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Breaking new ground: 40 years of Bronze Age debate

We are pleased to welcome Bronze Age colleagues to the 40th anniversary of the Nordic Bronze Age symposium. During these 40 years the symposium has grown exponential-ly and though we celebrate by returning to Norway we have moved our venue from the small archaeological research station at Isegran in Østfold (that housed 14 participants in 1977) to the University of Oslo’s campus at Blindern where there will be over 90.

During these 40 years we have seen a trend towards disparate discourses, either focus-ing on small-scale or large-scale, southern or northern narratives of Bronze Age Scan-dinavia. In our call for papers to this symposium we encouraged perspectives on the multi-scaled and contrasting Bronze Age, and the diversity and connections between landscapes, technologies, social practices, mentalities and materialities.

Our presenters this year touch on a range of topics. We will revisit archaeology from the snow patches of the Scandinavian Mountains to the fertile agricultural areas of south Scandinavia, along the paths to the upland pastures to the open sea lanes, from the monumental mounds to the finds associated with everyday practical life. These papers explore the contrasts and connections that formed the Nordic Bronze Age – and the contrasts and connections that makes Nordic Bronze Age research one of the most vibrant methodological, theoretical and interpretative arenas in archaeology!

We hope you will enjoy your stay here in Oslo, and that you will help us make this an inspiring and memorable event.

Sincerely,

Lene Melheim, Knut Ivar Austvoll, Marianne Hem Eriksen, Lisbeth Skogstrand, Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen, and Christopher Prescott

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Acknowledgments

The 14th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium was organised by the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo and the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and His-tory, University of Oslo.

Our collaborators include:

Directorate for Cultural Heritage

Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger

Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, and the University Museum, University of Bergen,

Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum,

Department of Archaeology and Social Anthropology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Local organising committee:

Lene Melheim, University of Oslo

Christopher Prescott, University of Oslo

Knut Ivar Austvoll, University of Oslo

Lisbeth Skogstrand, Directorate for Cultural Heritage

Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen, University of Stavanger

Marianne Hem Eriksen, University of Oslo

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Programme

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Tuesday 6. June

17–21 Registration, George Sverdrups hus

18:00 Welcome and keynote speakers, Auditorium 2

Mark Knight, Cambridge Archaeological Unit: “The Must Farm Pile-dwelling: Texture and tenure in the 9th century BC”

Lars Holger Pilø & Espen Finstad, Oppland County Adminis- tration: “Lost in the Frost. Bronze Age Artefacts from Glacial Ice in Oppland, Norway”

c. 19:30 Welcome reception

Social Programme:

Tuesday 6th June c. 19:30 Welcome reception, George Sverdrups hus

Wednesday 7th June 19:00 Pizza evening, Frokostkjelleren (at an extra cost)

Thursday 8th June 19:00 Conference dinner, Museum of Cultural History (at an extra cost)

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Heidrun Stebergløkken & Peter Skoglund

09:30-10:00 Rock art temporalities: chronologies, categoriza-tions and the effects of time

Magnus Ljunge

10:00:10:30 Visual modes of material articulation in south Scandinavian rock art

Fredrik Fahlander

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-11:30 The Kivik tomb - Bredarör - documented with OLS, SFM and RTI.

Ulf Bertilsson & Johan Ling

11:30-12:00 Identifying and investigating diversity: the appli-cation of new technology and the emergence of new perspectives within Scandinavian rock art research

James Dodd

12:00-12:30 In this river – Space, time, memory and rock art at Finntorp, Tanum

Christian Horn & Rich Potter

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:00 Decoding the mysterious rock carvings at Släbro, Nyköping, Sweden - a new approach

Ellinor Sabel

14:00-14:30 Rock Art in Södermanland: relations between Landscape of Cup Marks versus the Sites with Ships – and the enigmatic Släbro site

Roger Wikell

14:30-15:00 Stones with Depressions in Bronze Age Crete Helène Whittaker


15:30-16:00 Fish ´n Ships Andreas Toreld

16:00-16:30 To shed light upon Magnus Tangen

16:30-17:00 Final Discussion

Wednesday 7. June

Rock art – diversity and complexityAuditorium 2

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Heide W. Nørgaard & M.H.G. Kuijpers

09:30-10:00 Defects and causes during the casting of socketed axes

Péter Barkóczky, Csaba Bíró, Zoltán Kis, Bo-

glárka Maróti & János Gábor Tarbay

10:00-10:30 What’s wrong – mistakes or learning strategies? Katarina Botwid


11:00-11:30 Succeed to fail or fail to succeed Helen Marton

11:30-12:00 Learners’ Mistakes or Professional Error – the Nordic Bronze Age ornaments

Heide W. Nørgaard

12:00-12:30 Hubris or the Human Touch? The cultural con-text of imperfection

E. Giovanna Fregni

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:00 Nordic Bronze Age gold - Imperfections of prestige objects

Barbara Armbruster

14:00-14:30 The archaeology of repair M.H.G. Kuijpers


Wednesday 7. June

Nobody is perfect: contrasts in craftUndervisningsrom 1

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Melanie Wriggles-worth & Merete Moe

Henriksen

09:30-10:00 The Late Bronze Age hoard from Hegra, Stjørdal Merete Moe Henriksen

10:00-10:30 Ritual or mundane? Scandinavian tar loaves from the Bronze Age

Camilla C. Nordby & Kristine Orestad

Sørgaard10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-11:30 Selective metalwork deposition in the Bronze Age: retro or revolution?

Marieke Visser

11:30-12:00 Ritual practices interpreted through an ontologi-cal lens: Defining Bronze and Iron Age ontologies through the study of horses and humans in wet-land deposits

Jacob Kveiborg

12:00-12:30 Nordic hoards in foreign landscapes: transition of ritual practices?

Agnė Čivilytė

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:00 Burials, rock art and a maritime world-view on the edge of Europe

Melanie Wrigglesworth

14:00-14:30 Pots and potsherds from Bronze Age graves in Norway – old finds, new knowledge

Henriette Hop Wendelboe

14:30-15:00 Comparing solar cycles Pål Steiner


15:30-16:00 Reflexions on the celestial representations and the imaginary world in the North-West of Eu-rope during the Bronze Age

Florent Mathias

16:00-16:30 Using aspects of Sami religion as basis for inter-pretation of Northern Fennoscandian Rock Art during the LSA/EBA

Lars Forsberg


Wednesday 7. June

The context and social dynamics of ritualsUndervisningsrom 2

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09:00-09:30 Introduction (continues from Wednesday) Heidrun Stebergløkken & Peter Skoglund

09:30-10:00 Different bodies, different places, different minds? Anthropomorphism within the Rock Art of Bohuslän, Sweden

Lisa-Elen Meyering

10:00-10:30 Trondheimsfjorden – a region of contrasts Heidrun Stebergløkken


11:00-11:30 Diversity and puzzles in the rock art of Bronze Age foragers in northernmost Fennoscandia. Peripheral survivals?

Knut Helskog

11:30-12:00 Rock Art, Warfare, and Long Distance Trade: Transformation of Bronze Age Scandinavian Polities

Johan Ling, Richard Chacon & Yamilette Chacon


Thursday 8. June

Rock art – diversity and complexity Auditorium 2

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13:30-14:00 Introduction Charlotte Damm, Jutta Kneisel &

Martin Hinz

14:00-14:30 Demography amongst northern hunter-gather-ers 2000-0 BC

Charlotte Damm

14:30-15:00 14C-dates as approach for demographic studies? Statistical analyses on case studies

Martin Hinz & Jutta Kneisel


15:30-16:00 Demographic aspects in material culture, settle-ments and graves

Jutta Kneisel & Martin Hinz

16:00-16:30 “Bycatch and Discards are a Fact of Life to a Fisherman”. Temporal investigations of demog-raphy and landscape use from the Late Neolithic to the Pre Roman Iron Age (2500-0 cal. BC) in Southeastern Norway

Steinar Solheim


Thursday 8. June

Demography: fluctuation, composition and mobility Auditorium 2

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Lene Melheim, Knut Ivar Austvoll

& Johan Ling

09:30-10:00 Rock and metal – Networks of interaction Christian Horn

10:00-10:30 The Sail in the North: understanding Bronze Age Scandinavian waterbourne communication

Boel Bengtsson


11:00-11:30 Socio-political strategies along the coast of north-western Scandinavia, 2350–1100 BCE

Knut Ivar Austvoll

11:30-12:00 Harbouring the entrepreneur - Identifying and theorizing harbours in Neolithic and Bronze Age Norway

Håvard Kilhavn

12:00-12:30 Weights and scales in the Nordic Bronze Age? Evidence for weight metrology between Central, West and North Europe

Lorenz Rahmstorf

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:00 A Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age hillfort and its settlement in Watenstedt, German district of Helmstedt. A dominion residence or just a place “en route”? Investigations on a central-located settlement and its periphery settlements

Sergej Most & Robert Hintz

Thursday 8. June

Beyond Mapping Movement: Travel and exchange Undervisningsrom 1

14:00-14:30 Of Ships and Shoes and Sealing Wax, of Cabbages and Kings: Models for Bronze Age Mobility from the Nexus of Isotope Science and Archaeological Theory

Samantha Reiter

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14:30-15:00 Scandinavia’s role in the Bronze Age copper networks of Europe – application of lead isotope and elemental analyses as a tool to understand movement and exchange

Lena Grandin, Eva Hjärthner-Holdar,

Johan Ling & Lene Melheim


15:30-16:00 From relative to absolute population numbers in Early Bronze Age Denmark: implications for trade, consumption and wealth

Kristian Kristiansen & Lene Melheim


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09:00-09:30 Introduction Marianne Hem Eriksen, Lisbeth Skogstrand

& Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

09:30-10:00 Now far ahead the road has gone: complex interdependence in the Bronze Age

Magdalena Forsgren

10:00-10:30 Challenging the Chiefdom Model Employing an Anarchic Analytical Approach to Examine So-cio-Political Organization during the Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age

Christian Isendahl & Johan Ling


11:00-11:30 House assemblages and domestic space through deep time

Marianne Hem Eriksen

11:30-12:00 What can artefacts tell us about societies? - For-eign objects in Bronze Age Central Europe and Scandinavia

Lukas Wiggering

12:00-12:30 Masters of metalworking: production and use of oversized bronze spirals in the 2nd millennium BC Carpathian Basin

Ágnes Király, Géza Szabó, Gábor J. Tarbay,

Gábor Wilhelm & Viktória Kiss

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:00 Bronze Age World or worlds: using beltboxes to think about how relationships are furthered by objects

Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

14:00-14:30 Mobility, ceramic production, and identity in south Scandinavia during the Late Bronze Age

Torbjörn Brorsson, Serena Sabatini &

Peter Skoglund

14:30-15:00 Political and moral economies in Bronze Age society

David Fontijn


15:30-16:00 Centres of wealth Henrik Thrane


Thursday 8. June

Contrasts of Bronze Age SocietiesUndervisningsrom 2

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Lisbeth Prøsch-Dan-ielsen, Kari Loe Hjelle,

Mette Løvschal & Johan Eilertsen

Arntzen

09:30-10:00 Agriculture in South Scandinavia in the Earliest Bronze Age

Jens Winther Johannsen

10:00-10:30 Primitive farming or farming the primitive Søren Diinhoff


11:00-11:30 Of course grain harvest but what about storage? Contrast between settlement pits and ceramics in the Nordic Bronze Age and the low mountain range in Lower Saxony and neighbouring areas

Immo Heske

11:30-12:00 Field systems in Rogaland and their variation in crop and weed pollen assemblages from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age

Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen &

Erik Daniel Fredh


Friday 9. June

Farming: A defining element of the Nordic Bronze Age?Auditorium 2

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Kristin Armstrong Oma, Hilde Fyllingen &

Sophie Bergerbrant

09:30-10:00 Multi-provenance isotopic investigations of archaeological human remains of single indi-viduals: The new case study of the Skrydstrup Woman

Karin Margarita Frei

10:00-10:30 The Egtved Girl - Fremde Frau or multi-local? A gendered perspective of women and mobility in the Bronze Age

Louise Felding


11:00-11:30 A gendered view on travel in the Bronze Age Sophie Bergerbrant

11:30-12:00 The woman in the Rege mound – poised between the here and the beyond

Kristin Armstrong Oma

12:00-12:30 Chiefly masculinity - expressing an individual? Lisbeth Skogstrand


13:00-14:00 Lunch

Friday 9. June

Revitalising «gender» as a concept in the Bronze Age discourse Undervisningsrom 1

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09:00-09:30 Introduction Jan Apel & Nils Anfinseth

09:30-10:00 Late Neolithic Dynamic Density Jan Apel

10:00-10:30 Lithic procurement and production in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age in southern Norway, expressions of a cultural mosaic?

