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Forest Peasants, Outland Commodity Production and Trade. Old and New Research on Innovation, Profit, Risk, Vulnerability, Resilience and (Elite) Communalism.

Authors:
Archaeology and History of Peasantries 2
Themes, Approaches and Debates
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo (ed.)
Con textos de Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado, Carlos Tejerizo García, Idoia Grau Sologestoa,
Begoña Hernández Beloqui, Francesc Burjachs, Francisco Javier Sanz García,
Gregorio José Marcos Contreras, María José Iriarte Chiapusso, Miguel Ángel Martín Carbajo, Jesús Carlos
Misiego Tejeda
INDEX
Resumen, Laburpena, Abstract, Riassunto, Resumé ............................................. 9
About the authors........................................................................... 11
List of figures............................................................................... 13
List of tables................................................................................ 17
Preface
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo (UPV/EHU).................................................. 19
1. Peasant Studies from a Historical and Archaeological Perspective: Theories, Methods and
Themes
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo (UPV/EHU).................................................. 21
Peasant societies
2. Sobre campesinado, derechos de propiedad y comunales (algunos apuntes sobre conceptos en
uso)
José-Miguel Lana Berasain (Public University of Navarre).................................... 41
3. Community inspirations. Rural cultures for modernity
Jesús Izquierdo Martín (Autonomous University of Madrid).................................. 59
4. La storia è a corto di notizie
Giovanni Levi (Università di Ca’Foscari, Venezia) ........................................... 71
5. Beyond the written word: medieval agriculture through the study of archaeological seeds and
fruits
João Pedro Tereso (University of Porto and University of Lisbon).............................. 77
Encompassing societies and peasantries
6. Peasant economies in Northwestern Iberia: from Iron Age egalitarianism to Roman imperial
dominion
Inés Sastre, Brais X. Currás and Damián Romero (Spanish National Research Council) . . . . . . . . . . 95
8 INDEX
7. Making communities visible at the end of the 11
th
century: religious houses as organizational
technology
Esther Pascua Echegaray (Madrid Open University) ......................................... 113
8. Acerca de un campesinado remoto. Estructuras y agencias en el mundo rural andalusí del sur de
Aragón (siglos .H/.dC.-.H/.dC.)
Julián M. Ortega (University of Zaragoza).................................................. 129
Peasant societies in the longue durée
9. The moral economy of the peasant household in early medieval England and Provence
Rosamond Faith ........................................................................ 157
10. Between resilience and resistance: towards an archaeology of peasant societies through the long
duration
Carlos Tejerizo García (University of the Basque Country) ................................... 167
11. Forest Peasants, Outland Commodity Production and Trade. Old and New Research on
Innovation, Profit, Risk, Vulnerability, Resilience and (Elite) Communalism
Eva Svensson (Karlstad University) ........................................................ 191
12. El pasado de un problema actual. La gestión de los pastos comunales en la Edad Media en la
Cordillera Cantábrica
Margarita Fernández Mier (University of Oviedo) .......................................... 209
Criterios de evaluación y normas de publicación de la serie «Documentos de Arqueología Medieval» .... 237
Títulos publicados .......................................................................... 241
ABSTRACT1
Boreal inland Scandinavia is today a sparsely po-
pulated, and in many aspects marginalised, area. But
interdisciplinary investigations into the past has cha-
llenged the picture of marginality. Especially archaeo-
logy and palaeobotany have showed that the forest
peasants used the many resources of the forested out-
lands for establishing innovative solutions for agrarian
practices, for a versatile economy, and for producing
commodities for a market. During the first centuries
AD the Scandinavian inlands saw a resource colonisa-
tion, including hunt for luxury products such as furs.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, large scale commodity pro-
duction of everyday goods, such as bloomery iron,
took off in many areas.
The market conditions deteriorated for outland
based commodity products starting in the 13th cen-
tury. An increased royal and elite control of market-
places and trade, together with competition from new
products developed due to new technologies, lay be-
hind the downturn. The collapse of commodity pro-
duction and trade required a reorganisation of the
local economies, which were geared more towards a
higher degree of agrarian self-subsistence, especially
cattle breeding. However, for some regions in inland
Scandinavia, trade opportunities survived and were
continuously used by the forest peasants and no reor-
ganisation was required.
The late medieval crisis from the 14th century had
regionally different impact. Communities having re-
organised after the collapse of the trade networks
appear to have been more resilient, and little impact
of the late medieval agrarian crisis is detectable. In
the region of Jämtland there was a large scale deser-
tion of rural settlements, which were kept deserted
as the landowning peasants shared the land in bet-
ween them in order to control the resources, and to
1
Risk- and environmental studies, Department of Po li-
tical, Historical, Religious and Cultural Studies. Karlstad Uni-
versity.
increase cattle breeding. In the late middle ages and
early modern times, livestock became a new commo-
dity when the forest peasants traded cattle to the Mi-
ning Districts.
KEYWORDS: Forest Peasants, Outland use, Commo-
dities, Trade networks, Cooperatives.
1. INTRODUCTION
Results do not always align with preconceived
assumptions. Sometimes unexpected results are
simply a source of agony to a researcher trying to
tie together a narrative. In other occasions, unex-
pected results may be the start for discoveries
of new phenomena, and occasionally even for
introducing a new comprehensive narrative of the
past. But, the first encounters with unexpected
re sults, especially when they come in plural,
most often cause bewilderment. For instance,
how to interpret a series of pollendiagrams of
outland agricultural units, such as shielings
(that is sites in the outlands seasonally used for
gra zing, haymaking and often also cereal cul-
tivation) and meadows on mires, unanimously
dis playing an increase of agrarian activities in
the 14
th
and 15
th
centuries (fig. 11.1). That
is, an increase in agrarian activities during the
late medieval agrarian crisis, when agrarian ac-
tivities are supposed to decrease. It may seem es-
pecially weird in so called marginal areas such as
the boreal inland Scandinavia from where these
pollendiagram originate (EMANUELSSON et alii
2003; SVENSSON 1998).
11
Forest Peasants, Outland Commodity Production and Trade.
Old and New Research on Innovation, Profit, Risk,
Vulnerability, Resilience and (Elite) Communalism
E S1
192 EVA SVENSSON
Figure 11.1. Pollendiagram from the shieling Backasätern. Diagram by Marie Emanuelsson. After EMANUELSSON et alii 2003: 111.
However, when putting the seemingly up side
down results from these pollenanalyses in their
context, they make perfect sense. The pollen-
diagrams mirror the work and strategies pur-
sued at the shielings and at the mires used as
meadows, but these were only a few of the nu-
merous activities conducted by the forest
peasants. The forested uplands of inner Scan di-
navia, often depicted as marginal areas or pe ri-
pheries, contained numerous resources that could
be transformed into commodities, as shall be
described below.
We shall come back to the context and the
meaning of the “upside down” pollendiagrams, as
the purpose of this paper is to discuss the history,
and entanglement, of the resource utilisation
and the organisation of local communities and
local economies in the boreal forest areas of inner
Scandinavia from a historical ecological landscape
perspective. Special focus will be on the forest
peasants’ strategies, and their management or
mitigation of challenges they encountered. The
paper will summarise old and new research and
cover a long period, from the first centuries AD to
the late middle ages / early modern times.
Before going into the history of the inner
Scandinavia, a brief description of the theoretical
and methodological approaches will be given,
and the main actors in this narrative; the forest
peasants as we meet them in historical records,
will be introduced.
