Iron age farms in Southwest Norway the development of the agrarian landscape on Jæren

In this issue of NAR the development of the agrarian landscape and the farm structure in the Iron Age in Southwest Norway ‐ especially in the district of Jæren ‐ is taken up as a subject for discussion. Two publications by Bj?rn Myhre (Funn, fornminner og ?degårder. Jernalderens bosetning i H?yland Fjellbygd. Stavanger Museums Skrifter 7,1972 and The Iron Age Farm in Southwest Norway. NAR 6, No. 1, 1973) are commented upon by Björn Ambrosiani, Arnvid Lillehammer, Sven‐Olof Lindquist, Perry Rolfsen and Ulf Sporrong. Bj?rn Myhre's reply to the comments closes the discussion.     

Comments on relations West Norway ‐ Western Europe documented in petroglyphs

Dendrochronologic calibration of radiocarbon dates, which is of vital importance when such dates are compared with historical records, is discussed.

The nature and causes of variations in the past atmospheric radiocarbon content are briefly described. Different calibration curves are compared with available high‐precision data on radiocarbon in tree rings, and also with preliminary results from the joint efforts of U.S. scientists to establish an optimal calibration scheme.     

Mesolithic in South‐Eastern Norway

This article discusses the reliability of shore‐line displacement curves based on pollen analysis in the Oslo Fjord area. The conclusion is that only small parts of the curves ‐ in the late Atlantic period ‐ are fairly reliable for the purpose of dating Mesolithic coastal sites.

Twelve Mesolithic settlement sites from Østfold, south‐eastern Norway are classified morphologically. The author suggests a chronological lineal model with four succeeding phases: 1. The Fosna culture, 2. Late Boreal/early Atlantic group, 3. The N?stvet culture, 4. Late flint‐point using group. A connection between the Fosna culture and early Maglemose culture is claimed.

A study of the ecological adaptation in the four phases is based on topographical conditions, on the distribution and situation of settlement sites, and on animal bones from three Mesolithic sites in south‐eastern Norway. Hypotheses on seasonal migrations are suggested.     

House‐type chronology in SW Jutland

In recent years Esbjerg Museum carried out excavations on several large Late Iron or Early Viking Age settlements, including Skonager near Varde, Præstestien north of Esbjerg and Stagh?j, Billund. The occurrence of sequences of houses on some of the farmsteads enabled the establishment of a chronological framework for the settlements, based primarily on the shapes of walls and gables and the position of the roof‐bearing posts, and a study of the ceramic pots in the houses. A study of the ceramics, based on the house‐type chronology, showed that the shape of the rims of the vessels could be used as a chronological indicator.     

Suburban growth and land actors along by‐pass roads in Norway

It has been argued that by‐pass roads lead to suburban growth and that the construction of such roads will prompt the planning of industrial and other commercial developments, on the part of the local municipal government. This case study of five by‐pass roads shows that a significant, but limited suburban growth takes place along these roads. Actors who promote development have a greater effect on the planning process than those who resist land development. One exception is the regional authorities who can object to a local plan. The study also shows that most of the local development plans are submitted for approval by the local authorities themselves, either independently or jointly with private developers.     

A past and a future for diversification on farms? Some evidence from large-scale,commercial farms in South East England

Diversification has been identified as a common response to the agricultural crisis of the 1980s and to the changing ethos of agricultural policy in the closing decade of the twentieth century. In particular, farmers operating large-scale farms have been prominent in adopting this approach, just as they were innovative across a range of farming practices in the expansion and modernisation of their agricultural production in earlier decades. Can we identify serial diversifiers within this sector of the farming community, who are disposed to react in an entrepreneurial fashion to the changing fortunes of agriculture? The paper draws on results from a survey of large-scale commercial farmers in South East England and, by examining the sequence in which various forms of diversification were adopted, identifies a temporal pattern as farmers responded to the fluctuating fortunes of the agricultural industry over the past thirty years. But has the potential for diversification been exhausted? The paper also considers future prospects for diversification within the large-scale, commercially oriented sector of the agricultural industry.     

Greenstone and diabase utilization in the stone age of western Norway: Technological and socio‐cultural aspects of axe and adze production and distribution

The subject of this article is the production and distribution of stone axes and adzes originating from two large Stone Age quarries in western Norway: the greenstone quarry on the small island of Hespriholmen, B?mlo kommune, Hordaland fylke, and the diabase quarry at Stakaneset, Flora kommune, Sogn og Fjordane Fylke. The identification of production sites and distributed products associated with these quarries is based on petrological investigations, both thin‐section and geochemical analyses. Radiocarbon and shoreline datings of debris assemblages and chronological grouping of the distributed artifacts have made it possible to gain control over the time depth and time consistency in the utilization of the two outcrops. Different technological aspects of the production process are discussed on the basis of finds and observations from the quarries and workshop sites. The distribution patterns will be examined with regard to their reflection on cultural continuity and change. Finally, some hypotheses on the social context of production and distribution will be put forward. These include the diffusion mechanisms responsible for the distribution and aspects concerning terri‐toriality and demography as reflected in the distribution patterns.

The results presented here are based on two theses for a master's degree in archaeology at the University of Bergen: ‘Bruk av diabas i vestnorsk steinalder’ (Asle Bruen Olsen 1981) and ‘B?mlo. Steinalderens råstoffsentrum på S?rvestlandet’ (Sigmund Alsaker 1982).     

Comments on ‘Dictionary on Tibetan History and Culture'

WiththeworldbecomingincreasinqlyknowledgeableaboutTibet,astheveilisliftedfromitsface,aTibetanculturalcrazehasemerged.ItisagainstthisbackqroundthattheDictionaryonTibetanHistoryandCulturewaspublishedbytheTibetPeople'sPublishinqHouseandtheZhejiangPeople'sPublishingHouseinJune1998.WithWanqRaoandChenQinqyinqasthemainauthors,thedictionaryrunsto700,000words.ThedictionaryreflectsthehistoryandstatusofTibetanstudiesinChina.Thedictionaryspansatimerangingfromtheancienttomodernperiodsandcoversva…