The National Museum of Denmark has initiated its most comprehensive interdisciplinary research venture so far: 'Northern Worlds'. Between 2009 and 2013, the programme will produce and communicate new knowledge on the relationship between people and environment over the last 15.000 years in ways relevant to the present, with its notable climatic changes.
The expansion of agriculture into the temperate and sub-arctic zones of the planet represents a more than 6.000 year long narrative, characterized by repeated advances followed by stagnation. 'Farming on the Edge' focuses on periods and areas with large potential for the creation of new knowledge on agricultural advances and their associated social structures and ideologies. The ultimate boundaries of farming communities in different parts of Scandinavia and the North Atlantic are explored. The project 'Shetland – the Border of Farming 4000-3000 BC' is part of this initiative.
Author(s): Ditlev L. Mahler (ed.)
Series: Nordlige Verdener. Northern Worlds
Publisher: The National Museum of Denmark
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 144
City: Copenhagen
Foreword / H. C. Gulløv 4
Neolithic Shetland: a view from the 'mainland' / Alison Sheridan 6
Pinhoulland – a multi period site from West Mainland, Shetland / Ditlev L. Mahler 37
Sacred work: cultivating the soil in prehistoric Shetland / Jenny Murray 53
The distribution of worked felsites – within and outwith Neolithic Shetland / Torben B. Ballin 62
Axes from islands: the role of stone axeheads from insular sources in the Neolithic of Ireland and Britain / Gabriel Cooney, Stephen Mandal, Emmet O’Keefe,
Graeme Warren, Torben Ballin and Will Megarry 79
Multi-period constructions of megalithic tombs – and the megalithic tombs in Shetland / Flemming Kaul 100
The Northermost Bronze Age farms / Preben Rønne 122
Neolithic Shetland: Peopling an empty area 4000-3000 BC? / Ditlev L. Mahler 132
Contributors 144