2. THE INTERDISCIPLINARY LANDSCAPE
AND HISTORICAL ECOLOGY APPROACH
There is a long tradition of survey of ancient
monuments in Sweden, actually going back to
the 17
th
century when Sweden needed a glorious
past to match the successes on the battlefields in
Europe. Systematic surveys, however, have been
conducted since the middle of the 20
th
century
in different forms and by different actors,
although the main surveys have been carried out
by the Swedish National Heritage Board. The
same authority is also responsible for the (nowa-
days digital) register of ancient monuments
(FORNSÖK). In spite of almost a century of
surveys for ancient monuments, Sweden is far
from fully surveyed. Large areas in the Northern,
alpine regions have never been surveyed, and
other areas are more hap hazardously surveyed.
This is especially the case with many forested
areas.
Still, the Swedish register for ancient mo-
numents is quite remarkable, and it is constantly
used for research projects. Also, the survey for
ancient monuments fostered archaeological
researchers, the author of this paper being one
of them, providing a ‘school’ for reading various
forms of landscapes. The landscape approach
became more evident especially in the late 1980s
and 1990s, not only in survey practice but also
in research using the register for ancient mo-
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 193
numents. Previously, it was common to focus on
spe cific categories of remains separately, such
as burial mounds, bloomery iron production
sites and pitfalls for elk. With the landscape as
framework different types of ancient monuments
can rather be seen as somehow entangled, not
only with one another but also with the natural
topographic conditions and the responses of na-
ture to human impact and also traditions, per-
ceptions, memories and ideologies. Together,
these vestiges make up the so called biocultural
heritage, which signify an integrated analysis of
the archaeological record and entangled socio-
ecological processes of landscape domestication
and human-nature niche-construction in line with
historical ecological thinking. Different entities in
the landscape interact, or condition each other,
even if they are not contemporary, eg. as memories
and resources (CRUMLEY 2017; CRUMLEY et alii
2018; ERIKSSON 2018; ERIKSSON and ARNELL
2017; WIDGREN 2012). It is in such a context the
above mentioned pollendiagrams make sense.
Figure 11.2. Approximate extension of boreal, inland Scandinavia referred to in this paper. Map:
Google earth. Addition: Eva Svensson.
194 EVA SVENSSON
Inland Scandinavia is characterised by boreal
forest covering a hilly topography with numerous
mires, lakes, streams and rivers. There are also
minor areas with sediment soils, mainly in
connection with larger lakes and rivers (and their
previous shores as there has been land uplift in
some cases), where most of the known prehistoric
and medieval agrarian settlements, fields and
meadows were located. Natural conditions,
changing natural conditions and nature’s res pon-
ses to human impact are key factors in biocul tu ral
heritage. They are even more key to understanding
the historical development of boreal inland
Scandinavia, due to the importance of natural
resources and conditions as both facilitators and
as limitations, eg. for agriculture, in the cons-
truction of the over time changing socio-eco-
logical niches. It is also important to take into
account that living in boreal forested and upland
areas meant exploring the fringes of agricultural
possibilities, and that could be a risky business at
the same time as the forest opened up possibilities.
Balancing in between risks and possibilities
required adaptability, and adaptability is often a
characteristic of a resilient society whereas low
degree of adaptability could be a cause to vul-
nerability. In an historical / archaeological context
resilience has been framed as the capacity of a
system to absorb disturbances (and risks) while
maintaining essential structures and without
losing identity. Vulnerability is about the capacity
to be wounded, and can be understood as function
of the exposure and sensitivity of system to risks
and hazards, in relation to the capacity to adapt,
cope and recover from the effects of the risks and
hazards (NELSON et alii, 2012).
The environment, especially the impact
of climate change, have lately been given more
explanatory value for societal processes, also in
historical societies. Especially the mid 6
th
and the
14
th
centuries are pointed out as periods when
a colder climate was a real game changer to the
historical development (eg. BAUCH et alii 2019;
CAMPBELL 2016; CHARPENTIER LJUNGQVIST
2017; GRÄSLUND and PRICE 2012; LAGERÅS
2016; SOLHEIM and IVERSEN 2019). In areas
such boreal inland Scandinavia, a fringe area for
agriculture, a colder climate could mean disaster
and require substantial adaptations of the local
communities.
Studying the whole span of biocultural heritage
requires cooperation of different academic
disciplines. Archaeology alone cannot produce
narratives of historical processes in the landscape,
and especially working in forested landscapes
where natural conditions may be more prominent
in the socio-ecological processes, interdisciplinary
and multisource methods are desirable or even
required for some studies. Combining arc-
haeological information on ancient monuments,
his torical geographical retrospect interpretations
of historical maps from the 17
th
century an
onwards, testimonies from written documents,
ethno graphic information and vegetation historical
studies such as pollen analysis, dendrochronology
and macrofossils performed by paleobotanists, has
become a common way of working. This is also
the approach used for many of the studies behind
the data used for this paper (eg. EMANUELSSON
2001; EMANUELSSON et alii 2003).
3. INTRODUCING THE FOREST PEASANTS
When we meet the forest peasants in written
documents, in more detail as late as in the 17
th
and 18
th
centuries AD, their economy and way of
life is characterised by versatility, flexibility and
seasonality. Agriculture with cereal cultivation
and cattle breeding provided a basis for the
economy, with the different activities spread over
large areas and conducted on seasonal basis due
to suitable land being sparse and often geo gra-
phically fragmented. Beside agriculture, a number
of auxiliary crafts were conducted, such as tar
production, iron production, hunting, timber
felling, smithing, holding bee hives and bark
extraction (eg. LILJEWALL 1996; MAGNUSSON
1986; fig. 11.3). The point being that auxiliary
crafts were carried out in order to compensate for
not good enough conditions for cereal cultivation,
as a kind of second rate economy. Something that
peasants had to do when settling on second rate
land. Even if it was clear that good income was
made.
When the forest farmers are described in these
early modern records, the process of societal and
cultural marginalisation have already started,
although marginalisation becomes evident in the
late 19
th
century, when this way of life comes in
conflict with rational agriculture and forestry. For
instance, grazing cattle in the forest is seen as a
danger both to rational forestry, as livestock ate
on the trees and trampled the ground, and cattle
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 195
breeding, as cattle might mate at will without
considering pedigree when roaming around in
the forest (BJÖRKBOM 1907; HELLSTRÖM
1917:544). Later, research has attributed the forest
peasants a number of virtues, that make them
stand out as different, such as having more equal
communities were also women enjoyed a greater
freedom (albeit not always considered a virtue).
Also, the emphasis on communalism, working
together and organising complex tasks through
cooperative modes of production, especially
concerning shielings, has been forwarded as a pro-
minent characteristic (JOHANSSON 1994 with
references; JOHANSSON 2002; LARSSON 2009
with references).
The picture of the old-fashioned, but equal,
forest peasants have been contested and supple-
mented in different ways. For instance, the
ethnologist Ella Johansson has pointed out that
the landowning forest peasants communicated
egality, within a more segregated society with
many landless people, as a mean for keeping a
‘community moral’, a social order for keeping the
work-cooperatives running smoothly, and the
agrarian historian Jesper Larsson has showed that
shielings was a rational way of keeping livestock
and running dairy production (JOHANSSON
1994:20-22; LARSSON 2009). Others have nuanced
the picture by showing that auxiliary production
could be of considerable volume and importance,
Figure 11.3. The forest peasant’s year in Offerdal parish, region of Jämtland in boreal inland Scandinavia during
the mid-eighteenth century. After SVENSSON 2008, fig. 3 based on MAGNUSSON 1986:283. Translated by Alan
Crozier.
