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Kulturhistorisk museum er Norges ledende forskningsmuseum innen kulturhistorie. Våre forskere publiserer vitenskapelige artikler, bøker, tidsskrifter og annen formidling. Se våre siste publikasjoner.
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While International Relations scholars have recently excavated a number of systems previously unstudied by the discipline, few have discussed the emergence of fully-fledged systems in prehistory. Fully-fledged system have continuous multilinear (between more than two units at the time) and multidimensional (more than one institution in evidence) interaction at its core. Drawing mainly on extant archaeological research, we examine the European Bronze Age. We find that Indo-European in-migrating herders during the third millennium BCE established patron-led polities based on the steppe practices of the clients’ oath to his patron and the patron’s feast. A third practice, the guest/host relationships between patrons, anchored Europe’s first regional inter-polity systems. We also find that, due to an increase in interaction capacity caused by better boat building, horse-transport and the emergence of new technologies that made possible warfare at a distance, there systems were harbingers of a European-wide system of what we call Central Site Polities. We conclude that European inter-polity systems hail from the Bronze Age and suggest that the practices on which these systems rested are still, mutatis mutanda, with us. Further work on possible genealogical ties between the Central Site System and subsequent European systems awaits.
Ball brooches make a difficult research theme in Denmark. This is mainly because very few of the hitherto published specimens were found in a context or under circumstances that help to shed light on their chronology. The most recently published study is a very brief paper by Jesper Laursen on the chronology and typology of ball brooches (Laursen 1984). Laursen’s paper was published at a time when hobby metal detecting was only at its early stages in Denmark. Therefore, this hobby had not yet had its impact on the material. Metal detecting favors objects with much metal and since cultivated soil contains a lot of iron waste most hobby detectorists tend to screen for iron. Consequently, objects of bronze, silver and gold will have a tendency to dominate the finds brought in by these people, and especially massive objects. Thus, ball brooches, especially the cast bronze specimens, would have a good chance to be detected and collected. As the internet developed, some private sites were established were the finders themselves published their finds. Recently the app named DIME was launched by University of Aarhus (in September 2018) and until today (29.09.2021) 121.186 finds have been registered by private users in the database. The newly available information, correlated with the previous ones, offers the possibility of a preliminary study of the ball brooches, as demonstrated in this article.
Archaeologically produced knowledge of pre-history has grown to a point where International Relations (IR) may begin to incorporate it in their own work. In this article, we try to facilitate this process by introducing IR scholars to archaeology’s material data and ways of thinking about it. New types of systems units such as households and kinship emerged in pre-history and had effects on temporality and territoriality as well as knock-on effects on institutions such as war and trade. If we understand the origins of these phenomena better, we are better equipped to understand how they work at the present time. Focussing on a key topic in IR, namely systems emergence, we splice archaeological and IR approaches to systems. Four key factors for systems emerge appear: competition for resources, interaction capacity, social imitation and stable food resources. We then show how these factors were at work in the two earliest proto-systems to be found in Europe, namely House Polity Proto-Systems (9.000-4.500 BCE) and Segmentary Polity Proto-Systems (4.500-2.500 BCE). They are still active. We conclude that when studies of pre-historic systems, institutions and practices point up deep structural factors like, we should not expect them to lose their relevance any time soon.
Documentation and examination are the essence of runological fieldwork. As discussed here, the recording aspect concerns the inscriptions, particularly the runes, themselves. The documentation of runic carvings is a multifaceted activity. It ranges from the production of reading protocols during the examination of inscriptions to the utilization of various techniques for registering what is found on the runic object: (a) visually, i.e. with drawings or photographs, (b) physically, e.g. with squeezes or casts, and (c) scientifically, such as by employment of microscopes, 3D scanning or most recently Reflectance Transformation Imaging. The main requirement for all such documentation is objectivity.
Glacial archaeology is a developing field, brought on by climate change. High mountain ice is melting, which has led to the exposure of artifacts in North America, Mongolia, the Alps, and Scandinavia. The highest number of finds and sites in the world are reported from Innlandet County, Norway. We present our methods of finding and documenting glacial archaeological sites in Innlandet based on 15 years of experience. Sites are found using a combination of local information on the ground and remote sensing. Fieldwork takes place in three steps: an exploratory survey for assessment, systematic surveys for documentation, and monitoring in case of further ice retreat. The harsh environment makes the logistics very different from regular archaeology at lower elevations. Fieldwork methods are described in detail. The continuing retreat of mountain ice worldwide makes the Innlandet experience increasingly pertinent to the practice of field archaeology.
