The Agrarian Life of the North 2000 BC – AD 1000: Studies in Rural Settlement and Farming in Norway

344 Pages·2017·16.11 MB·English

by  Frode Iversen

The Agrarian Life of the
North 2000 bc–ad 1000
Studies in Rural Settlement and Farming
in Norway
Frode Iversen & Håkan Petersson Eds.

THE AGRARIAN LIFE OF THE NORTH 2000 BC –AD 1000
Studies in rural settlement and farming in Norway
Frode Iversen & Håkan Petersson (Eds.)
© Frode Iversen and Håkan Petersson, 2017
ISBN: 978-82-8314-099-6
This work is protected under the provisions of the Norwegian Copyright Act (Act No.
2 of May 12, 1961, relating to Copyright in Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works)
and published Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license allows third
parties to freely copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as well as
remix, transform or build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial
purposes, provided the work is properly attributed to the author(s), including a link
to the license, and any changes that may have been made are thoroughly indicated.
The attribution can be provided in any reasonable manner, however, in no way that
suggests the author(s) or the publisher endorses the third party or the third party’s use
of the work.

Third parties are prohibited from applying legal terms or technological measures that
restrict others from doing anything permitted under the terms of the license. Note
that the license may not provide all of the permissions necessary for an intended
reuse; other rights, for example publicity, privacy, or moral rights, may limit third
party use of the material.
Reconstructed Bronze-Age farm at Landa, Forsand, Rogaland. Front-page: Profile of a
reconstructed roof at Landa. Photo: Åge Pedseren. Backside: Cultivation experiments
at Landa. Spelt (Triticum spelta), or dinkel wheat, was an important staple in
Scandinavia from the Bronze Age to the Medieval Period. It has stiffer straw than oats,
and is not ruined by bad weather. Photo: Sverre Bakkevig. Both photos: Museum of
Archaeology, University of Stavanger. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Black and white photo page 8: The excavation at Moer, Ås, 1997. Moer is one of the
most thoroughly investigated Early Iron Age settlements in south-eastern Norway.
Photo: Knut Erik Fønstelien. Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. CC
BY-SA 4.0
English translations: Sean D. Denham, Museum of Archaeology, University of
Stavanger, & Fredrik Sundman, Orkney
Proofreading: James Redmond & Sean D. Denham, Museum of Archaeology,
University of Stavanger
Design and typesetting: Rune Eilertsen
Font: Adobe Caslon Pro 11/14
Portal Akademisk
Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP
CONTENTS
PREFACE 7
LONG TIME – LONG HOUSE 11
Kristin Armstrong Oma
EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE CHANGE ON IRON AGE CEREAL PRODUCTION
AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN MID-NORWAY 27
Arne Anderson Stamnes
ESTATE DIVISION: SOCIAL COHESION IN THE AFTERMATH OF AD 536–7 41
Frode Iversen
WHY DID POTTERY PRODUCTION CEASE IN NORWAY DURING THE TRANSITION
TO THE LATE IRON AGE? 77
Christian Løchsen Rødsrud
RELATIONS BETWEEN BURIALS AND BUILDINGS IN THE IRON AGE
OF SOUTHWEST NORWAY 93
Barbro Dahl
COOKING AND FEASTING: CHANGES IN FOOD PRACTICE IN THE IRON AGE 117
Grethe Bjørkan Bukkemoen
HOT ROCKS! BEER BREWING ON VIKING AND MEDIEVAL AGE FARMS
IN TRØNDELAG 133
Geir Grønnesby
FARM – MANOR – ESTATE: AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE AND SETTLEMENT
AT HUNDVÅG, SOUTHWEST NORWAY 151
Trond Meling
A LATE BRONZE AGE SHEEP FARM NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE? 173
Christin E. Jensen | Johan E. Arntzen
IRON AGE BUILDING TRADITIONS IN EASTERN NORWAY:
REGIONS AND LANDSCAPES 203
Lars Erik Gjerpe
GEOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS REGARDING EARLY IRON AGE
LONGHOUSES IN SOUTHWEST NORWAY 221
Theo Gil
LATE IRON AGE SETTLEMENT EVIDENCE FROM ROGALAND 241
Even Bjørdal
RURAL BUILDINGS FROM THE VIKING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD
IN CENTRAL NORWAY 275
Raymond Sauvage and Marte Mokkelbost
POTENTIAL AND RECOMMENDATIONS: AGRARIAN BOTANICAL
DATA FROM WESTERN NORWAY 293
Kari Loe Hjelle | Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen | Eli-Christine Soltvedt
PREFACE
In 2012, The Research Council of Norway (NFR) began funding a large-
scale research project at the five archaeological University Museums in
Norway, with the aim of increasing collaboration amongst these institutions.
The project, Forskning i Felleskap (Joint Research Programme), covered
three different themes, selected by the participants based on their own
archaeological research interests. One of these themes was agrarian societies,
and this book is a result of the Agrarian network and four years’ worth of
meetings and discussions and work. In this, we present current research
from the members of the network as well as results from recent excavations
concerning settlement, climate and landscape studies of prehistoric and, in
some cases, early medieval rural societies in Norway. Our research scope is
national, but rather than an overall picture, this collection presents insights
into very specific aspects of rural societies stretching from the Late Neolithic
to the Early Medieval Period in various parts of Norway. Our presentation of
botanical data from Western Norway, while regional in focus, is an exception
in that it provides a comprehensive review of all archaeo-botanical analyses
conducted over the years in this area, as well as their research potential. This
summary is unique in the corpus of Scandinavian archaeo-botanical literature.
We, the editors, would like to thank all those who have participated in
this research network over the years, The Research Council of Norway for
its financial support and, of course, the authors who have contributed to this
volume. We would like to thank the university museums and, in particular,
Professor Håkon Glørstad, the project leader and initiator of this venture,
without whom it would not have been possible. One of the stipulations of the
original application to the research council obliges the museums involved to
maintain the established networks beyond the funding period. So, to borrow
a famous phrase, this is not the end. It is hopefully not even the beginning of
the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Dear readers, we hope
you will enjoy this volume, and look forward to the future research in this area.
Christmas 2016 Stavanger/Oslo
The editors

Knowledge through archaeological
rescue investigation
Hundreds of fieldworkers take part in the 100–150
archaeological excavations carried out annually in Norway.
Without the efforts of the entire archaeological community, the
research presented in this book would not have been possible.
The words of Director Håkon Glørstad and Vice-director Karl
Kallhovd, speak for us all: “Rescue archaeology and research
are commonly considered two separate worlds (...) we have
made large excavations the engines of research development.”