196 EVA SVENSSON
and that industry with auxiliary trades, such as
charcoal burning, from the early modern iron mills
to modern industries, and forestry as provider of
work places or as additional sources of income was
substantial (eg. JANSSON 1998; KALDAL et alii
2000; LILJEWALL 1996; NILSSON 2010).
But, if we go back in time, and examine the
development of the economies and lifestyles in
boreal, inland Scandinavia, a somewhat different
picture of the role of the resources of the forest
emerges.
4. RESOURCE COLONISATION AND
SETTLEMENT INNOVATION
The upland, forested areas of inland Scan dinavia
was for a long time perceived as land people moved
to when all the better land was taken, and that this
was a process taking place mainly in the middle
ages (after AD 1000) and later. The large number
of ancient monuments registered through different
surveys and dated to pre AD 1000, mostly sites
witnessing of resource extraction such as bloomery
iron production, pitfall hunting, tar production and
quarrying were often studied separately, attributed
to dif fe rent groups of users and put into different
societal contexts. However, through excavations,
especially of settlement sites, surveys and studies
of artefactmaterial during the last three or four
decades, outland use has been linked with the
forest peasants (eg. ANDERSSON and SVENSSON
2002; EMANUELSSON et alii 2003; HANSSON
et alii 2005; LAGERSTEDT 2004).
Archaeology and paleobotany have clearly proven
that settlements of agrarian character, in a variety
of the field and meadows-system practised in the
plains areas, were introduced in the upland boreal
forest areas of inner Scandinavia at least in the first
centuries AD. That is, somewhat later then in the
plains areas. It appears to have been a combination
of indigenous switch to a new system, seen for
instance in a continuous use of pitfalls for elk,
and of colonisation with a new settlement system
(EMANUNUELSSON 2001; HENNIUS 2020). The
development of settlement expansion in the boreal
inlands, at least initially, follows a general trend of
expansion in Sweden and Norway ending with a mid
6
th
century crisis. Thus, a somewhat different trend
from several other regions in northern, western and
southern Europe where a post Roman population
decline has been detected (GRÄSLUND and PRICE
2012; SOLHEIM and IVERSEN 2019; VAN LANEN
and GROENEWOUDT 2019).
Figure 11.4. Drawing of the organisation principle for an out-
land using farmstead in boreal inland Scandinavia. Distances
between the farmstead and the sites in the outland could be up
to 10 kilometers of more. After SVENSSON 1998, front page.
Drawing: Mikael Vendel, © Eva Svensson.
The expansion process in the boreal inlands
of Scandinavia involved the need to adapt to less
good agrarian conditions. Therefore, some features
were invented enabling colonisation, and settlement
expansion was implemented with the help of
an innovation package including the com ponents
farmstead, shieling and outland use (fig. 11.4). Shielings
were a mean for expanding the scarce agrarian land
by using sites in the outland. Livestock was taken
to the shielings for grazing in summer-times, there
were also meadows for haymaking and often small
fields cereal cultivation. There could also be fields for
cereal cultivation and meadows in the outland where
there were no shielings, so called agrarian outland
use. The non-agrarian outland use involved hunting,
bloomery iron production, tar production quarrying
and similar activities but with regional differences
(EMANUNUELSSON 2001; INDRELID et alii 2015;
SVENSSON 1998; SVENSSON 2015). However,
ongoing investigations, together with re-evaluation
of previous research, indicate that the system could,
at least sometimes, have included also an “extra”
farmstead in the outland.
2
2
Ongoing research within the project UTMA, see
Acknowledgement.
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 197
Establishing agrarian settlements in the boreal
inland Scandinavia was thus not an easy thing,
demanding innovation and —to achieve that—
investments of different kinds. It therefore not li-
kely that the colonisation process was driven by
vulnerable, landless people looking for second rate
land when all better land was taken, even if such
groups of people might have been included.
From new results of artefact material in elite
and well to do burials in the champion plains
areas, another explanation for the colonisation
process can be put forward. Namely, that it was
a resource colonisation (HENNIUS 2021). People
did not primarily venture into the boreal inlands
looking for new land to cultivate. They went there
to ex ploit different natural resources. Bears and
lynxes, their furs, appear to have been a desired
re source to the early colonisers, as such furs was
a commodity in high demand by the Scandinavian
elite, followed by a well off “middle class”, judging
by the remains of bear and lynx furs, phalanxes,
in burials in champion plain areas from c. AD 300
and onwards. Hoards of Roman coins and graves
for bears found in inland, boreal Scandinavia
indicate both the importance of the bear, and that
the commodity trade was profitable (LINDHOLM
and LJUNGKVIST 2016; ZACHRISSON and
KRZEWIŃSKA 2019).
The resource colonisation included also
production of more commonly used goods, not
only luxury products such as furs. There is a rise
in bloomery iron production and pitfall hunting in
the Jämtland – Tröndelag area of middle Sweden
and Norway in the first four or five centuries AD
(HENNIUS 2020; MAGNUSSON 1986; STENVIK
2015). From the available data, this area in the
northern part of the boreal inland Scandinavia
discussed in this paper (fig. 11.2) stands out as
the initial core area, a socio-ecological niche, for
resource colonisation and commodity production
in the four to five first centuries AD.
The resource colonisation of boreal inland
Scandinavia can be compared with later Scan-
dinavian ventures, such as the colonisation of
Greenland, where the hunt of walrus and trade
in lucrative walrustusks was a major pull factor.
But, whereas the Scandinavian colonisation in
Greenland came to an end due to external factors
and internal inabilities, the colonisated areas in
boreal inland Scandinavia survived. The socio-
ecological niche constructed by the Scandinavians
in Greenland turned out to be highly vulnerable
to external pressures such as changed demand
in walrustusks and the onset of a colder climate
in the 14
th
century. In spite of some adaptations,
there was an inability to profoundly reform, the
socio-ecological niche dominated by a Scan di-
navian lifestyle and too many chieftains (FREI
et alii 2015; JACKSON et alii 2018). Probably the
absence of elite environments, and a higher degree
of versatility with several different economic
activities made the communities in boreal inland
Scandinavia more resilient during the 6
th
century
crisis.
Figure 11.5. Reconstructed pitfall for elk. Photo: Eva
S vensson.
5. LARGE SCALE COMMODITY
PRODUCTION AND TRADE NETWORKS
Around AD 650, there is a strong downturn
in burials with bear furs, and a hundred years
later also the number of burials with lynx furs’
198 EVA SVENSSON
drop, indicating a major shift in trade with these
furs (LINDHOLM and LJUNGKVIST 2016:11;
ZACHRISSON and KRZEWIŃSKA 2019:105). At
the same time there is a considerable raise in many
“new” areas, apart from the above mentioned core
area, in production of more mundane, everyday
commodities in the forested outlands such as
bloomery iron, whetstones, soapstone products
and tar. With activities such as bloomery iron
and tar production, the upscaling also included
a physical transfer from production at the settle-
ment sites, or settlement close sites, to the
extraction sites of raw materials in the forested
outlands. In the Norwegian mountains hunting
stations and constructions for masstrapping of
reindeer and antler extraction were established.
It should be emphasised that we are here tal-
king about considerable production volumes,
sometimes reaching almost industrial scale, and
that production was definitively aimed for sale and
even export (eg. BAUG 2013; BAUG et alii 2019;
CARELLI and KRESTEN 1997; HANSEN and
STOREMYR 2017; HENNIUS 2018; HENNIUS
2020; INDRELID et alii 2015; MAGNUSSON
1986; MIKKELSEN 1994; RUNDBERGET 2017;
STENE 2014; SVENSSON 1998).