Uncovering anthropogenic and environmental drivers behind past biological change requires integrated analyses of long-term records from a diversity of disciplines. We applied an interdisciplinary approach exploring effects of human land-use and environmental changes on vegetation dynamics at Lake Ljøgottjern in southeastern Norway during the Holocene. Combined analysis of pollen and sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) metabarcoding of the sedimentary sequence of the lake describes the vegetation dynamics at different scales, and establishes a timeline for pastoral farming activities. We integrate this reconstruction with geochemical analysis of the sediments, climate data, archaeological evidence of local human settlement and regional human population dynamics. Our data covering the last 10,000 years reveals consistent vegetation signals from pollen and sedaDNA indicating periods of deforestation connected to cultivation, matching the archaeological evidence. Multivariate analysis integrating the environmental data from geochemical and archaeological reconstructions with the vegetation composition indicates that the vegetation dynamics at Lake Ljøgottjern were primarily related to natural processes from the base of the core (in ca. 8000 BCE, Mesolithic) up to the Early Iron Age (ca. 500 BCE–550 CE), when agricultural activities in the region intensified. The pollen signal reflects the establishment of a Bronze Age (ca. 1800–500 BCE) farm in the area, while subsequent intensification of pollen concentrations of cultivated plants combined with the first sedaDNA signals of cultivation and pastoralism are consistent with evidence of the establishment of farming closer to the lake at around 300 BCE. These signals also correspond to the intensification of agriculture in southeastern Norway in the first centuries of the Early Iron Age. Applying an interdisciplinary approach allows us to reconstruct anthropogenic and environmental dynamics, and untangle effects of human land-use and environmental changes on vegetation dynamics in southeastern Norway during the Holocene.
The stone inscribed with older runes from Fuglset in Molde municipality, western Norway, was found in 1939 and published by Magnus Olsen in 1941. It is mentioned in a footnote in Krause and Jankuhn's corpus edition (1966). Since the mid-1980s, however, the author (head of the Runic Archives in Oslo) suspected it to be modern. Thus it came to be included in the corpus of an Oslo thesis from 2001 on Norwegian post-Reformation runic inscriptions. More recently it came to the attention of the Runic Archives that the finder had in 1997 sent a letter to the University Museum in Trondheim in which he owned up to having himself carved the runes and thus set the record straight.
Når og hvorfor oppstod det norrøne rettssystemet og hvor var tingstedene lokalisert? Dette er tema som lenge har vært ubesvart i norsk og nord-europeisk historie. I Rettens landskap. Tingsteder og rettskretser i Viken i jernalder og middelalder undersøkes stedene for rettsmøter (tingsteder) og den administrative organisasjonen i det historiske Viken-området: de kystnære og sentrale delene av Sørøst-Norge, fra Telemark i vest til Bohuslän i øst. Dette geografiske området utgjør Borgartingets lovområde i middelalderen. Gjennom arkeologiske funn, onomastiske, topografiske og historiske kilder, diskuteres fremveksten av det juridiske landskapet i et langtidsperspektiv fra jernalder til middelalder, det vil si perioden 100–1600 e.Kr. Et gjennomgående tema er når rettssystemet oppsto og hvordan det utviklet seg over tid, både på lokalt og regionalt nivå. Sentralt står lokaliseringen av tingstedene i landskapet, og hvordan tingstedene inngikk som en viktig del av konsolideringen av maktstrukturer og senere kongelige styringssystem. Tingene drøftes i sammenheng med skiftende politiske og økonomiske strukturer, samt bosetnings- og samfunnsforhold som kan ha påvirket tingsystemet. Boken ser også på tingstedene i deres ulike kontekster med hensyn til lokalisering og betydning i regionen, og i sammenheng med tingsystemets utvikling i Nord-Europa. Rettens landskap gir dyptgående innsikt i steder for lov og rett og tilhørende rettsområder i Viken. Dette er en del av Norges territorielle inndeling som ikke har vært belyst i tidligere forskning. Boken er relevant for forskere og studenter innenfor historie og arkeologi som arbeider med eldre retts- og kirkehistorie, administrative inndelinger og statsdannelsesprosesser, men den er også velegnet for lokalhistorikere og kulturhistorisk interesserte lesere.
This book focuses on the formative period of Church reform in the Middle Ages in Northern Europe, when the Church paved the way for the development of money economy on its own doorstep. Church archaeology provides evidence for patterns of monetary use related to liturgy, church architecture and devotional culture through the centuries. This volume encompasses Alpine European evidence, with emphasis on Gotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, which opens up a new field of research on religion and money for an international audience. Based on 100,000 single finds of coins from the 11th to 18th centuries from 650 Scandinavian churches, the volume offers an in-depth discussion of the concepts of ritual, liturgy and devotional uses of money, monetary space and spiritual economy within the framework of Christendom, the medieval church and church architecture. Written by international scholars, Coins in Churches will be a valuable resource for readers interested in the history of religion, money, the economy, and church architecture in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages.
https://radio.nrk.no/serie/ekko/MDFP02013223
Keynote comment
TITLE OF PAPER: “Between function and fashion: understanding the modern makeover of Limoges enamels.” MINI ABSTRACT: The transformations of Limoges enamels in Scandinavia were closely related to a cultural expression in the society, caused by a remarkable enthusiasm for the Middle Ages. This so-called 'medievalism' reveals a modern interest in or adoption of medieval ideals, styles and customs. The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the makeover of the Limoges enamels and will deal with two main questions: Why were they reworked and reused during the 18th and 19th centuries? How was the object's initial meaning affected by the changes of form and of function?