Astrid J. Nyland


11:00-11:30 Arrow shafts preserved in ice shed light on lithic traditions

Julian Martinsen

11:30-12:00 Knapped quartz in Finnish Bronze Age cairns Jarkko Saipio

12:00-12:30 Stone Dead! Lithic material in Bronze Age bur-ials

Nils Anfinset


13:00-14:00 Lunch

Friday 9. June

Lithics of the Bronze Age – materials, types, contexts and technologiesUndervisningsrom 2

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Friday 9. June

Panel Discussion – Bronze Age research: Past, present and futureAuditorium 2

14:00-15:00 Panel Chairs:

Christopher Prescott & Herdis Hølleland

Panelists:

Kristian KristiansenKristin Armstrong Oma Jan ApelMarie Louise Stig Sørensen

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Rock art – diversity and complexity

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Rock art temporalities: chronologies, categorizations and the effects of time

Magnus Ljunge, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

Auditorium 2: Wednesday 09:30

Ever since the initial efforts of the antiquarians and archaeologists of the 19th century, rock art research has to a high degree been focused on developing chronological sequences as a basis for understanding the meaning of motifs and compositions. This vast enterprise have result-ed in a general understanding of the age of different phases of rock art in relation to different rock art traditions, regions, localities and even panels. The bearing principle when dating rock art has been a typological categorization of single motifs. Similarities and variations of rock art imagery have been regarded as an expression of a development over time. The use of typolog-ical categorization as a method for establishing chronology has however tended to downplay the ontological qualities that rock art imagery express through style and aesthetics. This paper seeks to explore ways to think about similarities and variations beyond chronological catego-rization, in order to understand how already present rock art imagery in itself effected pro-duction of new images over time. Seeing style, imitation and paraphrasing as an active choice of design, rather than viewing variations as an indicator of the passing time, allows us to dis-cuss how and why rock artwas actively used in relation to different places and social practices.

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Visual modes of material articulation in south Scandinavian rock art

Fredrik Fahlander, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

Auditorium 2, Wednesday 10:00

This paper explores the potential in studying rock art in terms of visual modes of articulation. Tra-ditionally locales and sites are related to each other in terms of iconographic categorisation of dif-ferent types motifs and by similarities in style. The study of modes of visual articulation explores a different aspect of rock art as visual culture by examining different manners of visual expressions, for instance, how new motifs relate to older ones, the micro-topography of the rock, and the ways in which particular details of a motif are prolonged, re-cut, deepened, superimposed, omitted or subsequently added. The approach thus facilitates ways to study possible parallel modes of making rock art and how different individuals and groups may employ rock art in social relations by in-terfering with established visual modes. It also enables a discussion on the potential agency of the imagery, that is, how they by a special design or placing in a particular context may incite engage-ment. The approach is illustrated by examples of the rock art of the Mälaren bay in central eastern Sweden where four modes of visual articulation are examined: Stacking and grouping of motifs, unfinished, vague or abstract motifs, the extension of attributes, and hybrid or merged motifs.

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The Kivik tomb - Bredarör - documented with OLS, SFM and RTI

Ulf Bertilsson & Johan Ling, Svenskt Hällristnings Forsknings Arkiv, University of Gothenburg


The cairn in Kivik – Bredarör, featuring rock art carved into the slabs of the central stone tomb, constitutes one the most spectacular funerary sites of the Nordic Bronze Age. Over the cen-turies, it has spurred scholars to document the petroglyphs, the first known recording being that which was made by Feldt in 1756. Since then, there have been numerous other attempts by investigators to record the rock art. Many attempts to interpret the spectacular petroglyphs have taken place since its official discovery in the mid-18th century. Interpretations have ranged from claims that the images represent religious symbols to social structures, death rituals and memories of glorious and heroic deeds. Some assertions are fanciful and tenuous at best. Many prominent Scandinavian Bronze Age scholars have researched this magnificent site and pre-sented diverse interpretations about the meaning of the images and/or their age. The rock art is stylistically quite sophisticated with no direct parallels. In fact, no open-air rock art locality possesses this kind of structured serial arrangement, the site including certain types of imag-es that are not found elsewhere. In our paper we will present the results of the first non-tac-tile high precision digitized documentation of the Bredarör slabs at Kivik and its implications for the understanding of the monument. This documentation was performed using the most advanced three-dimensional techniques; scanning with optical laser scanning (OLS), digital photography Structure from Motion (SFM) and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).

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Identifying and investigating diversity: the application of new technology and the emergence of new perspectives within Scandinavian rock art re-

search

James DoddSchool of Culture and Society - Prehistoric Archaeology, Aarhus University


This paper will address the theme of diversity within Scandinavian rock art by presenting a select number of aspects of the author’s research conducted during the course of study, employment and independent fieldwork. The paper is divided into two thematic sections. The first section will outline how new perspectives offer new insight into the diversity of Scandinavian prehistoric art. The second section will explore the potential offered by new technological developments to assist scholars in their investigations of variation.

Results from fieldwork undertaken during the author’s Masters Dissertation at Durham Univer-sity between 2010 and 2011 propose that the location of sites in western Norway demonstrate a tendency toward; proximity to water, in particular the sound of running water; and relationships with features of the rock surface, such as quartz and crevices. Differences in the style, composi-tion and chronology of the area will also be discussed, as well as an assessment of the extent to which certain factors exhibit diachronic change. The bases of the chronology used to identify change will also be interrogated, and nuances pertaining to current understanding of both the beginnings and ends and the end of the creation of Southern Tradition art will be briefly explored.

The second section of the paper will offer an overview of how technology, such as advanced GIS and 3D modelling, is offering new potential for the study of Scandinavian rock art, within Ta-numshede, Sweden, and the island of Bornholm, in Denmark.

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In this river – Space, time, memory and rock art at Finntorp, Tanum

Christian Horn, CAU Kiel, Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’ & Rich Potter, Gothenburg University


The cairn in Kivik – Bredarör, featuring rock art carved into the slabs of the central stone tomb, constitutes one the most spectacular funerary sites of the Nordic Bronze Age. Over the cen-turies, it has spurred scholars to document the petroglyphs, the first known recording being that which was made by Feldt in 1756. Since then, there have been numerous other attempts by investigators to record the rock art. Many attempts to interpret the spectacular petroglyphs have taken place since its official discovery in the mid-18th century. Interpretations have ranged from claims that the images represent religious symbols to social structures, death rituals and memories of glorious and heroic deeds. Some assertions are fanciful and tenuous at best. Many prominent Scandinavian Bronze Age scholars have researched this magnificent site and pre-sented diverse interpretations about the meaning of the images and/or their age. The rock art is stylistically quite sophisticated with no direct parallels. In fact, no open-air rock art locality possesses this kind of structured serial arrangement, the site including certain types of imag-es that are not found elsewhere. In our paper we will present the results of the first non-tac-tile high precision digitized documentation of the Bredarör slabs at Kivik and its implications for the understanding of the monument. This documentation was performed using the most advanced three-dimensional techniques; scanning with optical laser scanning (OLS), digital photography Structure from Motion (SFM) and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).

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Decoding the mysterious rock carvings at Släbro, Nyköping, Sweden - a new approach

Ellinor Sabel, Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård


In Sweden there are two general Bronze Age rock carving traditions, the northern and the south-ern. In the northern tradition motifs like elks, reindeers and hunting scenes are the most com-mon while in the southern tradition motifs like ships, animals, sun-weels, foot soles, humans and cupmarks are the most frequent. There is no sharp line dividing the two traditions, sometimes they mix or are found in the “wrong” part of the country. But, in general, the tradition of Bronze Age rock carving in Sweden follows a fairly strict pattern.

And then there is Släbro.

In the outskirts of the Swedish town Nyköping there is a rock carving-complex that completely differs from everything else that Scandinavia has to offer. The unique carvings at Släbro, with geometric figures clustered on the smooth rocks facing the Nyköping River, have been subject to numerous interpretations ranging from ancient mathematical charts to beetles and ladybugs.

I will present a new interpretation of the mysterious carvings and give examples of the methods and parallels used in my work trying to decipher what the motives represent.

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Rock Art in Södermanland: relations between Landscape of Cup Marks ver-sus the Sites with Ships – and the enigmatic Släbro site

Roger Wikell, Sven-Gunnar Broström & Kenneth Ihrestam


The county of Södermanland in Eastern Middle Sweden is one of the most surveyed landscapes in Scandinavia. In the beginning of the 1970´s there were 40 sites known with cup marks and 3 sites with ships and other figures. Now we have registered 2600 sites with over 25 000 cup marks. More than 100 sites with ships and other figures are documented. The number of ships are more than 300. Södermanland is thus a new fresh contribution to rock art research.

The county of Södermanland clearly belongs to the South Scandinavian Bronze Age Culture. Grave cairns, bronze artefacts and farming settlements totally dominate the picture. There are no traces of a hunting culture. Thus the rock art also belongs to the so called ”agrarian tradition”. But the high resolution we have in the material provides us with new insights – there is a variation inside the ”agrarian tradition”. The cup marks are located in the landscape according to a system different from the panels with figurative images. Especially ships seem to be located after other factors. The big picture says that cup marks and ships belongs to the same system, but in detail they are different. Factors like farming land and maritime harbours seems to be important. Of course, all has a social and ideological background in the society.

The strange Släbro site both confirms and challenge the picture.

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Stones with Depressions in Bronze Age Crete

Helène Whittaker, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg


Stones on which multiple more or less shallow depressions have been deliberately made are a fairly common find in Bronze Age Crete. In most cases the depressions are arranged to form a more or less circular shape on the stone but examples also exist where they form rows. They occur on loose (portable) stones but also on fixed slabs, such as thresholds and pavements. Most stones with depressions have been found in settlements but they also occur in funerary contexts. Although they are generally very crudely made, they form a distinct class of artefact. They cease to occur after the end of the Bronze Age. The Cretan stones are not usually classified as a form of rock art in Greek archaeology, which means that they have not become part of the general rock art discussion in European Bronze Age archaeology. Yet comparisons can be made with cup marks that have been found outside the Aegean during the Bronze Age.

In this paper I present the stones with depressions that were found at the site of Kommos in southern Crete (cf. Whittaker, 1996 “Stone Slabs with Depressions” in J. W. Shaw & M. C. Shaw, Kommos I. The Kommos Region and Houses of the Minoan Town (Princeton University Press) 321-323) and discuss their characteristics in relation to similar material found in the Nordic area during the Bronze Age. My focus is on why the Cretan stones with depressions have not been regarded as rock art and if classifying them as such can lead to a better understanding of their function and meaning.

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Fish ´n Ships

Andreas Toreld, Stiftelsen för dokumentation av Bohusläns hällristningar


Without doubt the marine environment was very important to bronze age man in Bohuslän: more than 10 000 boats have been depicted on the rock panels and osteological remains show that deep-sea fishing played a significant role in the economy. But why is there no fish depicted in south Scandinavian rock art – unlike in north Scandinavia? We only find images of fish on bronze items, such as razors, where they seem to be part of a myth concerning the sun’s journey across the sky.

A ship with a fish-decorated hull, found during fieldwork in Tanum 2014, seems to be the only exception from the rule. Maybe this motif and the manner in which it was carved can help us to understand why there are no equivalents.