It is not only the production volumes that
grows, there are also an increasing number of
production areas. Based on datings of pitfalls
for elk and bloomery iron production sites, it
appears that different regions have somewhat in
time shifting production peaks (HENNIUS 2020;
MAGNUSSON 1986; fig. 11.6). Whether these
alternately production peaks were the results of
changing production capacities such as decreased
availability of elks and ore, or if it was question of
changing demand or crude competition between
producers remains to be investigated.
Figure 11.6. Compilation of carbon dated bloomery sites from various parts of Sweden. After SVENSSON 1998, Fig. 37, based on
MAGNUSSON 1986:226, with addition of the Värmland-curve.
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 199
There are some fairly recent studies on trade
and trade networks on different levels, and thanks
to new methods of establishing provenience for
some materials it has been possible to trace links
between production sites and urban centers.
Already in the 8
th
century, urban centers, eg.
Ribe in Denmark, was the recipient of outland
goods such as antler and whetstones. The ur-
ban connection for commodities continued
also in the Viking and Early Middle Ages with
growing quantities of commodities, traded raw
materials and ambulating craftsmen. Shipwrecks
with cargos of whetstones and millstones from
Norwegian quarries as well as finds of the sto-
neproducts outside Norway show that also some
of the mundane commodities were subject to
international trade. But before reaching the urban
centres the traded goods passed through local and
regional market places. Investigations in southern
Norway have shown the existence of a broad range
of marketplaces, from seasonal marketplaces in
mountainous regions to more established mar-
ketplaces with an urban character in inner fjord
regions besides the medieval towns (ASHBY et alii
2015; BAUG 2013; CARELLI and KRESTEN
1997; GLØRSTAD and LOFTSGARDEN 2017;
HANSEN and STOREMYR 2017; HANSEN et alii
2015; LOFTSGARDEN 2017; MYRVOLL 1985;
ROSVOLD et alii 2019).
Large scale production of outland based
commodities required adaption of the involved
households, and a focus on the production in
question. That is, quite different from the early
modern forest peasants pursuit of auxiliary crafts
as a supplement to agrarian production. In the
hamlet of Backa, Dalby, in northern Värmland,
large scale production of bloomery iron and elk
products including hides, included draw down of
agrarian production, cereal cultivation and cattle
breeding, and gearing all available hands in the
household, men and women, to the profitable
commodity production. The shieling belonging to
the hamlet, Backasätern, was temporarily closed,
and fields were taken out of production to give
room for an expanding settlement. The excavation
of a farmstead in the hamlet, Skinnerud,
showed that handicraft focused on smithing
and leatherwork. Even textile work, otherwise
always present when investigating medieval ru-
ral settlements in the area, was lacking. The
excavations also showed that the peasants were
consuming imported goods such as bronze items
and glass beads, indicating not only that they
were part of a trade network but also that they
were affluent enough for such consumption. Most
likely, they also needed to buy grain, and maybe
also livestock, having cut down on their own food
production (EMANUELSSON et alii 2003).
The peasants not only acquired wealth and
imported goods through the trade networks. They
also gained knowledge of the outside world, and
encountered new ideas and standards. Some of
these were also brought home. Urban influence on
vernacular housing was visible eg. in the excavated
13
th
and early 14
th
century hamlet of Skramle
where the peasants had adopted smoke ovens of
an urban model. The peasants in Skramle had
also acquired dress accessories equivalent to the
fashion of the nobility at the time (ANDERSSON
and SVENSSON 2002; SVENSSON 2008; fig. 11.7).
Figure 11.7. A (fake) ‘heraldic’ mount, found during the exca-
vation of the medieval forest hamlet of Skramle. Photo: Bengt
Holter. After SVENSSON 2008, Fig. 45.
Through an intensive use of the outland
resources for commodity production, including
reducing self-subsistence, the forest peasants
became wealthy. But the strong dependence of a
market also meant exposing the local community
to a higher degree of risks.
200 EVA SVENSSON
6. THE CRISIS BEFORE THE CRISIS
Dressing up in fashion, including the use of
a (fake) heraldic mount in the 13
th
century
(fig. 11.7), was not only an imitation game. It
should rather be seen as a way to compete with
the upcoming nobility. The preceding periods,
the Viking Age and the Early Middle Ages, c. 800-
1250 AD, saw an increasing social hierarchisation
with growing royal, ecclesiastical and aristocratic
powers culminating with institutionalisation of the
(in Sweden) four estates; the clergy, the nobility,
the bourgeoisie and the peasants, although it was
mainly the two first estates that were defined in
the 13
th
century (LINDKVIST and ÅGREN 1985).
This societal development rivalled the claims of
self-organisation and status of the landed peasants
of inland Scandinavia. Not least, the royal demand
for increased control of trade posed a threat to the
forest agrarian peasants relying on commodity
production and trade for their wealth and status.
Not only the increased social hierarchy and
growing royal claims on trade, but also tech-
no logical innovations created new competitors
changing the conditions for the market for
outland based commodity production. Especially,
the invention of blast furnaces and developed
mining technology taking place at the latest in the
12
th
century in the Swedish Mining District, and
the switch from using antler from elk, reindeer
etc. to butcher debris animal bones in the comb
maker shops had significant impact. The Swedish
Mining District launched a production of large
quantities of high quality pig iron against which
bloomery iron production could not compete,
at the same time as the demand for antler was
reduced (MIKKELSEN 1994; KARLSSON 2016;
PETTERSSON JENSEN 2012; VRETEMARK
1997). A crisis for outland based commodity
production was a fact, but it differed regionally in
both impact and velocity.
According to the regionally alternating
production peaks of bloomery iron (Fig. 11.6),
it was the regions closest to the Swedish Mi-
ning District that took the hardest turn, with
abrupt downturns before AD 1200, when they
hit the bottom. Bloomery iron production in
southern-central Norway (not represented in fi-
gure 11.6) carried on some hundred years more
(LOFSGARDEN 2017; RUNDBERGET 2017). Pro-
duction in the regions of Jämtland and Småland
(fig. 11.6), situated far from the Mining District
actually saw an increased production during the
late middle ages, as they were targeting markets
in Norway and Denmark that probably not had
access enough to pig iron (MAGNUSSON 1986).
Also, the datings of pitfalls for elks and rein-
deer and the masstrapping constructions in the
Norwegian mountains show a successive, and
regionally somewhat shifting, downturn during
the 13
th
century. At the same time, a bit later
in some places eastern Sweden, the urban
combmakers switch to using animal bones, but-
cher debris, in their workshops (HENNIUS 2020;
KARLSSON 2016; LOFTSGARDEN 2017: 195-
203; MIKKELSEN 1994; VRETEMARK 1997).
It can be discussed if the switch in raw material
was a choice of the urban craftsmen and the
consumers of their products, or if the efficient
trapping devices, such as pitfalls, had reduced the
number of game to critical levels. If so, it was not
the lack of demand, but rather problems on the
production side causing the downturn of hunting.
It should also be pointed out that there were
exceptions to the trend. In eastern Norway, the
farmstead Rødsetra was established in the forested
mountains, together with a newly constructed
pitfall system for catching elk as a main resource
for the carrying capacity of the farmstead (STENE
2014).
Concerning quarried products, such as
whetstones and quernstones, there is no corres-
ponding downturn in the 13
th
century, although
there seems to be ups and downs for the individual
quarries. The use of soapstone artefacts seems to
vane somewhat during later medieval times, but
soapstone was quarried also for building material.
Also, several quarries appear to be under control
by the elite at the time (BAUG 2013; CARELLI
and KRESTEN 1997; HANSEN and STOREMYR
2017).
