Randi Haaland
Biographic Data
| ID | 157562 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Randi Haaland |
| GIVEN NAMES | Randi |
| FAMILY NAME | Haaland |
| SIGNATURE | HAALAND R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bergen |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 202 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Say it in Iron. Symbols of Transformation and Reproduction in the European Iron Age
The European research on iron has traditionally focused on the technical and economic aspects of iron production, However, a view of metal working in a wider regional context shows that it is generally entrenched in symbolic meaning and ritual activity. In this paper, the author employs four ethnographic case studies to show the importance of symbolic and ritual aspects of iron working and how these are intertwined with technological factors. Wha…
Pottery, Female Identity, and Beer in the Neolithic of Northern Africa
Prehistoric Figurines in Sudan
The chapter presents a descriptive account of Neolithic site inventories containing figurines in the Sudan Nile Valley. Cattle figurines indicate that animal husbandry played an important role in economic life as well as in political and ritual contexts. Female figurines can be seen as a multi-vocal symbol that may evoke a wide spectrum of meanings ranging from sexuality and fertility to basic qualities in human relations— trust, dependency, and …
Bjørn Myhre 1938–2015
Bjorn Myhre died on the 28 September 2015 at the age of 77. Although he had been diagnosed in the 1990s as suffering from a serious disease, he continued his active engagement in research and manag
The Meroitic Empire
The Meroitic Empire was a powerful Kushite state in the Middle Nile region of the Sudan, lasting from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE. In the early phase from the ninth century BCE, the seat of power was in the north at Napata. Influences from Egypt clearly dominated symbolic expressions of royal power in this early phase, but over time, elements linked to different cultural traditions occurred. Here, I explore the possibility tha…
Africa and the Indian Ocean
Early Farming Societies Along the Nile
Farming activities within the Nile valley grew from multiple roots: rich fish resources in the river itself provided a favourable habitat for broad-spectrum forager patterns of resource exploitation, including the gathering of wild sorghum; pastures and water-stimulated seasonal migrations of nomadic pastoralists to the river; northern Egypt’s Mediterranean climate encouraged settlement by agro-pastoralists from the Near East; and symbiotic and c…
Changing food ways as indicators of emerging complexity in Sudanese Nubia
This article focuses on politico-economic and socio-cultural processes affecting a changing cuisine in Sudanese Nubia from the 5th millennium BC until the collapse of the Meroitic state during the 4th century AD. The argument is based on an anthropological interpretation of archaeological remains from this period. In the fifth millennium BC we find elaboration and increased variation in material items related to serving and consumption of food an…
Crops and Culture
In this paper I will discuss the spread of African crops to the Indian subcontinent. The spread was probably related to the Indus civilizations trading network in the Indian Ocean during the late 3rd millennium BC. It was at this time African food plants, the so-called big millets were dispersed across the African savannah to the horn of Africa and further to the Indian sub-continent. The big millets were cultivated as monsoon summer crops comple…
Minneord over Knut Odner
Porridge and Pot, Bread and Oven
Food items are not only food ‘for the body’, they are also ‘food for thought’ about our relations to ‘others’ in the world of living people, and to cosmological forces. Ethnographic studies and historical documents show a striking difference between Africa and the Near East with regard to symbolic elaborations of food-related items. This difference is grounded in a contrast between a cooking pot theme in Africa and a baking oven theme in the Near…
God of war, worldly ruler, and craft specialists in the Meroitic Kingdom of Sudan
Interpreting the archaeological remains from the Kushite civilization of Sudan is fraught with methodological difficulties. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman written sources give some clues, but the Meroitic script is still not interpreted. The large slag mounds in the ancient capital of Meroe indicate that iron production played an important role, but this cannot serve as a sufficient explanatory cause for the maintenance of centralized power. In addit…
Technology, transformation and symbolism