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To shed light upon

Magnus TangenMuseum of Cultural History, University of Oslo


This papers aim is to focus on, and show, how pecked rockart is part of a bigger chain of thougt where the sun and light plays the main role. During the Nordic Bronze-Age (1700-500 BC) we see traces after a worldview, or a cosmology that seems to put much emphasis on the sun`s jour-ney, and the revitalizing renewal of the lifegiving sunbeams. Archaeological finds like the Trund-holm-wagon (1350 BC) and the Nebra-disk (1580 BC) has been studied thoroughly by research-ers, and alongside the pecked sunhorses of the granitepanels, we come closer to the bronzeage mindset, and bronzeage-peoples understanding of the moving sun, solstices and time itself.

When observing pecked rockart, you are very soon aware of the dependence on sunlight-angle, to truly see and grasp the beauty and details of the panels. The pictures are made with great care and insight to the sun`s movement, and on every panel the local topography and exposure to light has been taken into account by the artist. What´s impossible to see in one moment is clearly revealed in the next. The days highlight is the low light! When the sun rises and sets, the shadows are long-est over the rocks, and the pictures best visible. This phenomenon or effect has been exploited by making the pictures face different directions. Can this observable circumstance tell us something about rockart as a «package»? A package where this force of nature (the sun) is used to tell the story about it in the pictures?

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Different bodies, different places, different minds? Anthropomorphism within the Rock Art of Bohuslän, Sweden

Lisa-Elen Meyering, Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, University of Durham

Auditorium 2, Thursday 09:30

Without doubt the marine environment was very important to bronze age man in Bohuslän: more than 10 000 boats have been depicted on the rock panels and osteological remains show that deep-sea fishing played a significant role in the economy. But why is there no fish depicted in south Scandinavian rock art – unlike in north Scandinavia? We only find images of fish on bronze items, such as razors, where they seem to be part of a myth concerning the sun’s journey across the sky.

A ship with a fish-decorated hull, found during fieldwork in Tanum 2014, seems to be the only exception from the rule. Maybe this motif and the manner in which it was carved can help us to understand why there are no equivalents.

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Trondheimsfjorden – a region of contrasts

Heidrun Stebergløkken, NTNU, Trondheim


The rock art has since the beginning of the last century been divided into two different traditions; rock art belonging to the hunter tradition and the rock art belonging to the agricultural tradition. These represents two different periods; Stone Age and Bronze Age. Researchers now often see the different traditions also in an overlapping context, where the different traditions may seem to have coexisted for a time at the beginning of the Bronze Age. This is perhaps more visible in regions where both traditions occurs, such as the locations around Trondheimsfjorden in Central Norway.

Today many use the concepts Northern and Southern tradition. Because the Bronze Age rock art should not necessarily be interpreted in an agrarian context. Some researchers have emphasized the marine context (boat motifs and nearness to the shoreline), and good research has been done on this topic for example in Bohuslän. But can the situation in Bohuslän be related to the situa-tion in Central Norway?

Bronze Age rock art sites around Trondheimsfjorden cannot be shoreline dated the same way as the rock art in for example Bohuslän. Few sites can be related to the prehistoric shoreline. Most of the sites are located away from the prehistoric shores, such as Skatval, which is located a kilo-meter from the shore and approx. a 100 meters above sea level. The boat motif is present, but the location of the sites are not in a marine context. What does this mean? When the rock art does have a shore connection, it often appears with rock art belonging to the hunter tradition (Stone Age). Does this represent a transition phase? Or do we see evidence of two rock art traditions coexisting for a longer period. Trondheimsfjorden was an important part of the prehistoric infra-structure.We need to see Central Norway as a border landscape, and this appears to be reflected in the rock art.

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Diversity and puzzles in the rock art of Bronze Age foragers in northern-most Fennoscandia. Peripheral survivals?

Knut Helskog,UiT The Arctic University of Norway


In the rock art from the two last millennia BC there are some puzzling problems possibly related to populations with different 1) subsistence basis, social structures, systems of beliefs and prac-tice and, 2) positioning in the Fennoscandian landscape. Both relate to types of rock art, time and changing cultural diversity through the last two millennia BC, as well as survival of rock art as practice. The presentation aim to come to grips with some of these problems.

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Rock Art, Warfare, and Long Distance Trade: Transformation of Bronze Age Scandinavian Polities

Johan Ling, University of GothenburgRichard Chacon, Winthrop University

Yamilette Chacon, James Madison University


The Scandinavian rock art from the Bronze Age depicts many images of violence. These images range from warriors with weapons in or near war canoes to combat scenes on the ground indicat-ing the increasing importance of local warriors. The recurrence of these themes correlates with the Scandinavian societies’ engagement in long distance trade for metals. Since elite household investment in ships and warriors was crucial for this trade, the ability to fund boat construction and crew ships provided elites with a new control apparatus based on ship ownership. This chap-ter analyses Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art in order to gain an understanding of the societal factors that would have favored the rise of maritime polities. We explore the network connections that may have facilitated the transition from an agricultural based mode of production to a mari-time based mode of production in Bronze Age Scandinavian polities. We also argue that the prax-is of carving ships onto the stone could reflect the agency of maritime warrior secret societies.

35

Nobody is perfect: contrasts in craft

37

Defects and causes during the casting of socketed axes

Péter Barkóczky, Institute of Materials Science ,University of MiskolcCsaba Bíró, Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of SciencesZoltán Kis, Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Boglárka Maróti, Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of SciencesJános Gábor Tarbay, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University

Undervisningsrom 1, Wednesday 09:30

Socketed axes are widespread multi-functional tools of the “globalized” Late Bronze Age world. Their stylistic appearance might differ from each other in certain areas of the continent but their main casting techniques show great similarities. In the archaeological material, the socketed axes are the ones which show the most characteristic casting defect types. Some of them have in-tensively porous inner structure, shifted parts, incomplete loops or amorphous patterns. But all defects are really that serious? Where lies the boundary between aesthetic and functional defects? How can we characterize different kinds of casting defects? Why Late Bronze Age societies use and deposit these “defected” tools?

The main objective of the project is to understand the formation of casting defects and interpret the appearance of defected socketed axes in the Late Bronze Age archaeological material. This project is a case study of combining experimental casting with different material testing meth-ods (X-ray Fluorescence, Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis, Neutron Imaging, Metallography, Traceology). The applied methods are able to analyze, in many cases non-destructively, the outer surface and inner structure of the objects providing a detailed archaeometric characterization of the defected parts. This allow us to give an accurate interpretation of their causes. One of the aims of the work is to cast selected socketed axes of “Carpathian” and “Nordic” styles with certain elemental composition. In the case of Carpathian style axes it is also possible to compare the experimental replicas to archaeological material.

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What’s wrong – mistakes or learning strategies?

Katarina Botwid Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University


There are traces of communication in ancient artefacts and craft materials. Often archaeologists are interpreting this as results from trading or import. The question for this paper is to explore and understand how the ancient artisan reacted and used new ways of working. Pryssgården area in the South East of Sweden bear traces of distant artisanal communications and could be described as a node for new expressions and techniques in the Late Bronze Age.

The question of craftspeople and their role in prehistory has been discussed in many different ways and from different theoretical perspectives. In my thesis The Artisanal perspective-an archaeology in practice (2016) I have described how artisanship can be the reason for moving material and or techniques around large geographical distances. Learning and sharing knowl-edge develops new links between people. These circumstances might be the departure for ancient artisans to try new paths and hence new techniques. Sometimes the traces of trial-and error becomes visible.

I use and widen artisanal knowledge to interpret artefacts based on my own tacit knowledge as an educated professional ceramist and archaeologist. In other crafts I collaborate with skilled artisans as expertise to extract valuable knowledge that gives a good base for archaeological synthesis concerning crafting issues.

Keywords; artisanal perspective, tacit knowledge, interdisciplinary, expertise, ceramics, art material, artisanship, mistakes, skill, moving craft knowledge.

39

Succeed to fail or fail to succeed

Helen Marton, Falmouth University


Communicating Archaeology through Digital Craft Practice

“Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn’t.” Buckminster Fuller

In making or crafting objects we demonstrate interactions with materials and processes and en-gage with a flow of movement that relies upon tacit knowledge. Relationships grow and develop between maker and material over time, until there is a silent, choreographed repetition of action.

It is interesting to note that the so-called’ mistake,’ or failure can be celebrated in creative prac-tice. For the craftsperson a ‘happy accident’ can happen contrary to expectations and provide the maker with a new and pleasantly unexpected result.

Success relies upon a remarkable process, a cycle of reflection that invariably acknowledges fail-ure. This cycle of making and reflection, as a natural breakdown of the creative process, aids the teaching of creative practices. Teaching craft skills requires demonstration and instruction, however students rapidly desire to feel the material. Most tacit knowledge is absorbed through trial and error and by developing a continued personal relationship with the material. In life as in making, an embodied memory embedded as a result of struggle and failure adheres much more quickly and permanently than any form of instruction. This knowledge can be discussed in the abstract, but often remains intangible.

When appreciating the purpose of failure it becomes possible to realise the importance of taking several steps in the shoes of the early makers. Only through repeated attempts through recon-struction, are we able to fully appreciate the myriad complexities of craft production during the Bronze Age.

I explore the presupposition that in the process of making, and in making mistakes, we encounter a degree of shared experience and understanding.

40

Learners’ Mistakes or Professional Error – the Nordic Bronze Age ornaments

Heide W. Nørgaard,School of Culture and Society - Prehistoric Archaeology, Aarhus University


Nordic Bronze Age ornaments are known for their rich decorations, often consisting of spiral bands used as part of a variety of other decorative elements. Even a cursory examination makes it clear that these ornaments vary greatly in terms of their quality. How can this variation be explained? Is this the result of different workshops, levels of crafting skills or perhaps even the incorporation of novice metalworkers? As part of a study on craft organization in the Nordic Bronze Age, several metal workshops were analyzed in relation to the skill of the craftsmen and the amount of time involved in practicing their trade. Within this study, visible production mis-takes as well as errors in the decoration of the artefact were in focus. Such mistakes contain a large amount of information, as they can provide indications of the skill level of the craftsperson as well as on the social circumstances in which the item was crafted.

In this paper, several examples will be compared to in order to illustrate the differences between professional mistakes and the hallmarks of apprenticeship. The aim is to differentiate between different kinds of apprenticeship solely based on visible mistakes. If such an approach is fruitful, an intensive examination of artefacts with regard to crafting mistakes could allow scholars to classify workshops, thereby differentiating between family-based crafting and elite-controlled organizational systems.

41

Hubris or the Human Touch? The cultural context of imperfection

E. Giovanna Fregni


For archaeologists, the durable properties of metal objects provide a unique opportunity to ex-amine manufacturing processes, and the informed examination of an object can allow inferences to be made about the skill of the metalworker. Unlike pottery or textiles, most mistakes in metal cannot be easily undone or repaired, and flaws remain as a permanent record of the aptitude of the smith. While the majority of studies concentrate on the perfect works of the master artisan, much information can be gained by examining the flaws in objects that are the result of mistakes made during their creation.

Many metal objects that exhibit defects, both structural and decorative, were not destroyed and have survived despite their imperfections. Rather than accept that all mistakes were errors in the manufacturing process, we should instead consider the cultural context of imperfection. Mis-takes can be the result of many different situations ranging from learning processes to intentional imperfections that are culturally required. By exploring the different modes of mistakes seen on metal objects we can make enquiries regarding the significance of imperfections and why these flawed objects have survived.

Drawing on archaeological examples of metalworking and the author’s own recent experience with a learning process, this paper explores how mistakes in metalwork are manifested in differ-ent skill levels, allowing us to enquire as to whether the piece was the work of a beginner or an accomplished artisan, and seeks to enquire whether we can “observe” the learning process in the execution of an object.