7. AND REORGANISATION OF LOCAL
COMMUNITIES AND ECONOMY
We shall now return to the pollendiagrams
presented initially in this paper. The increase in
agrarian outland use in the 14
th
and 15
th
centuries
displayed in the pollendiagrams was a response to
the lost markets for the commodities previously
produced in the outlands, a mean to become more
self supportive in food production when there was
less income for buying grain (EMANUELSSON
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 201
et alii 2003; SVENSSON 1998; fig. 1). However,
increasing agrarian food production was not
the only achievement to counter the effects of
the market downturn. Rather, this was part of a
comprehensive reorganisation package, including
improving technology and work organisation. At
least this was the case in the local community of
Dalby in northern Värmland, Sweden, where the
process have been studied in some detail.
In the 14
th
century, there is a slight increase
in iron production. The raise was based on the
introduction of new modes of organisation and
improved technology. At the iron production sites
new, more stable and probably larger furnaces,
seemingly borrowing elements from the blast
furnaces, were constructed (fig. 11.8). The work
of cleaning the bloom, previously performed at
the different farmsteads, was now conducted at
the iron production site, which saved both labour
and transport. The production of the charcoal for
the iron production was also reformed, probably
by introducing charcoal stacks similar to the blast
furnace technology.
3
Another novelty was the
introduction of a water-powered smithy, which
appear to have operated on a communal level.
This in contrast to the previous period when
the smithing was carried out in smithies at the
individual farmsteads or hamlets. Thus, the
previous mode of production, in place during the
large scale commodity-production phase, was
replaced by a work organisation with cooperative
elements (SVENSSON 1998).
The new organisatorial forms based on in-
creased cooperation is also visible in the pitfall
hunting systems of this time. Pitfall hunting had
been practised in the area since the late Neolitic
more sporadically. Interestingly, pitfalls dated to
3
There has been no systematic survey for charcoal stacks
in the area, therefore the use of charcoal stacks is a qualified
guess based on the recording of a few sites and on the absence
of charcoal pits, which was the common construction for
charcoal production in the previous mode of bloomery iron
production.
Figure 11.8. Bloomery furnace from the 14th century. Photo: Eva Svensson.
202 EVA SVENSSON
periods before the commodity production phase,
in Dalby starting in the Viking Age (c. 800 AD),
were elements in pitfall systems which seem to
have been run in a cooperative manner involving
several farmsteads and hamlets. When the intense
pitfall hunting took off in the 9th century AD,
single or groups of pitfalls became standard, in-
dicating an individualisation of pitfall hunting
with farmsteads or hamlets as the organisatorial
unit, in line with the contemporary bloomery
iron production. Pitfalls constructed in the later
middle ages and early modern times are again for-
ming elements in long systems of pitfalls for elk
involving cooperation of several farmsteads and
hamlets (Svensson 1998).
Although the above described process has
been studied for one local community, it is likely
that similar processes went on also in other
areas of boreal inland Scandinavia, affected by
the downturn of the trade networks. Work coo-
peratives was a prominent quality of the forest
peasant’ local communities in early modern times,
not least concerning the running of the shielings
(LARSSON 2009). Most likely this was also the
case when the use of shielings increased in the
14
th
and 15
th
centuries. A qualified guess is that
the formation of the forest peasant identity, as
we know it from early modern times, started to
develop on the ruins of the collapsed market for
outland produced commodities.
In spite of the efforts, the forest peasants
failed in reclaiming the market. Instead agrarian
production, especially cattle breeding, came to
do minate the local economy. Bloomery iron
pro duction, hunting, tar production etc. were
reduced to auxiliary livelihoods. Parallel to the
new economic order, communalism evolved as the
dominating discourse of social organisation.
The reorganisation of the local community and
the local economy, by increasing communality
and cooperation and bringing forward other
‘legs’ in the versatile economy, in the wake of
the market crisis, shows that local community
possessed a high degree of adaptability and
resilience in re lation to severe external pressure.
This can be com pared to the above discussed
example of Green land, where the Scandinavian
society proved to be highly vulnerable to external
factors, and not adaptable enough as social
factors, such as the strong hierarchy with too
many chieftains, prevented necessary changes
(JACKSON 2018).
8. CRISIS COMMUNALISM AND THE LATE
MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN CRISIS
Through the work of the Nobel laureate Ellinor
Ostrom (eg. 1990), commons and communality
became tools not only for analysing governance of
common pool resources in our time, but also for
studying historical organisation of land use, for
instance shielings in Sweden (LARSSON 2009).
But communalism should not be mistaken for
egality. There is a widespread romantic attitude
towards concepts such as communalism, especially
as a critique of the current neoliberal discourse
dominating much of the western world. Commons
and communalism breathes egality, fellowship,
mutual understanding and working together for a
common goal.
However, inclusion —as membership in a
collective— also means exclusion as everyone
can not join the fellowship. A survey of the use
of commons across Europe for the later middle
ages and early modern times showed that
mainly landowners, affluent peasants and the
elite, had access to the commons and the use of
the resources of the commons. As the rights to
commons often was proportionate to landholding,
non-proprietors were often prohibited or had
limited rights to use the commons. Studies of
current participatory development projects have
also shows that hierarchies are played out under
the cover of cooperation, and that dissensus is
concealed to promote consensus, so called fe-
tischi sation of consensus. It has also been pointed
out that communication of egality was a mode
used by the forest peasants to handle social
relations within their local communities, and there
are archaeological examples showing hierarchy
and dependency also within the communities of
the forest peasants (CURTIS 2016; JOHANSSON
1994:20-22; KAPOOR 2005; LAGERSTEDT 2004).
Still, the communities of forest peasants were
socially relatively flat in comparison within the
feudal world, and there is an absence of feudal
elites in boreal inland Scandinavia. Historical
research shown that strong and more egalitarian
communities tended to be more resilient and more
successful in mitigating and managing risks and
external pressures (CURTIS 2014; DE KEYZER
2016). And strength was needed as really bad times
came with the 14
th
century, and the crisis package
labelled the Late medieval agrarian crisis. The
Black Death, hitting Europe in the middle of the
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 203
14
th
, was a disaster killing a large proportion of the
population. The pestilence featured in a package
of social, environmental, health and technological
hazards and restraining processes. Apart from the
Black Death climate change with colder weather,
floods and erosion, overpopulation, imbalance
between cereal cultivation and cattle breeding
and use of marginal soils for agriculture with
inadequate agrarian technology, feudal pressure,
war, cattle panzooti, bad harvests and famine
featured in the late medieval agrarian crisis. When
dealing with upland areas, as in this paper, the
effects of climate change and other environmental
problems due to the extensive use of natural
resources can be presumed to have been of special
importance (CAMPBELL 2016; CHARPENTIER
LJUNQVIST 2017; LAGERÅS 2016).
The forest peasants in inland Scandinavia appear
to have mitigated, or have had different possibilities
to manage, the crisis in different ways, with different
outcome visible in the ar chaeological record. A
crisis of the magnitude of Late medieval agrarian
crisis ought to have resulted in considerable
settlement desertion, but the archaeological record
—with some noteworthy exceptions— provides
little evidence for such a process. For instance, not
a single deserted settle ment attributable to the 14
th
or 15
th
centuries has been identified in the above
presented local community of Dalby. If there were
deserted settle ments, they were probably quickly
resettled or taken into use in other ways.
There are a few deserted medieval settlements
in the local communities a bit south of Dalby.