Ethnographic studies provide abundant accounts of the symbolism of iron, iron making, blacksmiths, and iron products. We find the transformative aspects of iron working to be striking in these cross‐cultural studies; iron smelting is stated to be analogous to giving birth; the blacksmith's role in material transformations (ore to iron) is claimed to be a metaphoric model for social transformations rites de passage; the forging of artefacts in the…
Furnace and Pot
Keywords: EthiopiaIronworkingPot-making
Emergence of sedentism
What is the role of women in processes leading towards a more sedentary way of life? Pottery plays an important role as a functional factor and in symbolic expressions. With sedentism hearth-centred activities organized around females grew, and the position of the woman as the nurturer. Some of this symbolism, expressed on a multitude of ritual occasions, may be retrievable archaeologically
Sedentism, Cultivation, and Plant Domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile Region
This paper focuses on preconditions for, and consequences of, sedentism and the emergence of cultivation. Archaeological material from sites in the Middle Nile basin dated to the mid-9th millennium b.p., shows that fishing, shellfish collecting, hunting, and plant gathering were important subsistence activities and that pottery was used for cooking and storage. The multitude of tasks involved in these activities is generally based on some kind of…
Who speaks the goddess's language? Imagination and method in archaeological research
Prehistoric symbolic objects contain different levels of meaning. This paper critically examines Gimbutas's arguments in The Language of the Goddess with reference to the symbolic, sociological and culture‐historical levels of meaning she reads into archaeological material from South‐East Europe. By drawing on comparative ethnographic material we argue that assumptions implied in her analysis of the sociological level are inadequate, and that her…
Dakawa
Le site de Dakawa, situe au bord de la riviere Wami, date du VIIIe s. apr. J.-C. et s'avere important pour plusieurs raisons. Il s'agit d'abord de l'un des rares sites de l'est de l'Arique a reunir structures de production metallurgique (fourneaux, tuyeres, scories) et traces de structures d'habitat (divers debris associes a une occupation). Ensuite, la technologie de production du fer employee se revele atypique par arpport a cette partie de l'A…
Aqualithic Sites of the Middle Nile
The aim offieldwork in the Atbara region, begun in 1984, was to survey and excavate sites which could throw light on the preconltions for the transition to food production and its consequences. The area to be surveyed and excavated was along the lower Atbara river and the Nile north and south of the Atbara confluence. No fieldwork had been undertaken in this area previously. In Sudan the main focus of archaeologd work has been along the Nile in t…
Fish, pots and grain
Continuity and discontinuity. How to account for a two thousand years gap in the cultural history of the Khartoum nile environment
The Khartoum Neolithic inhabitants had a food‐producing economy in the 6th millennium B.P. However, all the sites in the area were abandoned in the fifth millennium B.P. What were the reasons? Was it climatic deterioration as I earlier hypothesized, or was it the result of other factors. Excavated material from 1983 does not support the climatic theory. Alternative factors such as change to less visible settlement patterns caused by a nomadizatio…
On Ceramic Ecology in the Ayacucho Basin
Fish, pots and grain
Porridge and Pot, Bread and Oven
Food items are not only food ‘for the body’, they are also ‘food for thought’ about our relations to ‘others’ in the world of living people, and to cosmological forces. Ethnographic studies and historical documents show a striking difference between Africa and the Near East with regard to symbolic elaborations of food-related items. This difference is grounded in a contrast between a cooking pot theme in Africa and a baking oven theme in the Near…
Sedentism, Cultivation, and Plant Domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile Region
This paper focuses on preconditions for, and consequences of, sedentism and the emergence of cultivation. Archaeological material from sites in the Middle Nile basin dated to the mid-9th millennium b.p., shows that fishing, shellfish collecting, hunting, and plant gathering were important subsistence activities and that pottery was used for cooking and storage. The multitude of tasks involved in these activities is generally based on some kind of…
Technology, transformation and symbolism
