The Dating and Interpretation of a Field Wall in Öggestorp (original) (raw)
Related papers
from the VIII Nordic conference on the applications of Scientific Methods in Archaeology Umeå 2001
2006
Cultural sediments containing significant amounts of fish bone at Langenesværet, Vesterålen, Northern Norway provide an opportunity to characterise activity during and prior to the establishment of a late medieval commercial fishing station (fiskevaer). Radiometric and AMS dating techniques are used to establish a chronology for the deposits, while activities associated with the sediments are characterised fossil insect faunas. The results highlight a series of problems with the dating of the heavily disturbed organic deposits of many archaeological sites, and the need for greater care in sample selection and interpretation.
Environmental Archaeology in Southern Scandinavia
Interdisciplinary contributions to archaeology, 2018
Environmental archaeology was first developed in southern Scandinavia and has a longer history there than anywhere else. We argue that environmental archaeology has always been a central aspect of archaeology as a whole, not a subsidiary sub-specialisation. Major archaeological theories are often based on the findings of environmental archaeology, and in this chapter we take the perspective of its application to the question of agricultural origins in Scandinavia. To do so, we review its early history, starting with J.J.S. Steenstrup’s work on the stratigraphy of peat bogs in 1842 and the subsequent identification of shell middens as human habitation sites by him and J.J.A. Worsaae. By the mid-twentieth century, environmental archaeologists such as Johannes Iversen and Jorgen Troels-Smith were setting much of the archaeological agenda, and their results were central to archaeological interpretations all over Europe. In recent decades environmental archaeology has expanded hugely. We review recent developments including major regional projects, archaeological chemistry and diet, ancient DNA, ecosystem modelling, and the results from recent zooarchaeology and archaeobotany. There remain many lacunae in our knowledge, but the capacity of environmental archaeology to examine topics both broadly and in close detail means that it remains central to our understanding of the lives of prehistoric people.
Fennoscandia archaeologica, 2015
Grave mounds established during the 1st millennium AD in northern Sweden are common in central Norrland, up to northern Ångermanland. There are, however, two grave mounds located 350 km further north, close to the villages of Sangis and Espinära, that stand out as anomalies. These mounds rise questions regarding who established them and why? We hypothesised that they were established close to sedentary settlements, just as the ones found further south. To identify old settlement remains and traces of ancient land use, an archaeological excavation was performed of the sand ridge where the Sangis grave mound is located, and a palynological study was conducted to identify local vegetation changes. The results show that no sedentary settlement accompanied the mound. The area had, however, two phases of land use; as an occasionally visited site from calAD 600 to 800 when the grave mound and possibly a cooking pit was established, and; from calAD 1070 when human impact on the ridge restarted, probably associated to permanent settlements nearby.
This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary study combining archaeology, osteology, and stable isotope analyses. The geological conditions and richness of megalithic graves in Falbygden is suitable for studies of Neolithic human remains. Nevertheless, the Late Neolithic period (2350–1700 BC) is poorly investigated. This paper explores new knowledge of the Late Neolithic megalithic population in Falbygden. In-depth osteological and archaeological studies focusing on a single gallery grave (Falköping stad 5) were conducted. Radiocarbon dating and carbon, nitrogen, and strontium isotope analyses of teeth from twenty-one individuals revealed the time of the grave’s use, as well as the subsistence and mobility practices of the buried individuals. The grave was already in use during the first part of the Late Neolithic and used into the second part of the period by individuals of different origin. Furthermore, the results indicated changing population dynamics in the Late Neolithic Falbygden, with increased human mobility, variability in subsistence strategies, and growing population density.
Journal of Field Archaeology 39-1, 51-66.
We present an interdisciplinary method for establishing date ranges of historical farm sites (A.D. 800-present) and reconstructing regional settlement dynamics. Criteria are given to link excavation data with historical data on farmsteads. An experimental field strategy is described to check estimates regarding the age of individual farmsteads based on historical data and physical and historical geography. It consists of systematic mechanical test-pitting to recover settlement debris buried under plaggen soils on carefully selected locations. In the course of one week thirteen farm sites were investigated and age estimates were defined more precisely. The field strategy seems to be applicable in all situations where concentrations of settlement debris related to farm sites are buried under younger sediments.
2014
The here presented PhD project explores the phenomenon of cereal cultivation during the Iron Age (c. 500 BC – AD 1100) in southern Scandinavia. The main body of the thesis consists of four articles. These were written with the aim to identify chronological, geographical, theoretical and methodological gaps in current research, to develop, apply and evaluate approaches to how new knowledge on Iron Age cereal cultivation can be attained, and to assess the interaction between archaeobotany and other specialisms currently used in settlement archaeology. The introduction section of the thesis also contains a historical overview of archaeobotanical research on cereal cultivation in southern Scandinavia. The first article is a compilation and summary of all available previously performed archaeobotanical investigations in southern Sweden. This data is compared and discussed in relation to similar publications in Denmark and smaller scale compilations previously published in Sweden. The main result of the study is an updated and enhanced understanding of the main developments in the investigation area and a deepened knowledge of local development chronologies and trajectories in different parts of southern Sweden. The second article is a methodological presentation of a multiproxy analysis combining plant macrofossil analysis, phosphate analysis, magnetic susceptibility analysis and measurement of soil organic matter by loss on ignition. The applicability of the method for identification and delineation of space functions on southern Scandinavian Iron Age sites is discussed and illustrated by two case studies from the Danish site of Gedved Vest. Particular focus is placed on exploration of the use of the functional analysis for assessment of taphonomic and operational contexts of carbonised plant macrofossil assemblages. The third article aims at presenting an Iron Age cereal cultivation history for east-central Jutland, an area identified at the outset of the project as under-represented in archaeobotanical studies. The article combines data from depth analyses of material from the sites of Gedved Vest and Kristinebjerg Øst (analysed with the methods and theory presented in the second article) with a compilation of previously performed archaeobotanical analyses from east-central Jutland. The main results of the study are that developments in the study area appear to follow a chronology similar to that previously observed on Funen rather than the rest of the peninsula. Rye cultivation is furthermore discussed as more dynamic and flexible than previously presented in Scandinavian archaeobotanical literature. The fourth and final article leaves archaeobotany as the main topic. It focuses instead on evaluating, theorising and expanding the multiproxy method presented in the second article by a thorough comparison of the botanical, geochemical and geophysical methods to other techniques of functional analysis currently used in archaeology. These techniques include studies of artefact distributions, assessments of spatial relations between settlement features, and studies of the structural details of dwellings and other constructions. The main result is that there is a correspondence between the functional indications provided by botanical, geochemical and geophysical methods and techniques used in mainstream archaeology. The comparison furthermore shows that a combination of the two data sets allows for more highly resolved functional interpretations than if they are used separately. The main conclusion of the PhD thesis, based on the discussions in all four articles, is that archaeobotanical questions commonly necessitate the assessment of non-botanical archaeological material. The comparison of archaeobotanical data to other segments of the archaeological record does, however, enable the use of the former as an archaeological resource for addressing non-botanical questions. The increased understanding of (mainly settlement) site dynamics resulting from this integration of methods allows archaeobotanists to address increasingly complex botanical questions. Increased and more structured integration between archaeobotany and other specialisms operating within the framework of settlement archaeology is therefore argued to be the preferred approach to performing both high quality archaeobotany and settlement archaeology.