Marte Spangen

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at University of Oslo

"Sami circular offering sites" is an established category of cultural heritage in northern Norway, but details of their origin, time of use, function and significance in contemporary society have been little explored. This study aims to establish some basic facts about these stone enclosures, but a surprising conclusion is that the very offering si...

Around 2005, the Swedish History Museum (SHM) in Stockholm reworked their Vikings exhibition, aiming to question simplistic and erroneous understandings of past group identities. In the process, all references to the Sámi were removed from the exhibition texts. This decision has been criticised by experts on Sámi pasts. In this article, it is argue...

While researchers within Sámi archaeology have dealt with issues closely related to postcolonial theory and critique since the 1970s onwards, this has rarely been done with explicit mention or coherent use of this theoretical complex. This somewhat paradoxical situation was addressed in a session at the 14th conference of the Nordic Theoretical Arc...

This article examines open access (OA) publishing within archaeology by using Norway as a case study. The authors present data on research publications (n = 1,517) produced by archaeologists at Norwegian universities between 2010 and 2021 and classified according to their OA status. The aim is to analyze trends in OA publishing during this period a...

In the early 1980s, a runestone fragment with a Christian inscription from the early eleventh century was discovered in Harstad town, northern Norway, in excavated masses originating from the farm Ervika. Runestones are very rare archaeological finds in this region, but, despite being included in runological overviews, the Ervika stone has not been...

Jakten på Varangermarkedet – søk etter flerkulturelle møter i et samisk landskap

The chapter and full texts of the entire book is available for free in open access here: https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/book/10.1484/M.TANE-EB.5.133678

In Håløygminne 2023(2). A popular scientific presentation of a previously little discussed find of an anthropomorphic wooden statue from the Merovingian period outside Tromsø and its possible association with Saami and Norse religion and rituals - or both.

In Håløygminne 2023(2). A popular scientific presentation of a new interpretation of the mysterious flat gold ring in the precious metal hoard from Laksefjord, Lebesby, Finnmark.

In Håløygminne 2023(3). A popular scientific presentation of a little regarded 1980s find of a piece of an early 11th century Christian runestone in Harstad, northern Norway, an area of great significance for the contemporaneous early Christianisation process and struggle between regional chieftains and the new Norwegian kingdom.

Peer-reviewed open access conference proceedings after 2018 conference on "Advances in Sámi Archaeology". Full-text available here: http://www.sarks.fi/masf/masf_9/masf_9.html

Introduction to "Currents of Saami pasts. Recent advances in Saami archaeology". Fulltext of book available here: http://www.sarks.fi/masf/masf_9/masf_9.html

This study focuses on the contemporary use of two well-known Sámi offering sites in Alta, Finnmark, Norway. Today, these are hiking destinations and sightseeing points for both the Sámi and the non-Sámi local population, as well as a few non-local visitors. Many of these visitors leave objects at the sites, such as parts of recently slaughtered rei...

This paper presents new osteometric and stable isotope evidence of Sámi reindeer offerings. Previous archaeological studies have shown that reindeer domestication and intensification of reindeer herding transformed Sámi indigenous religion. However, because of the methodological challenges in the identification of wild and domesticated reindeer in...

What myths have the Sámi told of the medieval archaeological heritage in their surrounding landscapes, and what does that matter today? Exploring three categories of heritage sites in Sámi landscapes, this article discusses the theoretical and methodological challenges of combining myths and archaeology, and the repercussions today of a view of Sám...

Article in META - historiskarkeologisk tidskrift. Full text available here: http://www.histark.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/META-2019-Spangen.pdf Abstract: Historical archaeology in Norway – a metadebate. In 1992, the constitution and future of Norwegian medieval and historical archaeology was debated in META. The discussion concerned the definiti...

Datings of sheep and dog bone samples from a so-called ‘Sámi circular offering site’ at Bealjalgnai in Karasjok Municipality, Finnmark, Norway, show that they were deposited in the Middle Ages. They are among the earliest dated bones from such structures, and the sheep is the oldest known example from this part of inland Finnmark. Isotope analyses...

You can download the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/user-806957364/arkeologi-pa-rappen-1-3-silje-evjenth-bentsen-og-sarah-wurz-om-matlaging-for-120000-ar-siden

Archaeological evidence for ritual animal offerings is key to understanding the formation and evolution of indigenous Sámi identity in Northern Fennoscandia from the Iron Age to the seventeenth century AD. An examination of such evidence can illuminate how major changes, such as the shift from hunting to reindeer pastoralism, colonialism by emergin...

Unna Saiva is a Sámi offering site situated in Gällivare in Northern Sweden. The site was excavated in the early 20th century. It yielded a large number of finds, including objects of silver, pewter and other metals, coins, and animal bones. The metal objects and coins date mainly to the late 10th century and 11th century AD, whereas the animal bon...

Sami are indigenous people of Northern Fennoscandia. Some Sami offering sites have been used for over a thousand years. During this time, the offering traditions have changed and various people have started using the places based on different motivations. Present day archaeological finds give evidence of both continuing traditions and new meanings...

This article explores the history of the archaeological category Sámi circular offering sites, which refers to certain dry wall structures in Finnmark and Troms in northern Norway. In recent years the term has been used more frequently outside this geographical area too, at times to refer to structures vastly different from those originally labelle...

Edelmetalldepotene i Nord-Norge fra vikingtid og tidlig middelalder (eller sølvskattene, som de ofte kalles) blir her analysert utfra innhold, sammensetning og plassering i landskapet. Det konkluderes med at flere av de 28 nordnorske funnene som er inkludert i undersøkelsen bør dateres til tidlig middelalder fordi de inneholder østlige gjenstander...