Ethnographic studies provide abundant accounts of the symbolism of iron, iron making, blacksmiths, and iron products. We find the transformative aspects of iron working to be striking in these cross‐cultural studies; iron smelting is stated to be analogous to giving birth; the blacksmith's role in material transformations (ore to iron) is claimed to be a metaphoric model for social transformations rites de passage; the forging of artefacts in the…
Emergence of sedentism
What is the role of women in processes leading towards a more sedentary way of life? Pottery plays an important role as a functional factor and in symbolic expressions. With sedentism hearth-centred activities organized around females grew, and the position of the woman as the nurturer. Some of this symbolism, expressed on a multitude of ritual occasions, may be retrievable archaeologically
Dakawa
Le site de Dakawa, situe au bord de la riviere Wami, date du VIIIe s. apr. J.-C. et s'avere important pour plusieurs raisons. Il s'agit d'abord de l'un des rares sites de l'est de l'Arique a reunir structures de production metallurgique (fourneaux, tuyeres, scories) et traces de structures d'habitat (divers debris associes a une occupation). Ensuite, la technologie de production du fer employee se revele atypique par arpport a cette partie de l'A…
God of war, worldly ruler, and craft specialists in the Meroitic Kingdom of Sudan
Interpreting the archaeological remains from the Kushite civilization of Sudan is fraught with methodological difficulties. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman written sources give some clues, but the Meroitic script is still not interpreted. The large slag mounds in the ancient capital of Meroe indicate that iron production played an important role, but this cannot serve as a sufficient explanatory cause for the maintenance of centralized power. In addit…
Who speaks the goddess's language? Imagination and method in archaeological research
Prehistoric symbolic objects contain different levels of meaning. This paper critically examines Gimbutas's arguments in The Language of the Goddess with reference to the symbolic, sociological and culture‐historical levels of meaning she reads into archaeological material from South‐East Europe. By drawing on comparative ethnographic material we argue that assumptions implied in her analysis of the sociological level are inadequate, and that her…
Changing food ways as indicators of emerging complexity in Sudanese Nubia
This article focuses on politico-economic and socio-cultural processes affecting a changing cuisine in Sudanese Nubia from the 5th millennium BC until the collapse of the Meroitic state during the 4th century AD. The argument is based on an anthropological interpretation of archaeological remains from this period. In the fifth millennium BC we find elaboration and increased variation in material items related to serving and consumption of food an…
Furnace and Pot
Keywords: EthiopiaIronworkingPot-making
Aqualithic Sites of the Middle Nile
The aim offieldwork in the Atbara region, begun in 1984, was to survey and excavate sites which could throw light on the preconltions for the transition to food production and its consequences. The area to be surveyed and excavated was along the lower Atbara river and the Nile north and south of the Atbara confluence. No fieldwork had been undertaken in this area previously. In Sudan the main focus of archaeologd work has been along the Nile in t…
Continuity and discontinuity. How to account for a two thousand years gap in the cultural history of the Khartoum nile environment
The Khartoum Neolithic inhabitants had a food‐producing economy in the 6th millennium B.P. However, all the sites in the area were abandoned in the fifth millennium B.P. What were the reasons? Was it climatic deterioration as I earlier hypothesized, or was it the result of other factors. Excavated material from 1983 does not support the climatic theory. Alternative factors such as change to less visible settlement patterns caused by a nomadizatio…
The Meroitic Empire
The Meroitic Empire was a powerful Kushite state in the Middle Nile region of the Sudan, lasting from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE. In the early phase from the ninth century BCE, the seat of power was in the north at Napata. Influences from Egypt clearly dominated symbolic expressions of royal power in this early phase, but over time, elements linked to different cultural traditions occurred. Here, I explore the possibility tha…
Africa and the Indian Ocean
Crops and Culture
In this paper I will discuss the spread of African crops to the Indian subcontinent. The spread was probably related to the Indus civilizations trading network in the Indian Ocean during the late 3rd millennium BC. It was at this time African food plants, the so-called big millets were dispersed across the African savannah to the horn of Africa and further to the Indian sub-continent. The big millets were cultivated as monsoon summer crops comple…
