The Pioneer Condition on the Scandinavian Peninsula

The Last Frontier of a ‘Palaeolithic Way’ in Europe

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7934795
AutoresIngrid Fuglestvedt (0000-0002-2649-1907, University of Oslo, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen45
Número1
Páginas1-29
Fecha de publicación2012-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNorwegian Archaeological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0029-3652 • E-ISSN: 1502-7678
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00293652.2012.669998
OpenAlexW2081734619
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas44

This article takes a new approach to patterns in settlement and technology in the early Mesolithic of Norway and the Scandinavian peninsula in general. Throughout the entire period we witness stability in settlement patterns and durability of technological practices. An attempt is made to explain the highly mobile life – combined with egalitarian structures and the absence of any changes in blade technology – through hunting practices embedded in the human-reindeer relationship. The early Mesolithic on the Scandinavian peninsula is a context in which hunting groups experienced a very changing world. This situation probably triggered the need for stability in social and animal relations. The early Post-Glacial context provided possibilities of seeking out vast areas of new lands, that paradoxically also served to sustain a way of life. This is the 'Palaeolithic way'. Keywords: 'Palaeolithic'early Mesolithic Norwaypioneer time settlementmobilityblade technologysubsistence versus animismsharingegalitarianism ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Astrid Nyland for producing the map in Figure 1 and Lotte Eigeland for lending me the photo of my hand holding an experimental core and blade produced by Jacques Pelegrin at the Nordic Blade Technology Workshop's meeting in Helsinki, June 2009. Thanks to Priscilla Field for correcting my English. Furthermore, I would like to thank Sven Erik Grydeland for inviting me to take part in the excavation of Lagesiid'bakti in Finnmark, Norway (2003) – and to Tinna Møbjerg, similarly, for letting me be part of the excavation team at Dværgebakke I in the summer season of 2005. I thank the Museum of Cultural History and Håkon Glørstad for inviting me to take part in the project council of the Brunlanes Project, and to Tuija Rankamaa and Kjel Knutsson for including me in our first application for funding to the Nordic Blade Technology Workshop. I also thank Lou Schmitt for constantly updating me on articles and Sheila Coulson for useful consulting. Lastly, I thank two referees, Berit Valentin Eriksen and Lars Larsson as well as the Norwegian Archaeological Review's editorial board for invaluable comments on an earlier version of this article. As always, eventual mistakes and shortcomings are the responsibility of the author. Notes 1My observations concerning finds from North Germany are not based only on publications (e.g. Taute Citation1968, Tromnau Citation1975, Rust Citation1943) but on direct examinations of the flint material during a visit to Schloss Gottorf, September 1998. 2This article does not consider migration routes from the Continent to the Scandinavian Peninsula. Several routes may have been followed, but obviously both the route to eastern Norway via western Sweden and to western Norway via the western part of the European continent (including Doggerland) – from the Elbenfjord up to Jæren – in south-western Norway are likely. 3The author has first-hand knowledge of this material from taking part in excavations during the summer of 2005

Archaeology · Blade (archaeology · Context (archaeology · Excavation · Frontier · Geography · Lithic technology · Mesolithic · Peninsula · Political science · Settlement (finance · Witness · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology