I am Professor of Archaeology at the UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. My research focuses on Sámi archaeology, contemporary archaeology, memory, heritage and thing theory. Recent projects include three Norwegian Research Council-funded projects and I am currently the director of the Unruly Heritage project, which examines how the past effectively enacts itself also through the undesirable legacies being passed on.
Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and p... more Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and protected for their uniqueness, monumentality, beauty and/or historical and cultural significance. Heritage, thus, is almost by definition something unquestionably valuable and good, and of outmost importance for our wellbeing and identity. This paper takes a different position and asks what happens if we question heritage’s status as a selected reserve of desired things and traditions. Based on fieldwork conducted in contemporary settlements in the Russian North, it explores how the role and sig- nificance we ascribe heritage may come out radically altered upon facing the unruly legacies of the Soviet past.
Reference Module in Social Sciences, Elsevier, 2023, ISBN 9780443157851 , 2023
The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. I... more The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. It argues that the phenomenology that initially was enthusiastically embraced represented a very modified version heavily affected by post- processualist thinking. A main reason for this was that the idealist basis of this thinking, and the wider sociopolitical concern with individualism and human agency, made it difficult to fully take on the radical consequences of a philosophical project precisely challenging the modern idealist legacy. The entry further explores some crucial aspects of phenomenological thinking that remained marginal in its archaeological version and how these may enrich archaeological reasoning about things and things’ being. Finally, it provides some reflections on why the attempt to build a genuine phenomenological archaeology failed but also, and paradoxically, why phenomenological thinking regardless of this is more present than ever in archaeological reasoning
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have lo... more Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical and comparative linguistics data, a notable feature of the studies examined is that they also lean heavily on assumptions about the archaeological record in their reasonings. These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway. The article raises critical questions regarding the notions of cultural areas, ancestral homelands, and migrations that abound in these linguistic studies and challenges the a priori primacy assigned to language as the constituent of cultural identity. In conclusion, we outline a Sámi archaeological past that does not concur well with recent linguistic accounts and which, in the end, begs the question of whether this discrepancy can be reconciled and, if so, how this can happen.
For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in pre- senting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or a ected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide a ective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.
In Olsen, B.; M. Burström, C. DeSilvey, and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds) 2021. After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. London and New York: Routledge, 2021
Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene fo... more Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene for much of this is the rising current of scholarship performing under legends such as post-humanism, environmental humanism, new materialism, and object-oriented ontology. One specific concern has been the question of how matters of Anthropocene and climate change are approached and articulated within these new discourses. To some critics, the language applied has increasingly been dominated by airy deliberations filled with poetic and ambiguous expressions that prevent a clear analytical grasp of the situation and, in the end, therefore serve reactionary and anti-humanist interests. Anthropologist Alf Hornborg, for example, comments that the 'styles of thinking and writing recently encouraged in the environmental humanities are not conducive to analytical clarity, theoretical rigor, or effective critique of the practices and discourses that generate global inequalities and unsustainability,' and what is even worse, 'that the haziness, inconsistency, and inaccessibility of so-called post-human deliberations on the Anthropocene ultimately serve to promote the destructive economic forces that are responsible for such change' (Hornborg 2017, p. 61, emphasis added). There seem to be at least two assumptions in this criticism that call for attention. Firstly, that there are certain ways of writing that are considered (in themselves) analytical, rigorous, and effective. And secondly, that there is currently a trend in some academic fields to exchange this presumably analytical, rigorous, and effective language for alternative and less transparent genres. In this chapter we will address both these assumptions. The chapter is, however, not aimed at the Anthropocene particularly. It is rather concerned with the modes of thinking and writing that are stimulated in its wake and which more generally may be seen as concerning the articulation of matter and material compounds.
This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.
International Journal of Heritage Studies (IJHS) , 2020
Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth res... more Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth rests heavier on some places. Teriberka is such a place, a small coastal settlement on the Kola peninsula. Once a prosperous Soviet fishing harbour it now epitomizes the depression and despair on the post-Soviet Russian periphery. Though post-Soviet seems quite misplaced here, because Soviet is still conspicuously present in Teriberka. Omnipresent, in fact, through its tenacious albeit ruining material legacy. Thus, for those who live here Soviet is not an optional past, a voluntary ‘something’ you may or may not be attentive to; it is Teriberka - the very world you are being in. How does this condition inflict upon understandings of heritage and significance? Is significance necessarily a voluntary attribute of humanly assigned value or may it be differently conceived, as something enacted and experienced rather than ascribed? Exploring these issues in relation to Teriberka’s ruining socialist past, the paper more generally is a commentary on the experience of living with a past considered far too insignificant to be assigned value as heritage but which still is so immensely significant that it impacts on nearly every aspect of life.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports volume 19, 2018
The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific ... more The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific inquiry from many different disciplines. In order to investigate the genetic traces within a Fennoscandian transition from a predominantly hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism, we obtained sequences from the mitochondrial control region from 193 reindeer samples from several archaeological sites dated between 1000 and 1700 CE in Finnmark County, northern Norway. A comparison with similar data from more recent archaeological sites, including extant domestic reindeer, demonstrates that the mitochondrial genome in Finnmark reindeer has gone through massive genetic replacement since medieval times characterized by a significant loss of native mtDNA haplotypes, together with a significant introduction of new haplotypes. Out of a total number of 62 haplotypes identified in both the modern and archaeological samples, only 14 were detected among samples known to represent domestic reindeer, while nine of these haplotypes were completely absent from the more ancient sites. Our documentation of a major genetic shift during the 16th and 17th centuries suggests that non-native animals were introduced during this period, at the same time as the transition to reindeer pastoralism took place.