Say it in Iron. Symbols of Transformation and Reproduction in the European Iron Age
The European research on iron has traditionally focused on the technical and economic aspects of iron production, However, a view of metal working in a wider regional context shows that it is generally entrenched in symbolic meaning and ritual activity. In this paper, the author employs four ethnographic case studies to show the importance of symbolic and ritual aspects of iron working and how these are intertwined with technological factors. Wha…
Pottery, Female Identity, and Beer in the Neolithic of Northern Africa
Bjørn Myhre 1938–2015
Bjorn Myhre died on the 28 September 2015 at the age of 77. Although he had been diagnosed in the 1990s as suffering from a serious disease, he continued his active engagement in research and manag
Early Farming Societies Along the Nile
Farming activities within the Nile valley grew from multiple roots: rich fish resources in the river itself provided a favourable habitat for broad-spectrum forager patterns of resource exploitation, including the gathering of wild sorghum; pastures and water-stimulated seasonal migrations of nomadic pastoralists to the river; northern Egypt’s Mediterranean climate encouraged settlement by agro-pastoralists from the Near East; and symbiotic and c…
On Ceramic Ecology in the Ayacucho Basin
On Ceramic Ecology in the Ayacucho Basin
Continuity and discontinuity. How to account for a two thousand years gap in the cultural history of the Khartoum nile environment
The Khartoum Neolithic inhabitants had a food‐producing economy in the 6th millennium B.P. However, all the sites in the area were abandoned in the fifth millennium B.P. What were the reasons? Was it climatic deterioration as I earlier hypothesized, or was it the result of other factors. Excavated material from 1983 does not support the climatic theory. Alternative factors such as change to less visible settlement patterns caused by a nomadizatio…
Fish, pots and grain
Aqualithic Sites of the Middle Nile
The aim offieldwork in the Atbara region, begun in 1984, was to survey and excavate sites which could throw light on the preconltions for the transition to food production and its consequences. The area to be surveyed and excavated was along the lower Atbara river and the Nile north and south of the Atbara confluence. No fieldwork had been undertaken in this area previously. In Sudan the main focus of archaeologd work has been along the Nile in t…
Dakawa
Le site de Dakawa, situe au bord de la riviere Wami, date du VIIIe s. apr. J.-C. et s'avere important pour plusieurs raisons. Il s'agit d'abord de l'un des rares sites de l'est de l'Arique a reunir structures de production metallurgique (fourneaux, tuyeres, scories) et traces de structures d'habitat (divers debris associes a une occupation). Ensuite, la technologie de production du fer employee se revele atypique par arpport a cette partie de l'A…
Sedentism, Cultivation, and Plant Domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile Region
This paper focuses on preconditions for, and consequences of, sedentism and the emergence of cultivation. Archaeological material from sites in the Middle Nile basin dated to the mid-9th millennium b.p., shows that fishing, shellfish collecting, hunting, and plant gathering were important subsistence activities and that pottery was used for cooking and storage. The multitude of tasks involved in these activities is generally based on some kind of…
Who speaks the goddess's language? Imagination and method in archaeological research
Prehistoric symbolic objects contain different levels of meaning. This paper critically examines Gimbutas's arguments in The Language of the Goddess with reference to the symbolic, sociological and culture‐historical levels of meaning she reads into archaeological material from South‐East Europe. By drawing on comparative ethnographic material we argue that assumptions implied in her analysis of the sociological level are inadequate, and that her…
Emergence of sedentism
What is the role of women in processes leading towards a more sedentary way of life? Pottery plays an important role as a functional factor and in symbolic expressions. With sedentism hearth-centred activities organized around females grew, and the position of the woman as the nurturer. Some of this symbolism, expressed on a multitude of ritual occasions, may be retrievable archaeologically
Technology, transformation and symbolism
Ethnographic studies provide abundant accounts of the symbolism of iron, iron making, blacksmiths, and iron products. We find the transformative aspects of iron working to be striking in these cross‐cultural studies; iron smelting is stated to be analogous to giving birth; the blacksmith's role in material transformations (ore to iron) is claimed to be a metaphoric model for social transformations rites de passage; the forging of artefacts in the…
