The Fimbulwinter theory and the 6th century crisis in the light of Norwegian archaeology: Towards a human-environmental approach (original) (raw)
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Doctoral thesis in archaeology, 2021
A growing body of climate data points towards a significant climate cooling in the northern hemisphere during the 6th century AD. Linked to multiple explosive volcanic eruptions between AD 536-547, the cooling event is the coldest that has been documented for the last 2000 years and seems to have persisted, to varying degrees, well into the latter half of the 6th century. Several researchers have claimed that the 6th-century cooling must have resulted in extensive crop failure throughout Scandinavia, followed by famine, plagues, and social unrest. One hypothesis suggests that the population of the Scandinavian Peninsula may have been halved as a result. The combination of prolonged cooling and presumed crop failure is often compared to Norse myths about the Fimbulwinter, but critics argue that the Fimbulwinter hypothesis is rife with the uncritical use of climate data, a lack of source criticism and deterministic conclusions. In many ways, the ongoing discourse follows in line with previous discourses in archaeology, revolving around an artificial dichotomy between crisis and continuity. In this thesis, I examine the climatic and archaeological premises for the Fimbulwinter hypothesis and discuss it against developing theoretical frameworks within the environmental humanities. By using vulnerability and resilience as analytical tools, the subsistence and settlement patterns of selected landscapes are analysed against the possibility of crop failure and famine, with emphasis on the Gudbrandsdalen valley and the Lake Mjøsa region in the inlands of eastern Norway. I conclude that climate cooling had the potential to critically impact some areas, while others were seemingly less affected. These results suggest significant regional diversity in the consequences and adaptations in relation to the 6th-century cooling event. The hypothesis of a halving of the population is up for revision, but the crisis narrative still cannot be fully discounted.
SETTLEMENT CHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL EUROPE OLD PARADIGMS AND NEW VISTAS, 2019
AD 536 is a poignant date in European history and marks the advent of a series of documented environmental changes that affected societies across Europe in various ways. Sudden and severe climate deterioration led to vast crop failures and was followed by plague epidemics in the following decades. In this article, we examine the timing of the changes in human activity with a detailed investigation of 855 radiocarbon determinations from Vestfold, Norway. The modelled radiocarbon data show a decrease in activity concurrent with the climatic events and plague epidemics that took place in the mid-6th century, and provide another proxy for the significant changes that occurred during this time. The results may support the idea that fimbulvetr was the start of a long-lasting cooling period combined with severe population declines and a dramatic decrease in cultural activity. In the past and present, the investigated area represents a heartland of rural production and settlements in Scandinavia. The time span of the crises is fundamental to our academic understanding of the character and societal impacts of the crises, and this study examines it more precisely than previous work.
SETTLEMENT CHANGE ACROSS MEDIEVAL EUROPE OLD PARADIGMS AND NEW VISTAS, 2019
AD 536 is a poignant date in European history and marks the advent of a series of documented environmental changes that affected societies across Europe in various ways. Sudden and severe climate deterioration led to vast crop failures and was followed by plague epidemics in the following decades. In this article, we examine the timing of the changes in human activity with a detailed investigation of 855 radiocarbon determinations from Vestfold, Norway. The modelled radiocarbon data show a decrease in activity concurrent with the climatic events and plague epidemics that took place in the mid-6th century, and provide another proxy for the significant changes that occurred during this time. The results may support the idea that fimbulvetr was the start of a long-lasting cooling period combined with severe population declines and a dramatic decrease in cultural activity. In the past and present, the investigated area represents a heartland of rural production and settlements in Scandinavia. The time span of the crises is fundamental to our academic understanding of the character and societal impacts of the crises, and this study examines it more precisely than previous work.
New Research Programme: Crisis, Conflict and Climate: Societal Change in Scandinavia 300-700 CE
Current Swedish Archaeology, 2023
Although archaeology during the past decade has increasingly focussed on the effects of climate change on prehistoric populations, there are few studies, if any, that have offered a high enough resolution in time and space to actually allow discussion of its societal effects. The main purpose of the 'Crisis, Conflict and Climate' programme is to provide this, by investigating a period of climate change, conflict and crisis in Scandinavia, 300-700 CE. With this programme, there will for the first time be a coherent investigation of demographics, disease, climate and environment, politics and social change in one, very well-defined, geographical region in northern Europe, the island of Öland situated off the southeast Swedish coast, in the Baltic Sea. We will study one of the more prominent features of the Ölandic societies during this time, the ringforts, producing high-resolution dates of their different utilization phases and clarifying their function and societal role. This eight-year programme (2023-2030), which is generously funded (43 million SEK) by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Sw. Riksbankens Jubileumsfond), is a collaboration between Stockholm University, Linnaeus University and Kalmar County Museum, with professor Kerstin Lidén at Stockholm University as Principal Investigator.
