Studies in the Holocene vegetation development on Hardangervidda,southern Norway. I. The occurrence and origin of pollen of plants Favoured by Man's Activity

Higher values in pollen diagrams from Hardangervidda of, e. g. Plantago lanceolata and Artemisia, above their altitudinal limits are caused by endo‐and epizoochory of pollen and seeds. The continuous traffic across the northern part of the mountain plateau is dated back to A.D. 550.     

Reply to Comments on The Social Context of Settlement in Norway in the First Millennium AD

This article focuses on what kind of impact Western thought has on cultural heritage management on a global scale. UNESCO seems to provide and exercise a worldwide and unified definition of the character of the past and cultural heritage. Important here is the idea of sustainable development, including the perspective of cultural heritage as a non-renewable resource. Through an actor-network analysis of the UNESCO system and its relation to the assigned state parties, it is shown that the process of managing cultural heritage in itself contributes to the very definition of the past and cultural heritage. However, there are indications that outside the Western world this effect is to a large degree superficial and mainly relevant for the monuments and sites present on the World Heritage List. The suggestion is that the world cultural heritage seems to function as a varnish covering heterogeneous matter, rather than being a phenomenon encompassing a genuine global essence accepted throughout the world.     

Monetary Practices in Early Medieval Western Scandinavia (5th–10th Centuries ad)

A SOCIAL APPROACH TO MONETISATION shifts the attention from the classic money media — gold and silver — to the dissemination of two social practices: valuing and paying. When these two monetary practices first became widespread in western Scandinavia during the gold rich migration period (in the 5th to 6th centuries ad), they were not introduced in the sphere of trade, but instead were features of traditional or customary payments, such as weregeld (atonements for murder or offences against the person) or marriage dowries. By the Viking Age, in the late 8th to 10th centuries ad, despite flourishing commodity production, precious metals were used as payment in trade solely in towns. Even in towns, this commercial use seems to have been adopted late, and was employed only occasionally. This paper reviews the changing approaches to money and monetisation, and draws attention to the potential for regarding monetisation as the spread of a set of social practices.