Many of these were deserted, and kept deserted,
due to coming under the ownership of the local
vicarage estates. As the Catholic Church, in the
shape of the local vicars, was the only feudal
representative in these areas, this process has been
labelled Crisis feudalism. These local communities
had not been as heavily involved in the commodity
trade in outland products in the previous centuries
as Dalby, and thus not suffered as badly when the
trade networks collapsed. On the downside, they
had not reorganised the communities in the same
manner as the forest peasants in Dalby. Thus, the
cooperative elements were weaker, and the local
communities less resilient to feudal pressure then
then Dalby. In Dalby, the forest peasants appear
to have kept the vicar under control, not least by
moving the church to a new place occasionally
(SVENSSON 2019, see also FERNÁNDEZ et alii
2017 for ‘disaster feudalism’).
Moving some 500 kilometres north, to the
region of Jämtland in western Sweden, in me-
dieval times a part of Norway but also of the
Swedish archbishopric of Uppsala, a completely
different picture emerges. Here there are more
than 600 deserted, medieval settlements, so
called ödesböl in Swedish, documented. Many
of them are known through written documents,
as ödesböl, and identified in the landscape with
remains of housefoundations and field features
such as clearance cairns and lynchets. Some
of the ödesböl are situated close by a surviving
farmstead or hamlet, whereas others are located
in present forested outlands. The ödesböl have
been incorporated into surviving farmsteads and
hamlets, and sometimes partitioned as part of
inheritances and dowries. It appears that the
ödesböl were mainly used for grazing and as
meadows, as the cultivated fields are shrinking
with time. Some of them were even transformed
into shielings (ANTONSON 2002; ANTONSON
2004).
According to Hans Antonson, who has studied
the phenomenon, it was a deliberate strategy from
the forest peasants to keep the ödesböl deserted,
and divide them in between one another, as part
in the expansion of cattle breeding in the region
during the late middle ages. The ödesböl were
important resources both for grazing and for
haymaking on the meadows, hay being a crucial
resource as winterfodder for livestock when
stabled during the long winters. According to
Antonson, forest grazing was organised in specific
work cooperatives, and the strategy must have
been worked out as collective decision making.
But it was a decision making exclusive to members
of the work collective, that is the landowning
peasants. Non-proprietor settlement expansion
in later times was confined to other areas, and did
not involve resettling of the ödesböl (ANTONSON
2002; ANTONSON 2004).
Other researchers, especially Stig Welinder,
have added perspectives concerning the use of the
outlands to the discussion on ödelsbölen. In spite
of the numerous deserted settlements, ödesbölen,
there does not seem to have been a crisis in the
outland use. On the contrary, bloomery iron
production (fig. 11.6) and pitfall hunting in-
creases in the 14
th
and 15
th
centuries, that is con-
temporary with the large scale settlement de-
sertion. Contrary to Dalby, Jämtland had access
to markets in Norway for their outland produced
204 EVA SVENSSON
commodities, although it should be pointed out
that the commodity production was of an auxiliary
character, and not dominating the economy.
Welinder and his colleagues have pointed out
that ödesbölen tended to be without commodity
outland production and lack bloomery iron
production sites and pitfalls. Not having enough
rights to use the resources of the outland for a
establishing a mixed, versatile, economy with
auxiliary activities would have made them more
vulnerable (HANSSON et alii 2005; WELINDER
2019).
Climate change would add to the vulnerability
of farmsteads more dependable on cereal cul-
tivation, and without a safety vault of a ver-
satile economy. The colder weather and shorter
summers following the onset of the Little Age
Ice was a severe threat to agriculture in such a
northern region as Jämtland, and it probably be-
came too risky or impossible to grow cereals
in many places where this had previously been
carried out during the favourable climatic con-
ditions prevailing under the early medieval climate
optimum.
The strategy performed by the landowning
forest peasants in Jämtland can be interpreted
as an adaptation to new climatic conditions, and
as a way to keep control of agrarian land and the
resources of the outlands for auxiliary production
within their ranks. The ödesböl became an im-
portant resource for climate mitigation in the
shape of increased cattle breeding. Also, the
peasants could keep control of the outland re-
sources in a time when they expanded bloomery
iron production and pitfall hunting. But closing
the ranks not only kept out potential threats from
an external elite, it also excluded the non land-
owning people in their own local communities.
Non-proprietors were not only shut out from the
strategy and the collective decision-making, but
also from possibilities of establishing themselves
as landowners. This strategy can be considered
as a Crisis communalism, based on actions and
decisions taken within peasant co-operatives, in
contrast to Crisis feudalism, where the peasants
were subject to actions and decisions taken by
actors associated with the two feudal elite estates
the clergy and the nobility.
9. FROM THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
TO MODERN TIMES
The foundation for the forest peasants, their
communities and way of life as we know them
from early modern written sources was shaped in
the reorganisation of economy and social structure
following the two crises. Cattlebreeding, often
with the use of shielings, was a strong feature of
the agrarian profile, but also different auxillary
practices were conducted. Mixed economy, ver-
satility as safety vault and strategy, albeit with
different components, was the blueprint for
resilience in the forested Scandinavian inland.
With the coming of industry and forestry from
the 17th and 18th centuries, paid work became
a common part of the versatile economy (eg.
KALDAL et alii 2000).
Altough the reorganisation had included
a switch to stronger selfsupportive economy,
even if some areas continued trading in outland
produced commodities, the idea of producing
goods for a market lingered. The growth of the
Swedish Mining District, both geographically and
quantitatively, created new opportunities. In early
modern times the Mining Districts dominated the
Swedish economy, and formed the hub of demand
especially for grain, cattle and workforce. The
forest peasants of inland Scandinavia jumped on
the train and produced cattle as a new commodity
aimed for the Mining Districts (JANSSON 1998;
MYRDAL and SÖDERBERG 1991:481-486).
However, in the 20th century the Scandinavian
countries were transformed into well fare states
built on the industrial model. The security systems
of the wellfare states were constructed around
the presumption that the citizens held one paid
job all year around. The seasonality, versatily
and mixed economy of the Scandinavian boreal
inlands did not fit into this model, and the previous
blueprint for resilient communities instead became
a vulnerability. Today boreal inland Scandinavia
is a sparsely populated area. People, especially
young people, are moving out, social services are
deteriorating and schools are closing down. Still,
people put their hope to the forest for a sustainable
future. That there will be “something new from the
forest” (HANSEN 2000; SVENSSON 2009:554).
FOREST PEASANTS, OUTLAND COMMODITY PRODUCTION AND TRADE. OLD AND NEW RESEARCH ON INNOVATION ... 205
10. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The forest peasants in boreal inland Scan-
dinavia shaped a series of social-ecological
niches within their local communities in
between the possibilities and confinements of
natural conditions and the external world. Thus,
a great degree of potential vulnerability always
lured behind the corner. In periods of great
opportunities to gain wealth from production
for a market, they opened up to even greater risk
exposure by reducing self-supportive production.
However, there appear to have been a high de-
gree of adaptability and resilience within the
local communities in handling market collapses,
potential external pressure from the feudal elite
and impacts of climate change. This resilience
was based on the factors versatility and (elite)
communality.
With the historical development in the rear
mirror, the question arises; what happened to
resilience, adaptability, in boreal inland Scan-
dinavia in our times? Or are we just seeing another
reorganisation phase? And that the communities
of boreal inland Scandinavia will come back with
“something new from the forest”.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper was written as part of the project
UTMA, Utmanad marginalitet: Skogsbygderna
i Skandinaviens inland och världen utanför,
0-1500 e.Kr (Swedish Research Council, Dnr:
2017-01483).