Catastrophes in Context - Archaeological Perspectives, Aarhus, Oct 10-12, 2018
In association with Future Earth and Berghahn Books’ series Catastrophes in Context it is our pleasure to host you at an intentionally intimate and intense symposium on the archaeological perspectives on and contribution to understanding calamities and their cultural aftermaths, to be held at Aarhus University’s Moesgård Museum just outside Aarhus in Denmark (see www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en) and the university’s central city campus on October 10-12, 2018, that is, just before the UN’s International Day for Disaster Reduction on Oct 13. We have carefully selected leading and emerging scholars concerned with the impacts, responses and consequences of climate change, extreme environmental events, earthquakes, eruptions or the like on past societies globally and with widely differing social and economic constellations. This conference is part of a larger grant by the Danish Council for Independent Research, which supports the Laboratory for Past Disaster Science (projects.au.dk/lapadis/).
The Blurry Third Millennium. "Neolithisation" in a Norwegian Context
Open Archaeology, 2023
In this article, we critically review recurrent tropes, implicit frameworks, and unexplained concepts in current research on the process of "Neolithisation" in the western part of southern Norway. Two models are on offer, as also seen elsewhere in the European research: either 1) the transition to agriculture is rapid and substantially carried by migrants, or 2) the Late Neolithic transition builds on a long history of local adaptation. After outlining these models, we scrutinise especially west Norwegian evidence, pointing out ambiguities and limitations in the material which mean that neither of the two models fit. In the final section, we consider which new questions could be asked to move beyond the current, somewhat polarised debate: Who are the actors of the transition, how are boundaries between groups created, and can the acknowledgement of the complexity of the process of 'migration' result in new narratives? Addressing these questions remains a fundamental challenge for archaeological migration studies as a whole.
As we pass into an age of the Anthropocene, archaeologists, as scholars of other disciplines, are driven to consider how this physical and ideological climate change affects our craft, or how archaeology can contribute with knowledge and insight of significance in a shifting world. Basing its arguments on research conducted on marine debris and drift beaches in northern Norway and Iceland, the aim of this article is to imagine what kind of alternative ways of doing and thinking archaeology the current climate is calling for. With reference to this material, which conspicuously manifests both obstacles and promises for an ‘Anthropocene archaeology’, the article will question the worth of some perspectives traditionally considered essential to our discipline, while simultaneously building on confidence in a sincerely archaeological imagination.
The historical archaeology of the medieval crisis in Scandinavia
Current Swedish Archaeology, 2009
In the wake of the Black Death in 1350 Europe saw demographic disaster, economic decline, and social and political breakdown. Thousands of farms were deserted. This is the Medieval Agrarian Crisis. The latest decades of outland archaeology, primarily within the frames of rescue archaeology, have made it possible to outline the course of he crisis in the forested parts of middle Scandinavia. The 14th and 15th centuries were a time of economic change rather than economic decline. However, various areas changed in different ways. When taking outland production into account the medieval crisis has to be conceptualised in another way; it was also early industrial expansion and change towards extensive farming.
Danish Journal of Archaeology, 2022
The influx of prestigious foreign objects into Southern Scandinavia throughout the Iron Age and Viking Age has been studied by many. For example, Roman or Frankish luxury objects would find their way north via trade or through dynastic gift exchanges as part of a conspicuous elite culture. Access to crucial raw materials was in many ways formative for both prehistoric and historic societies. The availability – or lack thereof – of specific resources could determine technological developments, and the need for nonlocal raw materials could shape evolving networks. For prehistoric and early historic times in Southern Scandinavia, the written sources and typological studies have limited value in determining the provenance of various raw materials. A typological deduction based on design can indicate the area of production for certain artefacts, but the raw materials used might originate from elsewhere. Based on scientific methods, this study sets out to map and analyse the geography of the available provenances of materials used in archaeological objects with special focus on iron in the period c.200-1050. From where did the raw materials found in Southern Scandinavia originate? Was there a connection between the flow of raw materials and the political situation?