42

Nordic Bronze Age gold - Imperfections of prestige objects

Barbara Armbruster


This paper deals with fine metal work in the North, in particular with technological aspects and imperfections of luxury or ritual objects made in precious metal. Gold work embodies one of the outmost delicate expressions of Nordic Bronze Age arts and crafts. Products of fine metal working workshops such as personal ornaments, vessels, large discs and decorated weapons show a high level of craftsmanship and skill. They demonstrate as well the maker’s knowledge of symbols and code signs of social and religious meanings. These outstandingly crafted objects reflect definitely a deep embodiment of fine metalwork with religious beliefs in a large extend related to the sun. However, the goldsmith’s manufactures are not always as perfect as they look like from a certain distance. Imperfections in the shaping, joining or decoration of gold items are often recognizable by detailed study of tool marks and surface structures. Repair and reuse are other means of deal-ing with failings. Case studies of Nordic Bronze Age gold work will illustrate the way how Bronze Age artisans dealt with imperfections and limitations in their craft.

43

The archaeology of repair

Maikel H. G. Kuijpers,Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University


Nordic Bronze Age ornaments are known for their rich decorations, often consisting of spiral bands used as part of a variety of other decorative elements. Even a cursory examination makes it clear that these ornaments vary greatly in terms of their quality. How can this variation be explained? Is this the result of different workshops, levels of crafting skills or perhaps even the incorporation of novice metalworkers? As part of a study on craft organization in the Nordic Bronze Age, several metal workshops were analyzed in relation to the skill of the craftsmen and the amount of time involved in practicing their trade. Within this study, visible production mis-takes as well as errors in the decoration of the artefact were in focus. Such mistakes contain a large amount of information, as they can provide indications of the skill level of the craftsperson as well as on the social circumstances in which the item was crafted.

In this paper, several examples will be compared to in order to illustrate the differences between professional mistakes and the hallmarks of apprenticeship. The aim is to differentiate between different kinds of apprenticeship solely based on visible mistakes. If such an approach is fruitful, an intensive examination of artefacts with regard to crafting mistakes could allow scholars to classify workshops, thereby differentiating between family-based crafting and elite-controlled organizational systems.

45

The context and social dynamics of rituals

47

The Late Bronze Age hoard from Hegra, Stjørdal

Merete Moe Henriksen,NTNU, Trondheim


In January 2017 one of the largest depositions of metal objects from the Bronze age in Norway came to light during metal detecting in Stjørdal, North Trøndelag. The deposition which dates to the late Bronze Age, was found close to an Iron Age burial ground on a terrace overlooking the Stjørdal valley. At present, before any further investigations of the site have been carried out, the find consists of nine socketed axes, one spearhead, casting waste and two fragments of as yet unidentified objects. Whereas the district of Stjørdal is well known for its numerous rock art sites from the Bronze Age, other Bronze Age finds from the valley have been scarce. The new find thus provides valuable insight into not only the tradition of hoarding but also Bronze Age society in Stjørdal and Trøndelag. This paper will give a presentation of the find and its context against the backdrop of other depositions from Central Norway in the late Bronze Age.

48

Ritual or mundane? Scandinavian tar loaves from the Bronze Age

Camilla C. Nordby, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen Kristine Orestad Sørgaard, Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger


A group of archaeological tar finds which has been offered comparatively little attention within Bronze Age research is the so-called tar loaves. Their distribution is consigned to coastal areas in Sweden, Denmark and Norway where they have predominantly been found in peat bogs. Most of the tar loaves were discovered in the early 20th century due to peat cutting and the contextual in-formation relating to the finds are therefore limited. However, in 2010 two tar loaves were found in a peat bog at Herøy in Møre and Romsdal, western Norway. While it is tempting to interpret these finds as a ritual sacrifice (tar has been an important raw material throughout prehistory and historical times) such a conclusion must be made with caution. Taking the Herøy find as a starting point, this presentation will explore the role of tar loaves in Scandinavian Bronze Age contexts and the practice of deposition.

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Selective metalwork deposition in the Bronze Age: retro or revolution?

Marieke Visser,Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University


This paper investigates the emergence of selective metalwork deposition in Denmark, northwest Germany and the coastal zone of the Netherlands, a region usually not studied as a whole, yet clearly connected by material culture. In the Bronze Age, metalwork was deposited on a massive scale all over Europe, not in the least in southern Scandinavia. Research has shown that this practice was highly structured: a separation is clearly visible between metalwork placed in graves and metalwork deposited in the landscape. This practice is often interpreted as ritual. It emerged during the Bell Beaker phenomenon, traditionally associated with the introduction of metal in the Late Neolithic, and developed during the subsequent time periods. However, selective dep-osition itself was not a new phenomenon emerging during this time period. It existed in the Funnelbeaker Culture and the Single Grave Culture, involving flint axes, and has been researched thoroughly. How have these early deposition practices influenced selective metalwork deposition and what happened to them when metal appeared on the scene in the Late Neolithic? Were flint and stone objects simply replaced by metal objects within the existing practice? Furthermore, during the Funnelbeaker Culture, metal was already in circulation in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, but not in the Netherlands, yet it disappeared and was reintroduced in the Late Neolithic. How did these different phases in the introduction of metal influence selective deposition? These older selective deposition practices are examined to shed light on the emer-gence of selective metalwork deposition.

50

Ritual practices interpreted through an ontological lens: Defining Bronze and Iron Age ontologies through the study of horses and humans in wetland

deposits

Jacob Kveiborg,Moesgaard Museum and School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University


The paper explores whether or not it is possible to detect fundamentally different ontologies or ‘ontological turns’ through the study of the (zoo) archaeological record. The underlying hypoth-esis is that if we accept that non-humans beings act as constituent entities in human worlds, and that human attitude towards non-humans at the same time are sensitive to changes in human perception of the world, then human-animal relationships could be both formed by and affect how the world materialises. Changes in society and how the world is structured are thus likely to be reflected in the zooarchaeological record. The discussion departs in a case study involving two contextually similar complexes of wetland deposits of horses and humans from the Bronze and Iron Age respectively (Illerup Aadal and Tollensetal). It is suggested that the two complexes represent two fundamentally different perceptions of humans and non-humans mirroring un-derlying ontological differences between the Bronze and Iron Age in southern Scandinavia. It is further argued that the divergent ritual practices reflected in the two assemblages mirror changes observed in other parts of the archaeological record including differences in the structuring of the landscape.

51

Nordic hoards in foreign landscapes: transition of ritual practices?

Agnė Čivilytė,Lithuanian Institute for History, Vilnius


In this paper I will be examining Bronze Age hoards of Scandinavian origin that were found on the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. All these hoards contain entirely artefacts, which could be described as imports from the North. Basically, such hoards are very rare in Europe, as, in most cases, hoards and graves in remote regions far away from the main distribution area contain only one or few imported objects. Thus, the Eastern Baltic Sea region is characteristic of very specific cultural setting: there are not many bronze artefacts, the stray finds are dominating, graves with metal are also poor. It should be noted that the Early Bronze Age and, especially, the Late Bronze Age metal finds clearly demonstrate cultural influence coming from Scandinavia, particularly, from Gotland. This influence is substantiated not only by forms of artefacts, but - most impor-tantly - traces of metallurgical activity within the settlements. There is no doubt that different communities of the Bronze Age residing in different regions of the Baltic Sea coasts knew of one another’s existence and maintained close relationships. Along with the items ritual customs and traditions evolved in these regions, but then, a question arises – who practiced those ritual cus-toms and traditions – the locals or the newcomers? The question closely relates to different social contexts. If, in some regions archaeological material makes it possible to distinguish different social structures, then, archaeological findings in other regions make it very difficult to talk about any system of social hierarchy. This is precisely the situation characteristic of the Eastern Baltic region. Therefore, in this paper, I intend to make a comparison between the deposition practices in the Western and the Eastern part of the Baltic Sea coastline, mainly, by attempting to find out certain linkages and trends to subsequent written sources of posterior times and analyse ritual - religious practices, their dissemination and social significance.

52

Burials, rock art and a maritime world-view on the edge of Europe

Melanie Wrigglesworth,University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen


In this paper, I will explore burial rituals and rituals involving rock art in West Norway in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Rock art sites in west Norway are mainly found close to water, this applies specifically to sites with images of ships, while cup mark sites are usually found in higher locations. Burial cairns are also located close to water. In some cases, both rock art sites and cairns were located at the water’s edge when they first came into existence. This indicates that water was an essential part of Bronze Age ritual life in West Norway, as is the case in Scandinavia in general. My discussion will revolve around a maritime world-view, questioning the idea that Bronze Age religion was centered on the sun and its movement across the sky – does this apply to all regions in the Nordic Bronze Age? Rather, I will consider burial rituals and rock art rituals in terms of the concept of maritory as well as communal rituals, and how rituals served to maintain local and regional identities and practices that were based on a maritime view of the world.

53

Pots and potsherds from Bronze Age graves in Norway – old finds, new knowledge

Henriette Hop Wendelboe,Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen


Pottery has long been a neglected topic of research in the Norwegian Bronze Age. The sparseness of finds, the lack of research as well as the general impression of Nordic Bronze Age-pottery as plain and dull has perhaps made the study of pottery a discouraging task for many archaeologists. However, there is a definite potential for new knowledge.

The monumental Bronze Age-graves are seen as relics of the elites, individuals that held power and wealth, controlled land, resources and maintained far-reaching networks. The bronze ar-tefacts from such graves reveal influences and connections to other elite groups in and beyond Northern Europe. But what about the pottery found in these graves? What kind of vessels, com-bination of vessels, or even parts of vessels were selected to accompany the dead? What kind of influences and rituals can the pottery reveal to us, is there perhaps a different angle to the story by using the pottery as a point of departure for understanding the great mounds of the Bronze Age? Because pottery is a local craft it has the potential to provide insight in the local traditions. Not only of the ceramic craft itself, but how pottery was deposited and treated in the mortuary rituals. This paper takes the leap toward focusing on the pots and potsherds from monumental Bronze Age graves in Norway – an attempt to obtain new knowledge from old finds.

54

Comparing solar cycles

Pål Steiner,University of Bergen


Our current understanding of Nordic Bronze age religion has for a long time been shaped by comparisons, due to the lack of written sources. We draw upon material from the nordic Iron age, indo-european mythologies, but also the more distant near-eastern religions. With its wealth of written and iconographic sources, Egypt in particular, has been tapped into as an aid for the reconstruction of cosmology. It is widely recognized that much like in Egypt, nordic religion was focused on the sun’s journey through a night and a day-sky, and possibly also the hope of the individual to partake in this voyage. Looking to ancient Egypt for analogies and models has a long history by both historians of religion and archaeologists; from Ahlmgren in the 1920s to the influential studies by Kaul, Larsson and Kristiansen. Most recently, egyptologists have dipped into this debate as well.

In this presentation, I examine what has been chosen for comparison and why. With this as a point of departure I discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of drawing on an-cient egyptian cosmology in order to develop our understanding of nordic iconographic material.

55

Reflexions on the celestial representations and the imaginary world in the North-West of Europe during the Bronze Age

Florent Mathias,Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne


Some of the archaeological discoveries from the last twenty years have radically changed the way we imagined the connections between the Bronze Age societies and the sky. The recurrence of the celestial patterns—the Sun mostly, but also the Moon and the Stars to a lesser extent—and the wide distribution of the representations around the North-West of Europe are enough to point out how important the origins of these reproductions are. It is possible to start a synthetic interpretation of the symbolic universe from the Bronze Age, by looking at the large number of pictures connected to a cosmic or cosmological context.

This presentation will explore the imaginary representations of the sky by the Bronze Age popu-lations through an analysis of carefully selected iconographic and material data. We will consider the main difficulty facing this study when it comes to describing spiritual categories of societies without written sources: the study of symbols and representations on material fragments can only lead to approximate conclusions in terms of purely conceptual notions, as defined by Mau-rice Godelier in The Mental and the Material - Thought, economy and society (1984). However, the essential place of the sky and its phenomena in the life of protohistorical populations is sig-nificant enough to provide an insight into this topic.