Furnace and Pot
Keywords: EthiopiaIronworkingPot-making
Porridge and Pot, Bread and Oven
Food items are not only food ‘for the body’, they are also ‘food for thought’ about our relations to ‘others’ in the world of living people, and to cosmological forces. Ethnographic studies and historical documents show a striking difference between Africa and the Near East with regard to symbolic elaborations of food-related items. This difference is grounded in a contrast between a cooking pot theme in Africa and a baking oven theme in the Near…
God of war, worldly ruler, and craft specialists in the Meroitic Kingdom of Sudan
Interpreting the archaeological remains from the Kushite civilization of Sudan is fraught with methodological difficulties. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman written sources give some clues, but the Meroitic script is still not interpreted. The large slag mounds in the ancient capital of Meroe indicate that iron production played an important role, but this cannot serve as a sufficient explanatory cause for the maintenance of centralized power. In addit…
Minneord over Knut Odner
Changing food ways as indicators of emerging complexity in Sudanese Nubia
This article focuses on politico-economic and socio-cultural processes affecting a changing cuisine in Sudanese Nubia from the 5th millennium BC until the collapse of the Meroitic state during the 4th century AD. The argument is based on an anthropological interpretation of archaeological remains from this period. In the fifth millennium BC we find elaboration and increased variation in material items related to serving and consumption of food an…
Crops and Culture
In this paper I will discuss the spread of African crops to the Indian subcontinent. The spread was probably related to the Indus civilizations trading network in the Indian Ocean during the late 3rd millennium BC. It was at this time African food plants, the so-called big millets were dispersed across the African savannah to the horn of Africa and further to the Indian sub-continent. The big millets were cultivated as monsoon summer crops comple…
Early Farming Societies Along the Nile
Farming activities within the Nile valley grew from multiple roots: rich fish resources in the river itself provided a favourable habitat for broad-spectrum forager patterns of resource exploitation, including the gathering of wild sorghum; pastures and water-stimulated seasonal migrations of nomadic pastoralists to the river; northern Egypt’s Mediterranean climate encouraged settlement by agro-pastoralists from the Near East; and symbiotic and c…
The Meroitic Empire
The Meroitic Empire was a powerful Kushite state in the Middle Nile region of the Sudan, lasting from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE. In the early phase from the ninth century BCE, the seat of power was in the north at Napata. Influences from Egypt clearly dominated symbolic expressions of royal power in this early phase, but over time, elements linked to different cultural traditions occurred. Here, I explore the possibility tha…
Africa and the Indian Ocean
Bjørn Myhre 1938–2015
Bjorn Myhre died on the 28 September 2015 at the age of 77. Although he had been diagnosed in the 1990s as suffering from a serious disease, he continued his active engagement in research and manag
Prehistoric Figurines in Sudan
The chapter presents a descriptive account of Neolithic site inventories containing figurines in the Sudan Nile Valley. Cattle figurines indicate that animal husbandry played an important role in economic life as well as in political and ritual contexts. Female figurines can be seen as a multi-vocal symbol that may evoke a wide spectrum of meanings ranging from sexuality and fertility to basic qualities in human relations— trust, dependency, and …
Say it in Iron. Symbols of Transformation and Reproduction in the European Iron Age
The European research on iron has traditionally focused on the technical and economic aspects of iron production, However, a view of metal working in a wider regional context shows that it is generally entrenched in symbolic meaning and ritual activity. In this paper, the author employs four ethnographic case studies to show the importance of symbolic and ritual aspects of iron working and how these are intertwined with technological factors. Wha…
Pottery, Female Identity, and Beer in the Neolithic of Northern Africa
Archaeology (18 works) · History (15 works) · Geography (14 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Biology (8 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Anthropology (7 works) · History (7 works) · Ethnology (6 works)