Comments on archaeology into the 1990s

This article focuses on the complexity of Early Bronze Age weapon depositions. While some of the deposited weapons have been disabled by intentional breakage, others seem to be more or less unused. A plausible explanation for the variability is that the surrender of lethal weapons to land or water was a means of coping with their power or agency – their individuality. We suggest that weapons, in their capacity as extensions of warriors’ bodies, may have substituted for humans in ritual depositions. The metalworkers also come into play, due to their capacities in the processes of making weapons and shaping weapon technologies. Although we consider the three depositions that we discuss to relate to rituals on the occasion of warfare, we are not aiming for a uniform explanation. In the same way as the patterned human behaviour of a ritual is a means of subsuming individual events into a greater order, so a focus on general patterns may subsume the complexity of the past by ignoring the many different events leading to, e.g., the deposition of metalwork. Far from seeing these perspectives as contradictory, we try to use three well-documented individual cases to shed light on the variability within the pattern.     

Dating problems in Icelandic archaeology

For many decades tephrochronology has been used as a scientific method for dating archaeological as well as geological remains in Iceland. Recently, parts of the tephrochronology for the eruptions of the famous volcano Hekla have been questioned by the author. This is due to obvious differences in dating results of archaeological artefacts from the valley of Thjórsárdalur in southern Iceland and the current tephrochronological dating of its devastation. While the devastation of the valley has been dated to AD 1104 and is thought to have been caused by a huge eruption of mount Hekla in that year, the artefacts from excavations and stray finds, as well as new ¹⁴C results, show somewhat later 12th‐13th century dates. The paper deals with this obvious discrepancy, which has hitherto been ignored, together with the results of archaeological excavations in 1983–86 at Stóng in Thjórsárdalur; it also gives a critical analysis of the historical methodology of the tephrochronologists.     

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.     

Material culture after text: re‐membering things

Bronze Age finds in Norway have recurringly generated discussion throughout 150 years of Norwegian archaeology. This article outlines the history of attitudes towards the Bronze Age in Norway, and attempts to identify paradigmatic features. In general, the same basic analytic concepts have been employed since Christie's and Worsaae's days until the present. This is somewhat surprising, especially in light of general archaeological postwar research efforts in Norway and international developments in theory and method. The article examines some of the contemporary social mechanisms that have hampered rejuvenation of Bronze Age research, and outlines basic positions the author believes to be valuable.     

Scientisme sur L’histoire D’un Concept Difficile

Today “scientism” is a pejorative concept in every language. But isn’t that just a projection made in order to exploit the fear of “science”? The article develops the argument that scientism is a historical current which can be analyzed in a concrete way. It shows that the word goes back to the 19^th century and got its negative emphasis when “scientific” spiritism on the one hand and Catholicism on the other were struggling against the “exaggerated” claims of natural science.     

David J. Starkey,Chris Reid and Neil Ashcroft: England's Sea Fisheries. The Commercial Sea Fisheries of England and Wales since 1300. Chatham Publishing,London 2000, 272 pages

Abstract

This article explores the management practice of protection notices, fredlysning, in the traditional practice of eider down harvesting in Northern Norway. Previously, private initiatives were legitimate for protecting land and resources from public utilization, while today only the state authorities have this privilege. By juxtaposing empirical material from current eider down harvesting activities with childhood memories of growing up in this area during the 1960s, and available legal documents, the author finds that some quite radical changes have tacitly taken place, indicating rather tense dilemmas concerning local perceptions of land use issues. Analytically, Olwig's distinction between customary and natural law is used as a tool for addressing the political dimensions of the landscape concept historically. In this perspective, fredlysning fluctuates in and out of codified law through the centuries, and under growing impact of natural law rationale. Land issues, both concerning property rights and public access and use of the common resources of the outlying fields, utmarksressurser, are here understood as very powerful means to bind the people to the land, as a way of transforming the legitimate scale of polity, of building bonds to the nation.