56

Using aspects of Sami religion as basis for interpretation of Northern Fen-noscandian Rock Art during the LSA/EBA.

Lars Forsberg, Department of Archaeology, University of Bergen


Many of the interpretations of the rock art of Northern Fennoscandia have been inspired by parallells with areas where there is a historical relationship between the production of rock art and local communities (South Africa, Australia). Relatively few interpretations have, however, been based on close reading of Sami religion. The two concepts of Saivo (the underworld) and Haldir (forces of the land) are explored to give meaning to aspects of Late Stone Age/Early Metal Age rock art. Rituals connected with these concepts are suggested to have taken place at some of the rock art sites. Some indications exist of rituals taking place for longer periods of time at these sites. It is suggested that direct historical parallells with Sami ritual practices are as valid for rock art studies in the north as South African/Australian ones.

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Demography: fluctuation, composition

and mobility

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Demography amongst northern hunter-gatherers 2000-0 BC

Charlotte Damm,UiT The Arctic University of Norway


While 14C-dates and SPD analyses may provide indications of the long term demographic fluc-tuations in a region, the method is less informative when it some absolute figures. Northern Fen-noscandia is blessed with a very high number of visible dwelling remains. How might these be employed to provide details on demographic patterns? The paper will present some preliminary studies of site and dwelling numbers in Western Finnmark in order to discuss methodological challenges in quantifying population sizes locally and regionally.

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14C-dates as approach for demographic studies? Statistical analyses on case studies

Martin Hinz & Jutta KneiselKiel University


Demographic studies are currently again an emerging field in archaeology. Among the reasons for this development are the resurrected debate about ethnicity and migration due to the ad-vances in aDNA methodology, and the broad application of summed 14C dates as activity and demographic proxy. A third reason might be the growing interest in combining climatological investigations with archaeological evidence to explore the relation between climatic events and societal and cultural change in the past.

Our working group has applied several methods to estimate the demographic developments in recent projects. Currently we are working on the relationship of the 4.2 ky event and the cultural change visible in the shift from Neolithic/Chalcolithic toward Bronze Age cultures. Within this paper we would like to present results from our recent projects and especially debate the use of 14C dates for the reconstruction of demographic developments. We will demonstrate the statis-tical background for this method and how it can be made robust by sample amount, selection and binning, elimination of the effects from the calibration curve and by checking its significance using simulation approaches.

But radiocarbon dates cannot stand alone, since their distribution is subject to very different influences may not be associated with developments in the past, but are rather result from dif-ferent scientific strategies and traditions. To cope with other indicators as material culture have to explored and compared with environmental data (e.g., intensity of land use from pollen data) that can be used to correct and ‘calibrate’ the radiocarbon evidence.

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Demographic aspects in material culture, settlements and graves

Jutta Kneisel & Martin HinzKiel University


Demographical analyses with sum-calibrations is a very recent development in archaeological research. Is it really enough to use 14C-dates for analyzing ancient societies? The paper try to compare different approaches to reconstruct population pattern and density. It is necessary to discuss problems of different approaches and find solution for testing the results. From archaeo-logical research we know a gap in human activities between Early and Middle Bronze Age around 1600 BC in Central Europe. 14C-dates show us the same gap but is this just an absence of ra-diocarbon-dating or a real absence of human activities? The combination of different datasets like graves versus settlements or the addition of environmental data like pollen analyses or the frequency of colluvial events can test the sum-calibration for their validity. With this the paper like to raise some observations about the settlement sum-calibration curves for some areas in Central- and Northern Europe.

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Bycatch and Discards are a Fact of Life to a Fisherman.Temporal investigations of demography and landscape use from the Late

Neolithic to the Pre Roman Iron Age (2500-0 cal. BC) in Southeastern Norway

Steinar Solheim,Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo


Analyses of radiocarbon dates may suggest temporal fluctuations in population density or hu-man activity. The method has received increased attention in archaeology the last decade and studies range from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age. Past population collapse or rise have in several instances been attributed to the direct effects of natural or cultural events like climate change or the spread of agriculture.

In this paper I will focus on changes in demography, settlement and use of landscape from the Late Neolithic to the Pre Roman Iron Age in Southeastern Norway. During this time period we witness important changes in settlement patterns as well as the consolidation of agriculture as a central economical factor. A main aim of the paper is to activate an often neglected data set in Norwegian archaeology into scientific analyses – namely “erroneous” radiocarbon dates from Mesolithic sites. From Mesolithic sites we have numerous dates indicating activity in younger phases of Prehistory, in landscapes that was forests prior to the onset of the Late Neolithic. The question asked here is what these C14-dates represent and what they can tell us about human activity in different landscapes. Can temporal variations in demography and landscape use be discerned from the data? Should we expect another story about human activity in the region compared to data from the agricultural areas?

The focus in this paper will be to: a) Investigate temporal patterns in demography from the Late Neolithic to the Pre- Roman Iron Age in Southeastern Norway.b) Investigate temporal variation in activity in different landscapes in Southeastern Nor- way from the Late Neolithic to the Pre Roman Iron Age based on radiocarbon dates.

63

Beyond Mapping Movement: Travel and exchange

65

Rock and metal – Networks of interaction

Christian Horn,CAU Kiel, Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’

Undervisningsrom 1, Thursday 09:30

This paper presents the results of the analysis of two large datasets. Over 3500 anthropomorphic rock art figures with objects and over 12.000 finds of bronze metalwork from ritual depositions dating to the Nordic Bronze Age were analyzed using social network analysis. This work was un-dertaken to discover patterns and communities in the material and to explore the level of homo-geneity and diversity during the Nordic Bronze Age. The emerging patterns of interconnectivity will be confronted with results from isotope and anthropological studies to give an interpretation of the means and aims of intra-Scandinavian travel and exchange.

66

The Sail in the North: understanding Bronze Age Scandinavian waterbourne communication

Boel Bengtsson,Southampton University


The Scandinavian rock art, dating to the Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age, convey interesting information about the early development of the sail, pushing its use here back in time by over 2000 years! The rock art in question in conjunction with experimental sail trials and compari-sons with early use of sail in other parts of the world, suggest that the sail became increasingly important as a complement to paddling, in response to an increase in the need to transport peo-ple and goods that might have culminated around 1300 BC. Its regular use can be linked to the early development of the Scandinavian chiefdoms around 1600 BC, whence it developed from predominantly downwind sailing abilities to enabling the use of sail through a wider range of wind directions. The early Scandinavian sail would initially have been made of various different materials such as textiles, plaited grass or reed, or hides, depending on needs and resources. The combined use of sail and paddling would have significantly increased the range and intensity of regular communication in Bronze Age Scandinavia and would also have greatly facilitated water-bourne journeys beyond these shores. This research allow us to better understand the dynamics of seafaring during the period and the level of communication across the region.

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Socio-political strategies along the coast of north-western Scandinavia, 2350–1100 BCE

Knut Ivar Austvoll,Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo


Along the north-western coast of Scandinavia the reliance and utilisation of the sea set the stage for a more advance socio-political organisation. Although the sea may just as easily have func-tioned as a barrier that contributed to insular cultural distinctiveness, the technological innova-tions prompted by the Late Neolithic (i.e. ship technology), turned the sea into a connective arena of interaction and trade. This is seen with the widespread distribution of finely crafted Jutish flint daggers from Late Neolithic I, followed by a steady increase of metal, burial mounds, and settlement sites in Late Neolithic II and the Early Bronze Age. Despite having a material culture expressive of a region well-integrated within a Nordic World System, these societies are juxta-posed by a long coastline of climatic and ecological distinctiveness that forces insular practices in subsistence and organisation.

This paper will explore the contrasting practices in socio-political organisation and the strategies implemented to take advantage of the local resource potential. The dependency of trade is iden-tified as a key element to uphold power in certain regions, exercised through coercive strategies, but the paper also points to the inevitable fragility of such an organisation and the more long-term stability of cooperative strategies.

68

Harbouring the entrepreneur - Identifying and theorizing harbours in Neolithic and Bronze Age Norway

Håvard Kilhavn


This article focuses on the institution of the harbour in Late Neolithic and Bronze Age Norway. Building on the premise that seafaring played a crucial role in the spread of «the BBC package» and in the subsequent development of the Bronze Age, it explores the role harbours might have played as social institutions. Other studies have concentrated on the development of the ships themselves and the social and technological background of seafaring in the Bronze Age, focus-ing especially on the crossing of the Skagerrak. Some of these studies have also dedicated some thought upon the matter of harbours, but almost exclusively in a very functionalistic way, dis-cussing possible prehistoric crossings of the Skagerrak.

By applying Giddens’ (1984) concepts of front and back regions, it is argued that one of the im-portant unintended consequences of the establishment of agricultural settlements in the LN was the separation of the harbour from the settlement. This could contribute to uphold structures of domination and legitimisation, given that these, as argued by Prescott (2012), to a large extent rested upon the control of the transmission of knowledge. The institution of the harbour is used to contextualize this transmission of knowledge, with an emphasis on the harbour as a central arena of the entrepreneur. The first case-study from Lista illustrate how harbours were used in the very first part of the LN. The second case-study from the Oslo fjord concentrates on the longue durée of a harbour, illustrating the structural changes taking place in the LN.

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Weights and scales in the Nordic Bronze Age? Evidence for weight metrology between Central, West and North Europe

Lorenz Rahmstorf,SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen


Exchange was entirely revolutionized when weighing was invented. With weights and scales it became possible to weigh materials like precious metals. Until that time, such materials could only have been counted by pieces if they were of rather similar shape. The use of similar weight units on a supra-regionally level allowed the precise assessment of material value especially when strangers exchanged goods between them. The invention triggered exchange of a kind we can indeed call trade because it enabled the emergence of ideas like profit.

In the second half of the second millennium BC the use of weights became introduced in various parts of Europe after such artefacts had been in use since the early 3rd millennium BC in the Aegean and further east. From the centuries between ca. 1300–800 BC in Western and Central Europe we know of weighing equipment from graves (Central Europe) or settlements (Western Europe), in rare cases also from potential shipwrecks and hoards. But what is about the Nordic Bronze Age? A few scholars have suggested the existence of weight metrology in this region based on a limited amount of data which needs to be critically assessed. Hard evidence like sets of in-dubitable weights or scale beams is missing – just so far? There are clear indications from closed contexts with balance beams that Bronze Age weights can look just like pebbles. In this contribu-tion I would like to discuss what may speak in favor of the existence of the idea of weighing in the North and what actual evidence is present.

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A Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age hillfort and its settlement in Watenstedt, German district of Helmstedt.

A dominion residence or just a place “en route”? Investigations on a cen-tral-located settlement and its periphery settlements

Sergej Most, Georg-August-Universität GöttingenRobert Hintz, Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum


The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age landscape are characterized by dominion residences in Central Europe, that shaped a role in central-site organization. Apparently, fortified enclosures assumed administrative and cultural functions. Usually wide-ranged contacts to adjacent and distant culture circles can be observed. This time period is characterized by a high volume of mobility, migration and trade like no other in prehistoric archaeology. Those can be determined by findings, which can be referred to as imports. Such a manorial residence is the Hünenburg at Watenstedt, German district of Helmstedt. Located in the “Braunschweiger Land” north of the Harz Mountains it can be considered as a link between the northern and southern cultures. Modern excavations since 1998 at the hillfort and its suburbium have already shown a lot of findings of different material and features which indicate wide-ranged contacts. To investigate them concretely and to capture the intensity is part of the project “Connected Living Worlds”, which is promoted by the VW-foundation. Especially foreign goods point to wide-ranged link-age. Beside unfamiliar vessels, like the so called “Lappenschale”, there are findings of bronze, that distingiush a dominion residence with its elites and refer to a far-reaching communication. Burials in the settlement pits are another aspect of the project. Human bones in the settlement pits and the urnfields of the Late Bronze Age refer to different religious practices in that region. Besides to contacts to southern cultures, single objects also point to connections to the cultural circle of the Nordic Bronze Age. To figure out the intensity of the contacts and to clarify the role of the Hünenburg as a possible mainstay and its periphery is one of the questions that have to be solved in this project.

