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.     

Parallel Lives – An Interview with Ruth Tringham

Ruth Tringham is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is one of the founders and a director of the UC Berkeley Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTiA). Her research has focused on the transformation of early agricultural (Neolithic) societies. Tringham has directed and published archaeological excavations in South‐east Europe and Turkey, at the site of Çatalhöyük. Current research focuses on the life‐histories of buildings and the construction of place. Much of her recent practice of archaeology incorporates digital, especially multimedia, technology in the presentation of the process of archaeological interpretation, Since 1998 Tringham has incorporated multimedia authoring and digital technology into teaching inquiry‐based hybrid courses. From 1998 to 2001 she held the UCB Presidential Chair in Undergraduate Education. Tringham is now recognized internationally as one of the leaders of digital education, media literacy, and digital publishing in archaeology. This interest in multimedia grows out of a lifelong passion for music, puppets and cultivating illusions of reality.

The interview was conducted in Cambridge on 23 October 2007, the day after Ruth Tringham's participation in a personal history retrospective at the Department of Archaeology together with Meg Conkey, Henrietta Moore and Alison Wylie, and organized by Pamela Smith. The retrospective aimed to reflect on the transformation of archaeological theory and method during the 1970s and early 1980s (an audio recording is at http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/podcast/rss.xml). The interview was transcribed by the interviewees together with Dr Katharina Rebay, University of Cambridge.     

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.     

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.     

Domestication,Reindeer Husbandry and the Development of Sámi Pastoralism

Abstract

A recurrent topic in ethnographic, historical and archaeological research has been the origins of Sámi reindeer pastoralism. The article discusses how prevailing theories have been influenced by general conceptual schemes, apriori constructed models and an extensive use of taxonomies. The debate has centered around how and when domestication took place, presupposing a paradigmatic change from hunting to pastoralism. However, there has probably never been an abrupt change; hunting and herding have both been parts of a multifaceted adaption existing up to the nineteenth century. What did change was the social organization of herding when a pastoral economy became the norm at that time. Such a change also had qualitative consequences in terms of new values and economic strategies.     

Russia and Norway: Research Collaboration and Comparison of Asymmetrical Relations

Archaeological excavations in 1954, 1958, and 1962 directed by Dr. C.L. Vebaek of The Danish National Museum at the Norse site 0 17a in the modern Greenlandic town of Narssaq revealed a farmstead apparently occupied from the 11th century into the later phases of the Eastern Settlement. The excavations recovered a quantifiable amount of animal bone from well‐defined strata within and immediately around the main structure. These collections were analysed in 1976–77 by the authors and show both continuity and some important changes in subsistence patterns between occupational strata.     

Ochre,Ground Stone,and Wrapping the Dead in the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) Levant: Revealing the Funerary Practices at Shubayqa 1, Jordan

The appearance of rich and diverse funerary practices is one of the hallmarks of the Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant. Numerous burials at a number of sites excavated mostly in the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant have fed into the interpretation of the Natufian as a sedentary society of complex hunter-gatherers. Here, we report on the human remains recovered from Shubayqa 1, a well-dated early to late Natufian site in northeast Jordan. The majority of the minimum of 23 individuals that are represented are perinates and infants, which represents an atypical population profile. Ground stone artifacts and traces of colorants are associated with some of these individuals, providing a rare insight into funerary treatment of subadults in Natufian contexts. We interpret the Shubayqa 1 evidence in the light of current and ongoing debates concerning Natufian burial practices and the issue of social complexity.