The Middle Iron Age, around 300–650 CE, was characterised by extensive transformations across many aspects of society in the area of present-day Sweden. Within the central agricultural regions of the southern parts of the country, these changes are evident in a re-organisation of the settlements, renewed burial practices, the building of large-scale monuments, as well as increased militarisation, social stratification and an increase in imported objects.
This thesis addresses an additional aspect of Middle Iron Age societal change, namely an increase in the utilisation of raw materials and resources from forested and coastal landscapes situated beyond the settled farm. These non-agrarian landscapes are commonly referred to as the outlands. In previous research, the increased utilisation of the outlands has in general been understood as part of a Viking Age expansion.
The main contribution of the study is that it highlights how the main elements of outland exploitation, such as mass production and trade in valuable non-agrarian resources, can be dated earlier than has been previously thought. Moreover, the thesis argues that outland resource colonisation was an important driving force for the societal developments that took place during the Middle Iron Age, and is crucial for our understanding of later time periods.
Author(s): Andreas Hennius
Series: Occasional Papers in Archaeology, 73
Publisher: Uppsala University
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 154
City: Uppsala
Abstract
List of Papers
Contents
Förord
Introduction
Prerequisites of the thesis
Thesis outline
Middle Iron Age society — a general view of the current state of research
Settlement patterns and changing land regulations
An elite buried in large mounds
Socio-political power struggles
Far-reaching contacts and trade
Socio–economic background
Beyond the settled infields – historical analogies
Into the great beyond — a research history
The discovery of an archaeological outland
Iron
Furs
Cultural dualism
A growing interest for outland archaeology
A neo-empirical turn and new ways to trace the pre-history of the outlands
Furs and other outland resources in historical sources
Questions, methods and theoretical considerations — alternatives to an agrarian based narrative
When, What, Where, Who, Why, and How?
Methodological standpoints
Theoretical considerations
Introducing the case studies
Case study I: Towards a refined chronology of prehistoric pitfall hunting
Case study II: Whalebone gaming pieces – aspects of marine mammal exploitation in pre-Viking Scandinavia
Case study III: Viking Age tar production and outland exploitation
Case study IV: Outland exploitation and the emergence of seasonal settlements
Outland use in the Middle Iron Age — Resource colonisation, raw material exploitation and networks
When? — The Middle Iron Age, a time of changes
What? — A broad spectrum of outland resources
Where? — A far-reaching outland
Who? — The outlands as a middle ground
Why? — Supporting the power politics of networks and trade
Outlanders?
References
Internet references