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Of Ships and Shoes and Sealing Wax, of Cabbages and Kings: Models for Bronze Age Mobility from the Nexus of Isotope Science and

Archaeological Theory

Samantha Reiter,Tales of Bronze Age Women Project, National Museum of Denmark


This paper takes its starting point from the high-resolution mobility timeline constructed for the Nordic Bronze Age female remains from Egtved as well as the new one recently assembled for Skrydstrup Woman and evaluates those individual mobility patterns as stepping stones for creating a model framework by which to categorize different kinds of ancient mobility patterns (i.e. unidirectional, cyclical over short- and long distances, back-and-forth and constant). Those self-same mobility categories are then associated with the various forms of social and economic exchange and networking which have been posited as modes of Bronze Age contact (i.e. mar-riage alliances and kinship circles, semi-mobile craftsmen and long- and short-distance trade). In order to place this in context against the dynamism of the Bronze Age European landscape, it will also evaluate the rapidity with which such movements occurred in relation to known ethno-graphic examples of travel between the various locations implicated by the strontium analyses.

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Scandinavia’s role in the Bronze Age copper networks of Europe – application of lead isotope and elemental analyses as a tool to understand

movement and exchange

Lena Grandin, Arkeologerna, Statens historiska museerEva Hjärthner-Holdar, Arkeologerna, Statens historiska museer

Johan Ling, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg Lene Melheim, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo


The question of metal supplies is one of the core issues of Bronze Age research in Scandinavia. Whether the metals used to create the distinguished Nordic metalwork was imported, or pro-duced from the abundant indigenous copper ores has until recently been an unresolved problem. Our multidisciplinary study has, on the basis of lead isotope and elemental analyses, concluded that the so far analyzed bronzes could not have been made from Scandinavian copper ores, al-though potentially available.

Current analytical results furthermore conclude that there are chronological variations in the supply of copper metal related to various ore types and geographical areas. The interpretation of new data-sets suggests a new and much more complex picture of possible connections between Scandinavia and Europe in Bronze Age than was previously anticipated. In addition to a steady supply of copper from Alpine ores, also sources in more southern and eastern parts of Europe can be suggested. In any case this would have demanded a rather complex transregional social organ-ization and connections with maritime networks and hubs for long-distance travel and exchange.

The chronological variation of metal supply is likewise in part contemporary to transitions from one morphologic type of implement to another. Accordingly, such changes are apt to reflect gen-eral patterns in the Bronze Age societies comprising aspects of social organization, production, exchange and consumption.

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From relative to absolute population numbers in Early Bronze Age Denmark: implications for trade, consumption and wealth

Kristian Kristiansen, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg Lene Melheim, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo


This paper makes use of recent research on the number of farms and population numbers in Denmark in order to try to quantify consumption and trade. Population density is used to calcu-late the stock of metal available to the population in northern Jutland, as well as yearly replace-ment rates for metal and other economic parameters for wealth, such as textiles. We start with the history of a single Early Bronze Age individual in Thy, and from there move on to the copper trade and its organisation. New knowledge about trade networks, based on provenance studies of Thy metalwork, enables us to better understand the human factors behind Thy’s wealth.

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Contrasts of Bronze Age Societies

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Now far ahead the road has gone: complex interdependence in the Bronze Age

Magdalena Forsgren


Bronze Age research has undergone a remarkable progression in methodologies and theories. This development begins with the sorting and classification of objects in cultural-historical ar-chaeology, through socio-economic and world-systems theories in processual archaeology, to the multi-diverse interpretive archaeology. It may not be strange, then, that today’s Bronze Age researchers have directed their attention in different ways; influenced by structural-Marxist or post-Marxist constructivist ideologies they have focused either on large-scale or small-scale studies. Even so, the view that archaeology, still, is bourgeois science has established itself as something of a truth. This line of thinking draws upon the thought that history itself is theory since it is a mental construction and therefore ideologically driven. The irony, then, is that, while Bronze Age research today shows great variation in the use of cultural and social theories, there is a significant ideological inanity. Since ideologies are refined cohesive sets of ideas and nor-mative visions which themselves cannot manifest in reality, our perception of past societies is significantly limited. Hence, social archaeology, such as it is, offers little interpretive opulence. By applying the concept of complex interdependence, borrowed from the IR-neoliberals Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, as a conceptual framework, emphasising the connection between hard and soft power in complex societies, this paper will try to do two things: 1) nuance the centre-periphery model, and 2) exploring East Central Sweden as dynamic in terms of social organisation and as culturally interdependent on other areas in far-reaching networks.

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Challenging the Chiefdom Model Employing an Anarchic Analytical Approach to Examine Socio-Political Organization during the

Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age

Christian Isendahl & Johan Ling,Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg


In Bronze Age studies the socio-political organization of Southern Scandinavian society is a cen-tral topic of investigation. Interpretations utilize a rich flora of organizational models, ranging from highly stratified societies characterized by significant elite control of resources and labour to more flat organizations and equal modes of production. In this paper we apply the anarchic analytical approach to the socio-political organization of the Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age, drawing on Angelbeck & Grier’s (2012) analysis of social complexity among the Salish on the Pacific coast of North America. We make an initial test of the efficacy of the anarchic analytical approach to examine and elucidate the nature of socio-political organization in the Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age adopting a set of critical questions, particularly pertaining to tenden-cies of centralization vs decentralization. We are neither primarily trying to overcome current differences in interpretation nor are we presenting an overriding, recognizably “anarchic” model of socio-political organization of Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age society, but we do suggest that an anarchic analysis as employed here pushes to the fore a series of interrogative questions that potentially can enrich, rather than replace, existing interpretations and models of socio-po-litical structure and institutions during the Southern Scandinavian Bronze Age. We pay special attention to two forms of societal models: an entrepreneur model (i.e. competitive systems em-phasizing the appropriation of power as a process of negotiation among social agents in which particular sets of qualities are decisive) and chiefdoms (i.e. relatively stable political systems based on hereditary chiefly institutions).

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House assemblages and domestic space through deep time

Marianne Hem Eriksen,McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge and Department of

Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo


The Bronze Age, and later prehistory at large, is often viewed from top-down perspectives: The development of chiefdoms, monumental mounds, long-distance trade, rich metal objects. In contrast, this paper asks: what does later prehistory in Scandinavia look like from the point of view of the house? In pre-industrial societies, the house frequently constitutes a primary vehicle for social and symbolic production, and a cosmological, economical, and political unit. In pre-historic Scandinavia, the basic plan of the three-aisled longhouse was built and rebuilt through almost three millennia, from the early Bronze Age to the medieval period.

A key challenge to knowledge is the fact that studies of prehistoric architecture have principally been period-specific. This paper will discuss the development of the house and domestic space through deep time, by comparing examples of houses from Rogaland county in southwest Nor-way from the Bronze Age, Pre-Roman Iron Age, and the Late Iron Age. By drawing on recent works from the ‘material turn’, the paper approaches the prehistoric longhouse as an assemblage. How did the assemblage of the house alter through time? How did the use of domestic space change – or not, in line with the contrasting societies of the Bronze and Iron Ages?

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What can artefacts tell us about societies? - Foreign objects in Bronze Age Central Europe and Scandinavia

Lukas Wiggering,Graduiertenkolleg Wert und Äquivalent


The Bronze Age is commonly understood as a period of heightened exchange and communi-cation between large parts of Europe. Many different authors have underlined the far reach of Bronze Age networks. Especially, studies on commodities and raw materials show the long-dis-tant relations. Through these interactions, the Baltic and the Aegean seas were connected. Besides goods, ideas and technologies as well as people moved in these networks. Different examples and case studies emphasise the possible influences on the receiving social groups. In the archaeological material, these influences appear in form of objects and elements that can are of foreign origin. These foreign objects are either real imports or local imitations and adop-tions. The way they were dealt with reflects different ways of reception, integration and transla-tion into the local culture. These artefacts, especially objects with a connection to the Aegean, are often considered as evidence of a heavy influence of the developed cultural ‘cores’ of the eastern Mediterranean on the less evolved societies in the Central and Northern European ‘margins’, leaving the later as passive receivers of social and cultural influences. But was the influence as strong as it is often suggested? How were foreign objects received and adopted? What can they tell us about the receiving societies and their way of handling foreign influences? And were these societies really peripheries or even margins? With the help of different case studies from Scan-dinavia and Germany during the Early Periods of the Bronze Age, these questions should be addressed in the proposed paper.

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Masters of metalworking: production and use of oversized bronze spirals in the 2nd millennium BC Carpathian Basin

Ágnes Király, Géza Szabó,

Gábor J. Tarbay, Gábor Wilhelm &

Viktória Kiss


Oversized bronze or even gold artefacts (like daggers, axes or jewels) are truly unique products of Bronze Age metalworking throughout Europe. Therefore, the discovery of the gigantic bronze spiral at Abaújdevecser (North-eastern Hungary) in 2002 startled Hungarian archaeology: the 43 cm long, 4 cm thick, 12 kg object was absolutely unprecedented that time. Due to some other fortunate ‘discoveries’ latterly, fragments of similarly large bronze spirals has come to the fore-front of archaeological research in the last two years. In the presentation we collect information regarding either several similarly large bronze spirals that recently came to light from depots or their normal size versions discovered from burial contexts. Besides investigating the chronology, the production technology and the possible use and discard of these oversized objects, we aim to set them into functional and social context by comparing them to the same types known from burials Without being irrational, our presentation will focus on the following questions:

What are the general aims/cognitive drives of making oversized objects? In which context and for what were they used for in the Bronze Age? Are they to be related to overrepresentation of ritual/mundane power or demonstrating wealth, industrial skills or a special status within the social network? Were they tools of creating/strengthening collective bonds or were they exclusive goods of a small (elite?) group of people? How can the phenomenon be integrated into the chain of social transformations throughout the Carpathian Bronze Age?

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Bronze Age World or worlds: using beltboxes to think about how relationships are furthered by objects

Marie Louise Stig Sørensen,Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge


In this paper I aim to explore how different types or scales of influences - local, regional and pan-regional - may be expressed within female ornaments from the Late Bronze Age, in particu-lar beltboxes. I aim to discuss whether we can talk about who/what were influencing and who or what were being influenced, or in other words some of the dynamics between people and objects in terms of production and use. I will take two foci in order to reflect on where and how different kinds of influences come into play. One is the design of the beltboxes themselves, as part of a ‘purposeful making process’ - how do we analytically comprehend their variations, in particular who/what were the agents behind their different ‘looks’? The other focus is the variation in how the beltboxes are employed in hoards and to what extent their ‘beltboxness’ is enhanced or used in the hoading practices, was this a quality that mattered or are they merely included as objects.

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Mobility, ceramic production, and identity in south Scandinavia during the Late Bronze Age

Torbjörn Brorsson, Ceramic Studies Serena Sabatini, University of Gothenburg

Peter Skoglund, Linnaeus University


This paper aims at discussing and problematizing issues of mobility and long distance contacts throughout the continent using a bottom-up perspective. We aim to bring to the wider scholarly attention the potential that a closer study of local ceramic productions in southern Scandinavia may have for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the Late Bronze Age international networks. A preliminary interdisciplinary study of the ceramic productions from various South Scandinavian settlements and burial grounds has unveiled unsuspected production and con-sumption patterns. All material seems locally made, but a combination of technological and tax-onomic features suggests that a number of ceramic productions represent clear signs of non-local influences. In addition the distribution pattern of such ceramics seems to confirm that they were selected for specific purposes and were not accessible or used by every community. Our hypoth-esis is that even apparently simple locally produced vases might have been significant identity markers for the people able or willing to use them.

