Complexity and dynamics

How did people organize their settlements in later prehistoric societies? How do architecture, spatial organization, land divisions, and landscape use relate to different modes of social organization? The papers in this book contribute to a greater understanding of the complexity and dynamics of settlement and landscape organization in the Nordic countries from the Late Bronze Age to the Renaissance.

Among the topics addressed is the notion of the wandering settlements as the standard settlement pattern across southern Scandinavia in the last millennium BC. This idea is nuanced by in-depth regional studies. Up-to-date methodological and theoretical insights are employed to shed light on over-arching patterns of demography and the interaction between humans and the natural world, as well as on technological adaptation and innovation. Contributions to the book explore the nature of the relationships between settlements: both symmetrical relationships, between neighbouring farmsteads, and asymmetrical relationships, between farmsteads representing different levels in a social hierarchy. Spatial and temporal relations between communities of the living and the dead are also discussed.

This book provides a comprehensive update on current research and methodologies in settlement archaeology in the Nordic countries. It is intended for students, archaeologists, and the interested reader working with settlements, landscape use, and social organization.

Contents

Settlement organization in Iron Age Scandinavia and beyond. Traditions, terminologies, regionalities and methodologies

Marie Ødegaard and Ingrid Ystgaard

Early Iron Age village formation in Jutland, Denmark

Niels Haue

Settlement structure and landscape use in Southwest Norway in the last millennium BC

Trond Meling

Madla Sør in Rogaland, Southwest Norway ¿ a settlement with long continuity?

Satu Lindell

Maintaining boundaries: Early Iron Age settlement dynamics and spatial organisation at Dilling in Southeast Norway

Marie Ødegaard, Lars Erik Gjerpe and Linnea Syversætre Johannessen

¿The 207 BC Dust Veil Event¿ and the advent of iron reaping tools in Scandinavia

Lars Erik Gjerpe

Uncovering population dynamics in Southeast Norway from 1300 BC to AD 800 using summed radiocarbon probability distributions

Kjetil Loftsgarden and Steinar Solheim

Plant remains as sources to cultural history in Southeast Norway

Karoline Kjesrud, Luka Natassja Olsen, Irene Teixidor-Toneu, Jade J. Sandstedt, Anneleen Kool and Linda Christiansen

Social dynamics at the Augland ceramic workshop: The introduction of soapstone in paste recipes from the Roman Iron Age and early Migration Period in southernmost Norway

Christian Løchsen Rødsrud and Per Ditlef Fredriksen

Activities and community organization in Roman Iron Age Vik, Ørland, Central Norway

Ingrid Ystgaard

Old Uppsala, Eastern Sweden: Framing an Iron Age tributary society

Per Frölund

Burial ¿ settlement relations at Forsandmoen, Southwest Norway

Barbro Dahl

The elite settlement at Ströja, Eastern Sweden, AD 450¿1000

Björn Hjulström and Marta Lindeberg

Development of the medieval villages in Southern Finland

Tuuli T. Heinonen

Anebjerg ¿ A rural farm from the 17th century: Considerations on Renaissance building traditions in Denmark and what can be expected beyond the Middle Ages

Louise Søndergaard