This time period saw a shift towards agriculture and, consequently, new sedentary lifeways, new social relations and new knowledge systems. Yet, old foraging lifeways lingered, and people continued to exploit a variety of wild resources, from the coast to the highlands. At the same time, long-distance overseas trade escalated, and evidence of migrations and conflict have been registered all over Europe.
Did agriculture arrive with colonizers? Was it one or several ethnic groups who populated the diverse environments of present-day Norway? Did population groups live in harmony, exploiting different niches, or did they fight over resources? In what ways did notions of kinship and belonging evolve with agriculture? How did food practices interfere with group identity, and how did the new lifeways affect ritual practices?
SCAPES will answer research questions related to identity, ethnicity and culture with the help of a theoretical framework where focus will be on collective action, knowledge transfer, ecological adaptation and multispecies relations. We explore how the transition to agriculture shaped human relations, as well as relations between humans, animals and landscapes.
Interdisciplinarity
SCAPES will bring together collaborators in archaeology, genetics, isotope studies and geochemistry to provide an interdisciplinary and innovative research environment that can illuminate the social and economic processes behind population change. By focusing on human, environmental, human-animal and social aspects, SCAPES also challenges current discussions based on ancient DNA (aDNA). We combine the latest aDNA results with multi-isotope methods and traditional archaeological analysis, contextualised within a humanistic, theoretical framework, and aim towards a better understanding of what this transitional period meant for individuals and groups.
Through analyses of aDNA and isotopes, the project will seek new knowledge about lineages, mobility and disease on population level as well as individual level. SCAPES will produce detailed information about food webs and dietary change, which allows us to explore social aspects such as nutrition strategies, food taboos, gender roles and social status. The isoscapes we produce for present-day Norway will reveal the individual mobility and serve as a benchmark for future researchers investigating diet and mobility in Norwegian prehistory.
Research questions
Through a bottom-up study of processes at the fringe of Europe, the project will challenge and contribute to the development of the Eurasian grand narratives:
- How can archaeogenetic and stable isotope datasets contribute a new support for investigating the emergence of Bronze Age agriculture and society?
- How did social complexity, based on interactions between humans, other animals and the environment, shift with the introduction of agriculture?
- In which ways are processes of profound social change reflected in gendered bodies, ritual and land-use?
- How did the integration of new technologies shape mobility patterns and networks?
SCAPES is organised around four work packages.
The project is funded by the Norwegian Research council.