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... In this thesis, the skill concept is expanded to encompass, in addition to the place of production and place of residence, the collection of raw materials in the wider landscape (i.e., the entire production cycle), such as, in the case of ancient iron and steel production, geological skills and skills in sustainable forest utilization. In the case of ancient Arctic activities, these skills were greatly shaped by climate and seasonal changes, which in 93 Hennius 2021;Svensson 2022;Eriksson 2023;Wehlin et al. 2023. 94 Recent archaeological research on the Bering Strait region and the North American Arctic applying a critical periphery perspective comparable to the Swedish neo-empirical literature -emphasizing a bottom-up view of the agency of hunter-gatherers by turning "the colonial nature of world-system theory on its head" (Janz and Conolly 2019:351) -unfortunately also downplays the local perspective in a way similar to the Swedish neoempirical literature. ...
Thesis
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Based on findings made by Norrbotten County Museum around 2010 in the vicinity of Sangis in Arctic Sweden of advanced iron and steel production in a hunter-gatherer setting dated to the pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 200-50 BC), the aim of the present thesis is twofold. First, with a focus on know-how/established process stages, it investigates the possible wider geographical distribution of such production in the Arctic European area. The analysis is based on archaeometallurgical methods applied to materials from previously conducted and new surveys/excavations. Second, the aim is also to analyze the probable social/organizational conditions for the adaptation of iron and steel production among the ancient Arctic hunter-gatherer groups. The results are of breakthrough character, revealing an extensive spatial distribution of advanced iron and steel production at more than 40 sites in present-day northernmost Finland, Sweden, and Norway more than 2000 years ago (i.e., contemporary, and even partly prior to the Romans). The geographical spread of advanced and early iron technology which emerges through the results fundamentally challenges traditional perceptions of the emergence of ferrous metallurgy, especially when societies traditionally considered as less complex/highly mobile are addressed. Hence, iron- and steel production necessitated long-term organization/balancing with other subsistence activities in the collected rhythm of activities in the strongly seasonally influenced (climate-wise) landscape of the ancient Arctic hunter-gatherer communities. In addition to advanced knowledge, the new metal-related activities required significant supplies of raw materials (including their extraction, transportation, preparation, and storage) and thus (related) manpower. Overall, the results imply we ought to significantly broaden the perspectives of the ancient Arctic hunter-gatherer communities in terms of specialization and complex organization far beyond the traditional interpretative paradigm labeling prehistoric iron technology in the European Arctic as small-scale, dependent on imports, and underdeveloped or archaic. Also, because some parts of the process, like the necessary production of charcoal, required multi-year planning, the adaptation and investment of iron technology in the rhythm of activities in the landscape logistically bound the communities to specific locations in the landscape, thus implying reduced residential mobility, i.e., a higher degree of sedentism than previously recognized for these groups. The research process forming the basis of this thesis (conducted by a small group of archaeologists, archaeometallurgists, and historians of technology) was strongly characterized by the fact the results are completely at odds with both the larger international and Arctic European literature, implying both weak support for the interpretation of our results and perceived need for pin-pointing hidden assumptions in earlier research in order to “make room” for our results. In addition, the process was characterized by the fact that it took place in (and the ancient findings were made within) a region strongly marked by ethnopolitical forces and groups striving for identity building, where history (and particularly ancient findings) often gets to play a central role.
Thesis
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The Middle Iron Age, around 300–650 CE, was characterised by extensive transformations across many aspects of society in the area of present-day Sweden. Within the central agricultural regions of the southern parts of the country, these changes are evident in a re-organisation of the settlements, renewed burial practices, the building of large-scale monuments, as well as increased militarisation, social stratification and an increase in imported objects. This thesis addresses an additional aspect of Middle Iron Age societal change, namely an increase in the utilisation of raw materials and resources from forested and coastal landscapes situated beyond the settled farm. These non-agrarian landscapes are commonly referred to as the outlands. In previous research, the increased utilisation of the outlands has in general been understood as part of a Viking Age expansion. The case studies of the thesis suggest that the outlands saw an intensified resource colonisation already during the Middle Iron Age, and that a similar explanatory model can be used to accommodate the parallel developments that appear in the agrarian landscapes as well as the in the outlands. The resource colonisation contributed to a surplus production that seems to have exceeded the needs of ordinary households, along with serially produced items, distributed along far-reaching trade networks in exchange of exotic commodities. The thesis argues that these networks should be interpreted as part of systems connecting distant regions, ranging from the Far East to Arctic Scandinavia. The discussions of the cases studies illustrate interplay between different groups of people – producers and consumers, hunters and farmers – in different parts of the landscape, and how they generated complex, social and economic relations and interdependencies. This in turn resulted in specific cultural patterns in the border area between the boreal forest in the north and the agrarian region in the south. The main contribution of the study is that it highlights how the main elements of outland exploitation, such as mass production and trade in valuable non-agrarian resources, can be dated earlier than has been previously thought. Moreover, the thesis argues that outland resource colonisation was an important driving force for the societal developments that took place during the Middle Iron Age, and is crucial for our understanding of later time periods.
Thesis
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Abstract The period from the late Viking Age to the High Middle Ages, c. 950–1350, was an era of economic expansion, where towns were formed, populations increased, and royal and church power were established. This thesis examines the inland regions of Southern Norway and the exchange of commodities at marketplaces between the mountainous and valley districts and the coastal areas in this period. The marketplaces are seen as part of a larger economic whole, including specialized surplus production, the trading of this surplus, and the overall impact this had on society. Central questions are how can the marketplaces be identified, where were they located, when were they used and who were involved in the exchange at the marketplaces? I see the marketplaces in conjunction with the surplus production of outfield resources and explore issues such as; who were the actors behind the surplus production from outfield resources and the subsequent trade with these commodities? The theme of the thesis is extensive; geographically, thematically and chronologically. The focus is therefore on the overall structure of the utilization of outfield resources and trade between mountainous and coastal areas. The thesis is thus developed in line with an understanding of time and change where long overarching structures are slowly changing through interaction with events with a shorter time span. Topographical and climatic factors, such as limited arable land but large outfield areas, provided limitations and opportunities for the people living in the mountainous and valley districts, and this can be seen as an overall structure which required a degree of regional specialization based on traditions and different natural conditions. Several archaeological surveys and a re-examination of existing archaeological and historical material have shown the existence of a broad range of marketplaces, from seasonal marketplaces in mountainous regions to more established marketplaces with an urban character in inner fjord regions. In collaboration with Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), an area in Kinsarvik by the Hardangerfjord was mapped using groundpenetrating radar. This and previous surveys show traces of 18–20 buildings which most likely should be connected to crafts and trade in Kinsarvik in the early and High Middle Ages. Similarly, surveys conducted on probable marketplaces in mountainous regions found traces of tent rings, horseshoes, horseshoe nails, fire steel and knives that could be traces of yearly gatherings for the purpose of trade, competitions and social interaction. It is an aim of this thesis to see the marketplaces in a wider context in relation to the exploitation of resources, routes and administrative regions. To achieve this goal, and to aid in the analysis of the material, I have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS). By storing both spatial and non-spatial data in a geodatabase I have analysed archaeological data in conjunction with historical sources, place names and topographical elements. In addition, I have re-calibrated and applied a statistical analysis to earlier C-14-results and made calculations regarding the total amount of iron produced in the late Viking Age–High Middle Ages. The results indicate that iron production, hunting, and trapping was organized and carried out by local farmers, and that goods from this surplus production were exchanged at seasonal marketplaces in the mountainous or upper valley districts, or at more permanent marketplaces like Kinsarvik in Hardanger or Kaupanger in Sogn. Furthermore, my analysis shows that the iron production in the south Norwegian inland was on a massive scale in this period and seems to exceed both regional and national demands for iron. This indicates that iron not only constituted a necessary item for regions with little iron production, such as the coastal areas of eastern Norway and large parts of western Norway, but was most likely also an important export article, especially towards Denmark. My contribution to knowledge is that from the late Viking Age there was an interaction between the marketplaces and surplus production in the inland of Southern Norway. The marketplaces can be seen as a contributing factor in the extensive iron production and surplus production from hunting and trapping. Stable economic networks and marketplaces that are emerging in the late Viking Age made it possible for largely autonomous farmsteads around the inland plateau of Hardangervidda to invest in surplus production, since they could rely on this surplus being exchanged for commodities they needed or wanted. The marketplace was also a way to avoid the strict social norms related to trade. By being a dedicated arena for exchange, trade could be carried out in a place where the roles were set and it was less likely for misunderstandings to occur. At the marketplace, an inland population could obtain the products they needed or wanted and the populous communities along the coast – the medieval towns, the royal and ecclesiastical and other elites – had access to the resources from the hinterland via trade networks flowing to these marketplace hubs. I argue that the people in mountainous and valley regions around Hardangervidda took part in both surplus production from outfield resources and the subsequent trade at marketplaces, and the elite to a large part gained access to these important inland resources through trade networks and via marketplaces. However, changes in administrative borders and several law amendments in 13th and 14th centuries indicate a new strategy of linking inland resources more directly to the towns. This thesis gives new insight regarding the extent and consequences of the marketplaces in the south Norwegian inland in the late Viking Age–High Middle Ages. Marketplaces in this period had a social significance for the inland population, but were also of great economic importance for inland regions as well as for society at large.
