagos along the western coast. Angling with hook and line seems to have been
prevalent, with a lesser focus on several other methods. Because of these factors, fishing was open to most group members and provisioning was a shared activity.
Increased pressure to maintain control of favourable fishing grounds may hav contributed to a more sedentary settlement pattern with concomitant effects on social organization and interactions.
might also be associated with increasing numbers of people settling and living in Northern Europe at this time. In this article, we review the evidence for forager sedentism and territoriality and
relate it to large-scale fishing, during a time of global warming, in early-Holocene Scandinavia. We explore the requisites of using the archaeological record to study the long-term effect of
intense fishing on some of the best-preserved Stone Age sites in the area of study. We suggest that the archaeological record can enable a discussion of how aquatic life varies corresponding to human
exploitation and climate change. In addition, we discuss how these changes might be traceable through temporal fluctuations in species composition, within species size reduction/increases,
temporal fish age changes and within species dietary changes. In the end, we suggest that the archaeological record holds one of the keys to predict future impact on life below the surface, by offering a long-term perspective on aquatic exploitation in a period of climate change. At the same time as we acknowledge the potential hidden in the archaeological record, we also raise the dire warning that this record might be rapidly disappearing, because of an accelerated deterioration of archaeological organic remains in areas previously known for their good preservation.
and stone masons. An extensive study of medieval Icelandic saga texts, Eddic poetry and other written sources reveals that caves were often scenes of negative activities and incidents for humans. They are also portrayed as homes for giants and other supernatural beings and powers in Norse mythology. It is argued here that people in western Norway associated caves with these beings during the Late Iron Age and that these perceptions continued well into the Christian Middle Ages. This resulted in a general avoidance of caves and rockshelters for dwelling purposes. On the other hand, they were important sites for worship and rituals.
it has been relatively unclear what the mechanisms driving this process were. In particular, it has been difficult to understand how mobility strategies related to resource procurement changed as a result of increasing sedentism. A key to understanding this is to look at the changing relationship between different types of sites in a settlement system. In this contribution, we will focus on two fjord sites, the rockshelters Sævarhelleren and Olsteinhelleren, which were used for
short-term occupations by groups from coastal settlement sites during the period 7000–4800 cal BC. On the basis of faunal and other archaeological materials from these two sites, we argue that
activities, procurement strategies and the length of occupation changed significantly during this time period, and this was probably related to changes within the overall settlement system in Mesolithic western Norway.
Caves and ritual in medieval Europe, AD 500-1500 focuses on this neglected field of research – the ritual and religious use of caves. It draws together interdisciplinary studies by leading specialists from across Europe: from Iberia to Crimea, and from Malta to northern Norway. The different religions and rituals in this vast area are unified by the use of caves and rockshelters, indicating that the beliefs in these natural places – and in the power of the underworld – were deeply embedded in many different religious practices. Christianity was widespread and firmly established in most of Europe at this time, and many of the contributions deal with different types of Christian practices, such as the use of rock-cut churches, unmodified caves for spiritual retreat, caves reputedly visited by saints, and caves as places for burials. But parallel to this, some caves were associated with localised popular religious practices, which sometimes had pre-Christian origins. Muslims in Iberia used caves for spiritual retreat, and outside the Christian domain in northern Europe, caves and rockshelters were places for carving symbols among Pictish groups, places for human burial, for bear burials amongst the Sámi, and places for crafting and votive deposition for Norse populations.
The volume demonstrates, through a diversity of archaeological approaches and examples, that cave studies, whist necessarily focussed, can also be of significance to wider, contemporary, archaeological research agendas, particularly when a contextual approach is adopted. The book is also of relevance to other scholars working in the related fields of speleology, earth sciences, landscape studies, and anthropology, which together comprise the inter-disciplinary field of cave studies.
This session aims to deepen current knowledge within the framework of local, supra-regional, and diachronic development and application of active and passive fishing techniques in the harvesting of aquatic resources as well as other linked activities. Where direct evidence of fish utilisation is insufficient, various forms of indirect evidence are employed. Settlement patterns, site location, fishing technology, and resource specialisation reflect the utilisation of fish as a food source, or as a source of raw materials. Therefore, apart from studies utilising archaeological fishing-related materials, we would also like to encourage researchers contributing studies applying analogous data, from the viewpoint of, e.g., ethnography, anthropology, and ethnohistory to help build the frames of reference and further our understanding about fishing as a phenomenon and its long-term dynamics.