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Political and moral economies in Bronze Age society

David Fontijn,Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University


The rise of Pan-European metalwork exchange networks is generally regarded as a game-changer in Europe’s deep history. Yet, opinions differ significantly on the way in which metal was valu-able and significant to Bronze Age people. On the one hand, there is a widely accepted theory which links the importance of metal to the workings of globalised political economies in which prestige and power are central. One the other hand, there are theories that primarily see the meaning of metal as something that can only be understood bottom-up from cultural values in local social settings. In this contribution, I will argue that the contradictions between these two opposing theories of Bronze Age society can be resolved by re-adjusting ideas on what a Bronze Age economy was and what it brought about. Using the case study of the deliberate destruction and permanent deposition of valuable metalwork in Northwest Europe, I will argue that it was a specific constellation of ‘political’ and ‘moral economies’ that gave the Bronze Age its unprece-dented social dynamic.

Accepting this notion of a Bronze Age ‘economy of destruction’ has repercussions for how we assess the deep history of Europe, but also for how we perceive ourselves today.

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Centres of wealth

Henrik Thrane,School of Culture and Society - Prehistoric Archaeology, Aarhus University


What does the concept mean? Which conditions should be present in order to use the term as a research tool? I check some of the elements and suggest a model which stresses diversity and change during the Bronze Age as essential to our understanding of the period.

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Farming: A defining element of the Nordic

Bronze Age?

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Agriculture in South Scandinavia in the Earliest Bronze Age

Jens Winther Johannsen,Roskilde Museum

Auditorium 2, Friday 09:30

It is often emphasized that the growing importance of metal and the interactions with new pow-erful, metal consuming societies on the continent was a catalyst of the development in Late Ne-olithic/Early Bronze Age Scandinavia, and that the metal import to Scandinavia was based on a widespread internal Scandinavian exchange system already established in the Middle Neolithic first and foremost on the demand of flint.

The internal exchange and the interaction with the continent must however have been based on a general surplus in the Late Neolithic society, and the base of this surplus must be sought in the period’s agricultural strategy.

Our knowledge of agriculture in the Late Neolithic/Earliest Bronze Age is scarce. A monumental house dated to the Late Neolithic Phase II from Vinge in Northern Zealand, Denmark, however include various indications of a diverse economy consisting of a combination of livestock farm-ing and growing of several different crops. On the base of this, and results from other contem-porary Danish and South Swedish sites, it is suggested that the evidence of a new agricultural strategy together with the various indication of social inequality and contacts to the continent, must be seen as the beginning of a new era in the Scandinavian prehistory.

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Primitive Farming or Farming the Primitive

Søren Diinhoff,University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen


Until recently agricultural settlements of the Bronze Age in Norway were missing. The lack of finds left the research in a vacuum in between the better founded studies of the predating hunter – gatherer societies and the full scale farming of the later Iron Age. The early farming would be explained as the link in between the two and as an evolutionistic necessity the period was pre-sented as a primitive pioneering phase on the northern borders of what was possible. However, archaeological excavations of the last ten to fifteen years have produced a number of Bronze Age sites, allowing a renewed understanding of the early farming societies and challenging the myth of evolutionistic primitiveness. On the other hand one may question, if it is really possible to draw close parallels between the Bronze Age farming of the South Scandinavian lowlands and the borderlands of Norway. There has to be a difference. This paper shall discuss the different agricultural technological and economic strategies in question based on an analysis of excavated settlement and field systems.

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Of course grain harvest but what about storage? Contrast between settlement pits and ceramics in the Nordic Bronze Age

and the low mountain range in Lower Saxony and neighbouring areas

Immo Heske,Institute for Prehistory, University of Göttingen


Settlements of the Early and Middle Bronze Age are hardly to detect. Stray finds as an indicator of households and settled areas are often rare and in the graves ceramics do not play a significant role. Prospections in areas with preserved burial mounds give a chance to get more information about the locations of the houses. It is quiet clear that Middle Bronze Age people are farmers most of their lifespan, but what about storage?

The Late Bronze Age shows a very different picture with huge amounts of ceramics and expanded areas with settlement pits. Nevertheless, in some regions the houses are rare like in the Middle Bronze Age.

So the question is, is farming a defining element for the Nordic Bronze Age or is the way of stor-age and use of ceramics different to other cultures in the same period.

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Field systems in Rogaland and their variation in crop and weed pollen as-semblages from the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age

Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen & Erik Daniel Fredh, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger


In relation to legally required rescue excavations, pollen from prehistoric field systems have been sampled and analyzed for nearly half a century in the county of Rogaland, western Norway. In this region, field systems started to build up during Late Neolithic (c. 2000 BC), followed by a di-verse variation in field morphology during succeeding periods (open versus enclosed permanent fields and/or defined lynchets). In this study, pollen samples from 20 sites have been compiled and analyzed using ordination techniques (Canoco 5) to investigate the variation in crop plant assemblages and their corresponding weed flora through time. At some sites, fields covering sev-eral periods have been recorded. All fields are radiocarbon dated using macroscopic twigs, cere-als fragments or seeds. Is it possible to separate Late Neolithic fields from Bronze Age and Iron Age fields based on pollen composition? If so, is this variation due to differences in agricultural practices? Are the weed assemblages associated with specific crops?

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Revitalising «gender» as a concept in the Bronze Age

discourse

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Multi-provenance isotopic investigations of archaeological human remains of single individuals: The new case study of the Skrydstrup Woman

Karin Margarita Frei, National Museum of Denmark

Undervisningsrom 1, Friday 09:30

Strontium isotopic investigations are often applied to archaeological human remains in order to identify if the individuals fund at a certain site are of local or non-local origin. However, in cases where scalp hair and/or nails are preserved novel methods developments have recently allowed the in-detail mobility investigation of the last months/years of a person’s life. The Bronze Age female known as the Egtved Girl buried in a mound in Denmark, was our first case study and it provided us with new important evidence of high degree of mobility of a single young individual. However, we need more examples if we wish to know if this was a single case of high mobility, or if other females from the same period did also travel as much. This presentation will therefore take its point of departure on another Bronze Age high status female find from Denmark, known as the Skrydstrup Woman. The new results will be discussed from an archaeological standpoint with the hope to be able to gain new knowledge on ancient social dynamics within the European Bronze Age landscape.

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The Egtved Girl - Fremde Frau or multi-local? A gendered perspective of women and mobility in the Bronze Age

Louise Felding, Aarhus University and Vejle Museerne


This paper will investigate gender roles in relation to mobility in the Bronze Age, with focus on the female oak-coffin burials from present day Denmark.

Mobility and changeability are at the core of Bronze Age society, and women are actors within this framework. This paper explores aspects of female identities, social roles and how these are linked to mobility.

With the recent studies of the Egtved Girl (Frei et. al. 2015) it is now possible to follow the life history of a single gendered individual. The study has helped raise new questions about mobil-ity and gender roles in the Early Bronze Age, allowing for a novel approach to this topic. With the isotopic (Sr) results showing that the Egtved Girl was of ‘non-local’ origin, we are forced to discuss how we navigate our conceptions of ‘being local´ in relation to expressions of gendered identity. The need for a micro-scale investigation on an individual level seems necessary in order to bring new understanding to the macro-scale movements on regional and inter-regional levels.

Using the Egtved Girl as a case study, this paper highlights the social and gendered implications of movement and travel. The concept of being multi-local is introduced as a scope for future research.

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A gendered view on travel in the Bronze Age

Sophie Bergerbrant, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg


Gender and the movement of people were important themes in my dissertation (2007). New methods and ground-breaking investigations in the field of science have made this topic highly significant again (Frei et al. 2015; Allentoft et al. 2015; Kristiansen et al. 2016; Ling et al. 2013, 2014). However, the relevant studies have not taken a gender perspective or viewed the results in a broader archaeological context. This paper aims to discuss these new scientific results from the archaeological foundation presented in Bergerbrant 2007 and from a gender and migration theoretical framework. What else can be said about migration and journeys in the Bronze Age, and how do we interpret the different gender patterns that have been discerned? Who were the travellers and how does this relate to our current interpretations?

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The woman in the Rege mound – poised between the here and the beyond

Kristin Armstrong Oma, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger


The woman in the Rege burial on Jæren, southwestern Norway, was buried in a large mound inside a chamber decorated with carvings. She wore fine bronze jewellery, a belt plate, a spiral ended fibula and bracelets as well as a collar. Bronze tubes indicates that she wore a corded skirt. Hers is the only burial of an ascertained female with a dagger, an insignia normally found in male graves. The remains of the woman and her costume and burial goods is not as well preserved as of her more famous “sister” in the Egtved mound. But her appearance must have been similar, as is the context of her burial. In this paper I will look at the life world of this woman based on both the recent results from contemporary female graves in Denmark, and also recent excavations of Early Bronze Age settlement sites on Jæren, southwestern Norway. Was she one of the farmers of the local agricultural settlements? If so – what was her role in society? Or was she a stranger from a strange land, of the realm of mythical time-space that Mary Helms refers to? If so – how did the farmers and their society respond to this sphere?

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Chiefly masculinity - expressing an individual?

Lisbeth Skogstrand,Directorate for Cultural Heritage


New scientific methods have given rise to a renewed focus on individuals in prehistory. Individ-ual life stories give colours and a special nearness to past humans and communities. Feminist theory and research have traditionally engaged in how systems and structures create gendered biases and asymmetrical power relations, and how gender is performed as collective practices. Is feminist theory, then, fit to explore prehistory on an individual level? Are individuals of interest to comprehend gender in the past?

In this paper I will explore how feminist theory may provoke understanding of an individual, and how this contributes to our knowledge of prehistoric communities. Based on the findings in the Lusehøj mound at Funen in Denmark, the richest burial we know from the Nordic Late Bronze Age, I will discuss the individual expression of masculinity. Is the performance of masculinity in an elite burial primarily a symbolic expression of hegemonic notions of masculinity in society, or is masculinity on the level of individuals mainly a matter of identity?

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Lithics of the Bronze Age – materials, types, contexts and

technologies

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Late Neolithic Dynamic Density

Jan Apel,Lund University


Because of their exceptionally good preservation and reductive character prehistoric stone tool technologies allow accurate reconstructions of different culturally specific methods and tech-niques. Such information can in turn be used to discuss and deep history of complete produc-tions chains as well as single technological traits and may thus shed light on cultural hybridiza-tion and stability. In this presentation I will discuss the Late Neolithic stone tool technology in western Sweden from this perspective.

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Lithic procurement and production in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age in southern Norway, expressions of a cultural mosaic?

Astrid J. Nyland,Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger


Point of departure for this paper is a perception of the Late Neolithic transition in southern Nor-way as a developing ‘mosaic’, not as an introduction and adoption of a ‘Neolithic’ package. This is of consequence of the following developments. While there is no doubt that there are profound changes in the archaeological record around 2350 BC, including the introduction and sudden domination of bifacial lithic technology, there is a merge of cultural traditions too. Bifacial tech-nology has previously been perceived as a ‘flint-dependent’ technology, linked to immigrating Bell Beaker ‘entrepreneurs’ from Denmark. However, at numerous sites located inland, in moun-tainous regions, and at the coast, arrowheads were made of a variety of rock types. Indeed, in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, the exploitation of quartzite quarries persisted from earlier peri-ods, and new quarries were established. The use of either quartzite or flint has previously partly supported a theory of cultural dualism or divide between inland ‘Arctic’ hunters, and coastal ‘European’ Bronze Age Farmers. Instead, I propose that lithic raw material preferences in the Bronze Age was a question of pragmatism, availability, and seasonal resource exploitation, not cultural affinity. Furthermore, at a time where lithic procurement and production are normally interpreted as disintegrating and stopping, it continued well into the Pre-Roman Iron Age in large parts of southern Norway. Thus, I argue that the developing local lithic procurement prac-tices and bifacial technology should be regarded a characteristic cultural feature of the Bronze Age in this region.