Article
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Among the most prominent prehistoric features in the boreal forests of northern Sweden are trapping pits or pitfalls used for hunting elk and/or reindeer. Even if often ascribed to the Viking Age and its trade in furs and other animal products, the chronology of these features has long been a matter of debate. In this article, a database of 370 dated radiocarbon samples from excavated pitfalls has been compiled and analysed using Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) modelling to create the most elaborate chronology of Swedish trapping pit systems so far. The analysis shows that the most intensive period of construction of trapping pits was in the centuries before the Viking period. This challenges previous interpretations of Viking Age resource exploitation but is in line with several other recently published studies concerned with resource exploitation, non-agrarian production, and trade connecting northern Scandinavia with inter-regional trade networks.
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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.
Article
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In medieval archaeology there are long traditions for studying foreign, exotic material culture as proxy for procurement networks of international reach. A paradox is that domestic networks, which brought products to consumers at home, has attracted little attention. During the Middle Ages (1030–1537), antler from reindeer was a north Scandinavian outland resource that found its way from remote mountains to settlements at home and abroad for use in hair combs. In the current pilot study, molecular genetic methods were employed to test whether antler debris from comb production workshops in the four medieval Norwegian towns Bergen, Trondheim, Skien and Oslo can be assigned to its original reindeer population. The study shows that ancient DNA (aDNA) can be used to provenance antler material to its origin with varying degrees of certainty: When samples from the four towns are considered as collective units, there is a high level of certainty in the discovered provenance pattern, whereas there is more uncertainty attached to provenancing individual antler fragments. Some immediate culture historical insights from the project's results are that urban comb makers used antler from the closest mountain areas, while analysis of individual-reindeer-based relationships on resource procurement adds some possible nuances to this picture. Furthermore, assigning dated antler debris to its population of origin adds new dates for commercial exploitation of reindeer resources in the specific mountain areas and adds new and high-definition empirical substance to the picture of long traditions for far-reaching procurement networks for Norwegian outland resources.
Article
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During the Viking Age, Arctic Scandinavia was a source of exquisite furs, down, walrus ivory, and other commodities that met with high demand in England and on the Continent. Hitherto, the earliest firm evidence of this trade has been Ohthere’s account c. 890, but in light of this paper’s findings, its history may be pushed further back in time. Geological analyses of whetstones retrieved in eighth- to early ninth-century Ribe, south-western Jylland, in present-day western Denmark, demonstrate that the majority were quarried near the aristocratic manor Lade (‘loading/storing place’) in Trøndelag, present-day central Norway, some 1100 km by sea to the north. Because of their high numbers and durability, whetstones retrieved in Ribe and other urban sites may be regarded as a proxy for long-distance seaborne trade from the Arctic. The peak in this trade on the threshold of the Viking Age invites a reconsideration of the coinciding and conflicting interests of Scandinavian long-distance traders, kings, and Vikings. It is argued that coalitions and conflicts that arose from these interests, and new constraints and opportunities that emerged for these three types of agents, provide keys to understanding why and where Vikings raided overseas up to the mid-ninth century.
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There is currently a growing concern that biocultural heritage is threatened in many landscapes. This paper focuses on biological cultural heritage, broadly meaning biological cultural traces that are considered as heritage, but leaving out other aspects of the biocultural heritage concept. An operational definition of biological cultural heritage (BCH) is suggested, based on niche construction theory: “biological manifestations of culture, reflecting indirect or intentional effects, or domesticated landscapes, resulting from historical human niche construction”. Some factors that influence recognition of BCH are discussed, using a comparison between Swedish open to semi-open vs. forested landscapes. While the former landscapes are generally associated with biological cultural values, BCH is generally over-looked in forests. Two main reasons for this are suggested: loss of cultural memory and a perception of forests as wilderness. A conclusion is that recognition of BCH is essential for guiding development of biological conservation programmes in forests, irrespective of whether the conservation goal is to focus on culturally impacted forests or to conserve what is considered as close to pristine forests. Furthermore, recognising BCH in forests will promote interest and learning of the history of forests and their values and will be informative for developing conservation programmes for all biota in forests, not only those that historically were favoured by culture. Hence, there is no inherent conflict between preserving relatively untouched forests and those with remaining traces of pre-industrial forest management. The recognition of BCH in forests will inspire and promote further integration of cultural and natural heritage research.
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This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of the impact of climate change during the Little Ice Age on a medieval village in Asturias, Spain. The research focused on tracing evidence for a catastrophic flood that buried the village beneath a thick layer of debris, including examining the remains of structures and agricultural land sealed beneath the debris, and considering the social and economic implications of the event in the subsequent history of the area. First, a series of test pits was excavated within the area of the modern village to map the full extent of the damage. Following this, analysis of the stratigraphy, architectural remains, datable artefacts and radiocarbon dating contributed further details, while historical evidence revealed the privatisation of the agricultural land following the catastrophe. The findings offer a snapshot of climate change and its social contexts in a specific, under-studied area with possible implications for the study of risk behaviour and disaster response in currently inhabited areas.
Book
In the fourteenth century the Old World witnessed a series of profound and abrupt changes in the trajectory of long-established historical trends. Transcontinental networks of exchange fractured and an era of economic contraction and demographic decline dawned from which Latin Christendom would not begin to emerge until its voyages of discovery at the end of the fifteenth century. In a major new study of this 'Great Transition', Bruce Campbell assesses the contributions of commercial recession, war, climate change, and eruption of the Black Death to a far-reaching reversal of fortunes from which no part of Eurasia was spared. The book synthesises a wealth of new historical, palaeo-ecological and biological evidence, including estimates of national income, reconstructions of past climates, and genetic analysis of DNA extracted from the teeth of plague victims, to provide a fresh account of the creation, collapse and realignment of Western Europe's late medieval commercial economy. Major new account of the fourteenth-century crisis when climate change, disease and a transformation of the military and political balance of power reshaped the medieval world Provides a fresh account of the creation, collapse and realignment of Western Europe's late medieval commercial economy Synthesises a wealth of new historical, palaeo-ecological and biological evidence.