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Arrow shafts preserved in ice shed light on lithic traditions

Julian Martinsen,Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo


The Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age shows a definitive change in the material of both projectile points and arrowshafts. It ushers in a period of rapid change and experimentation that we can trace in the arrow material from the ice patches in Norway. From these high mountain sites there have been recovered at least 61 arrows radiocarbon dated to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Of these 32 are from the Bronze and a majority of the Neolithic shafts are dated to the Late Neolithic. From other parts of Europe certain parts of the Neolithic and Bronze Age have preserved arrow shafts, but to our knowledge the sites in Norway are the only sites with preserved arrows in the time period 2500-1800 BC. This gives us a unique material for understanding both projectile points themselves and the tools used for the woodworking as well.

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Knapped quartz in Finnish Bronze Age cairns

Jarkko Saipio,University of Helsinki


Continued importance of quartz as a raw material in Bronze Age Finland has never been ques-tioned. Quartz flakes, cores and objects are especially abundant in Bronze Age settlements of the Finnish interior. However, knapped quartz encountered in Bronze Age cairns has not been much commented in Finnish Bronze Age studies. The main reason for this is, ironically, the visible role of quartz in the find assemblages of Bronze Age and Stone Age dwelling sites. The image of quartz as something belonging to everyday life is so strong that relevance of quartz pieces that show signs of being knapped is often questioned when such pieces are encountered in a cairn context. When not thrown away in the field as questionable cases, they have frequently been treated as indications of a dwelling site pre-dating the cairn. However, a closer look at such finds suggests that quartz found from cairns does require a specific explanation – or rather, multiple explana-tions. This paper focuses on knapped quartz found in four cairn excavations led by the author in south-eastern Finland. These quartz finds have brought up two important points when examined against earlier finds. Firstly, knapped quartz is probably much more common in Finnish Bronze Age cairns than traditionally thought. Secondly, cairn-related Bronze Age quartz knapping is clearly a specific phenomenon but has also intriguing variation even within a small geographic area.

This paper takes aim at exploring the great changes we see in the material and design of the arrow shaft and projectile points. In this material we have complete arrows that we can directly date on the organic components. Broadly the finds from 2200-1200 BC will be presented, while the de-tailed cases will focus on 2000-1500 BC. Central question will be technology changes can we see in both material categories and how can the construction of the arrow shafts themselves inform us about the lithic points that have been attached to them?

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Stone Dead! Lithic material in Bronze Age burials

Nils Anfinset,University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen


For a long time one has been well aware that lithic material was used for a very long period of time in Norway, including both the Bronze Age and the Pre-Roman Iron Age, although this has not given us increased understanding of its use and variation in raw materials and types of artefacts. The Late Neolithic and Bronze Age has to a large degree focused on burials, settlement pattern, landscape, rock art, agriculture and not at least metal and metallurgy. However, one of the main sources of material in these periods is the less studied group of lithic material. In this paper, we will take a closer look at what types of lithic material is found in burials mainly dated to the Bronze Age in Western Norway. This includes raw materials, types of lithic artefacts which are found in burial contexts from Southwestern Norway to Trøndelag, including both technological and ritual/symbolic aspects.

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Panel Discussion

Bronze Age research: Past, present and future

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Bronze Age research: Past, present and future

Christopher Prescott & Herdis Hølleland


This year’s Nordic Bronze Age Symposium in Oslo represents the conference’s 40th anniversary. Through the years papers presenting contrasting approaches to Bronze Age research have been presented: Spectacular finds, meticulous empirical studies, methodological breakthroughs, theo-retical queries and ground breaking interpretations.

An important result of the Symposium is that different schools of archaeological thought from the whole Nordic region have met and energetically discussed the Bronze Age. Bronze Age re-search - and the Nordic Symposium - has served as a vanguard for archaeological research, the list is long: social theory, semiotics, dating, excavation method, ritual, landscape, domestic space, warfare, gender, technology, art, symbolism, interaction, exchange and migration - to mention some. A 40th anniversary is an opportunity to take stock of the past, sum up the present and think about the future. This panel discussion have invited scholars to discuss the historiography, history of ideas and theoretical perspective of Bronze Age research.

Panelists:

- Kristian Kristiansen - Kristin Armstrong Oma - Jan Apel - Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

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Maps and Information

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Getting to George Sverdrups hus, Blindern:

From Oslo Central Station:

- Metro, Line 4 or 5 (Red) - stop: Blindern.

- Tram, nr. 17 or 18 (Blue) - stop: Universitetet Blindern.

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1135

12351202 1205120412031209 12111210

1212 12141213 1215 12161219 12211220

12251227

1222 1223 1224 1228 1229 1230 1231

1104

1232 1233 1234 1236

11331129

1123

1120

11211119b

1114

1115

1112

1111

11131107 1108 11091106

1102B

1105

1102

1303

1330

1333

1304

1308

1309 1334

1305 1331

1119 1123b

1122

1123c

1324

1531

1524

1314

15161511

1132

1512

1515

1514

1513

1509

1501

1534

1518B

1518

1521

1522

1523

1528

1529

1525

1530

1526

15271525B

1542

1508

1507

1505

1504

1517

1313

1351

1126B 1130B

1136

1532

1128

1544

1126 1130

1401

1127 1127B

12071206 1217

1321

1322

1323

1328

1326

1325

1327

1312A

1312B

Dato:16.01.17Mål:1:500

BlindernBL27Georg Sverdrups husEtasje: 01

Målriktig kun i A4

Space Manager Pythagoras AB Lisensen tilhører Universitetet i Oslo

50 m0

3201

3302

3138

32173208 3218

3243B

3241

3202 32063205 3207320432033209 32113210

3212 32143213 3215 32163219 32213220

3222 3223 32243229 3230

3147

3232 3236

313631203122c

3123

3118

31213119b

3114

3116

3111

3112

31133107 3108 31093106

3103

3105

3102

3304

3308

3309

3312

3305

3118b

3119

3118d

3118c

3123b

31223122b

3123c3126B 3130B

3351 33453342 3343 33443341

3313

3134

31353134c 3136b3134b 3136c

31443140 3141

3142

3243

3143

32283225 3226

3129

3303

3307

3231

3404

3521

3515

3513

3512

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3402

3405

3403

3527

3524

3501

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3126 3130

3227

Dato:24.03.17Mål:1:500

BlindernBL27Georg Sverdrups husEtasje: 03

Målriktig kun i A4

Space Manager Pythagoras AB Lisensen tilhører Universitetet i Oslo

50 m0

1 2

Entrance floor (Auditorium 2)

3rd floor (Undervisningsrom 1 and 2)

George Sverderups hus

115

Pizza evening, Wednesday 7. June

Address:

FrokostkjellerenKarl Johans Gate 470162 Oslo

116

Conference dinner, Thursday 8. June

Address:

Museum of Cultural HistoryFrederiks Gate 20164 Oslo

117

First Name Last Name Institution E-mail

Nils Anfinset University Museum, University of Bergen

[email protected]

Jan Apel Lund University [email protected]

Liv Appel Museum Nordsjælland [email protected]

Barbara Armbruster

Kristin Armstrong Oma University of Stavanger [email protected]

Johan Eilertsen Arntzen UiT The Arctic University of Norway

[email protected]

Knut Ivar Austvoll Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, UiO

[email protected]

Annette Baus University of Exeter [email protected]

Jens-Henrik Bech Museum Thy [email protected]

Boel Bengtsson Southampton University [email protected]

Sophie Bergerbrant Department of Historical Stud-ies, University of Gothenburg

[email protected]

Ulf Bertilsson Svenskt HällristningsForskning-sArkiv

[email protected]

Malou Blank Department of Historical Stud-ies, University of Gothenburg

[email protected]

Katarina Botwid Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University

Torbjörn Brorsson Ceramic Studies, Sweden [email protected]

Agnė Čivilytė Lithuanian Institute for History

Garry Craine Tintagel [email protected]

Charlotte Damm UiT The Arctic University of Norway

[email protected]

Søren Diinhoff University of Bergen [email protected]

James Dodd Aarhus University [email protected]

Marianne Hem Eriksen University of Cambridge/ University of Oslo

[email protected]

Fredrik Fahlander Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

[email protected]

Attendees

118

Louise Felding Aarhus University [email protected]

David Fontijn Faculty of Archaeology Universi-ty of Leiden

[email protected]

Lars Forsberg University of Bergen [email protected]

Magdalena Forsgren [email protected]

Elpidia Giovanna Fregni [email protected]

Karin Margarita Frei National Museum of Denmark [email protected]

Lise Frost Moesgaard Museum [email protected]

Lena Grandin Arkeologerna, Statens historiska museer

[email protected]

Knut Helskog Tromsø University Museum, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

[email protected]

Merete Henriksen NTNU University Museum [email protected]

Immo Heske Institute for Prehistory, Universi-ty of Göttingen

[email protected]

Robert Hintz Braunschweigisches Landesmu-seum

[email protected]

Christian Horn Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel

[email protected]

Karen Margrethe Hornstrup [email protected]

Mari Høgestøl Museum of Archaeology, Univer-sity of Stavanger

[email protected]

Herdis Hølleland NIKU [email protected]

Christian Isendahl Department of Historical Stud-ies, University of Gothenburg

Leif Karlenby Arkeologgruppen AB [email protected]

Håvard Kilhavn [email protected]

Gitte Kjeldsen University of Stavanger [email protected]

Jutta Kneisel Kiel University

Mark Knight Cambridge Archaeological Unit [email protected]

Kristian Kristiansen Department of Historical Stud-ies, University of Gothenburg

[email protected]

Maikel Kuijpers Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University

[email protected]

119

Jacob Kveiborg Moesgaard Museum [email protected]

Joanna Lawrence University of Cambridge [email protected]

Magnus Ljunge Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

Julie Lund Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, UiO

[email protected]

Reidar Magnusson Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård [email protected]

Julian Martinsen Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

[email protected]

Helen Marton Falmouth University [email protected]

Florent Mathias Université Paris 1 Pan-théon-Sorbonne

[email protected]

Lene Melheim Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

[email protected]

Lisa-Elen Meyering Durham University [email protected]

Sergej Most Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

[email protected]

Andreas Nilsson Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University

[email protected]

Camilla Nordby University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen

[email protected]

Astrid Nyland Archaeological Museum, Univer-sity of Stavanger

[email protected]

Heide Wrobel Nørgaard Aarhus University, Schoof of Culture and Society

[email protected]

Dag Erik Færø Olsen Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, UiB

[email protected]

Christopher Prescott The Norwegian Institute in Rome, UiO

[email protected]

Lisbeth Prøsch-Danielsen Museum of Archaeology, Univer-sity of Stavanger

[email protected]

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury Austrian Academy of Sciences [email protected]

Serena Sabatini Department of Historical Stud-ies, University of Gothenburg

[email protected]

120

Ellinor Sabel Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård [email protected]

Jarkko Saipio University of Helsinki [email protected]

Anette Sand-Eriksen Museum of Cultural History [email protected]

Almut Schülke Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

[email protected]

Samantha Scott National Museum of Denmark [email protected]

Peter Skoglund Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Linnaeus University

[email protected]

Lisbeth Skogstrand Directorate for Cultural Heritage [email protected]

Steinar Solheim Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

Marie Louise Stig Sorensen University of Cambridge [email protected]

Heidrun Stebergløkken NTNU University Museum [email protected]

Pål Steiner University of Bergen [email protected]

Kristine Orestad Sørgaard University of Stavanger [email protected]

Magnus Tangen Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

[email protected]

János Gábor Tarbay Hungarian National Museum [email protected]

Henrik Thrane Aarhus University [email protected]

Kjersti Tidemansen Statens vegvesen Norsk vegmuseum

[email protected]

Andreas Toreld Stiftelsen för dokumentation av Bohusläns hällristningar

Marieke Visser Leiden University [email protected]

Joakim Wehlin Stiftelsen Dalarnas museum [email protected]

Henriette Hop Wendelbo [email protected]

Helene Whittaker University of Gothenburg [email protected]

Lukas Wiggering Graduiertenkolleg “Wert und Äquivalent” Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

[email protected]

Roger Wikell [email protected]

Jens Winther Johannsen ROMU [email protected]

121

Melanie Wrigglesworth University of Bergen, University Museum

[email protected]

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