At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have s... more At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have suggested that archaeological theory and theorizing is changing course; turning to metaphysics; leaning towards the sciences; or, even is declared dead. Resonating with these concerns, and drawing on our fieldwork on a northern driftwood beach, this article suggests the need to rethink fundamental notions of what theory is-its morphological being-and how it behaves and takes form. Like drift matter on an Arctic shore, theories are adrift. They are not natives of any particular territory, but nomads in a mixed world. While they are themselves of certain weight and figure, it matters what things they bump into, become entangled with, and moved by. Based on this, we argue that theories come unfinished and fragile. Much like things stranding on a beach they don't simply 'add up' but can become detached, fragmented, turned and transfigured. Rather than seeing this drift as rendering them redundant and out of place, it is this nomadism and 'weakness' that sustains them and keeps them alive.
During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museum... more During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museums worldwide. At the root of the debate lies the ever more pressing problem with overstocked collection; the consequence of decades and even centuries of allegedly far too liberal and eclectic collecting and acquisition practices. is paper presents some alternative views and argues in favor of such liberal collecting. Taking as its starting point a list of desired museum objects compiled by Swedish curator Ernst Manker, it emphasizes the immense value and unruly power of large and heterogeneous museum collections. By constantly being added to, these assemblages have developed into new and unforeseen becomings that may radically a ect and disrupt existing knowledge. e paper also addresses museums as caretakers, o ering spaces where things, including those once soiled and broken, can be treated with care and dignity.
According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today,... more According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations”. While exemplary inclusive, this hardly reflects concern for the fact that our legacy is becoming increasingly mixed and messy: landfills, archipelagos of sea-borne debris, ruining metropolises, industrial wastelands, sunken nuclear submarines and toxic residues in seals and polar bears. Our legacy has become so conspicuously manifest that it has become diagnostic of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. While this palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal... more Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology vol 1, no. 1, 2014
Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also... more Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also fill the glossy pages of art books and popular magazine issues, and are increasingly appropriating more prominent spaces in scholarly publication on modern decay and abandonment. While its popularity speaks to its attractiveness, this proliferating ruin imagery has also become the target of harsh criticism from both concerned scholars and people affected by ruination. To them much of this is little but "ruin porn": a superficial and one-eyed portrayal of urban decay that turns social and material misery into something seductive and aesthetically pleasing. This article takes a different position. Speaking from an archaeological perspective, and especially the archaeology of the contemporary past, it argues that the new engagement with ruin photography rather calls for a reconsideration and appreciation of the role of photography; not merely as a means of documentation but also as an interactive and attentive way to approach things themselves. By scrutinizing what the critics have claimed to be the fallacies of the image (its selectivity, timelessness, superficiality and tendency to aestheticize), and by emphasizing ruin photography as an engagement with things, the article aims to show that it is precisely the alleged shortcomings that make photography a valuable method in a new approach to things and ruins.
This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World W... more This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World War II prisoner of war camp at Sværholt in northernmost Norway. The labour camp for Soviet prisoners was established in 1942 as part of the construction of the German coastal battery at Sværholt, a fortification within the Atlantic Wall. In late fall 1944 the camp, the coastal fort, and the local Norwegian hamlet were abandoned and destroyed in step with the massive and abrupt German retreat from this northern region. This paper describes the remains of the camp and the coastal fort, as still manifest in the barren landscape, and presents in detail the findings of excavations and associated investigations conducted in the camp area. Analysing these findings, particular emphasis is placed on the question of what an archaeological approach can divulge concerning the camp, its construction and conditions, and the ‘trivial’ details of everyday life often passed over by historical accounts. Ultimately, we suggest that the things found challenge our common assumptions about the relationship between prisoners, guards, and locals, and further discuss to what extent the forced encounter at Sværholt also may have included some measures of sympathy within the yet hostile context of war and occupation.
The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeolo... more The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeological works. Recently conducted archaeological investigations of two interior hearth row sites in Pasvik, Arctic Norway, have yielded new results that add significantly to the discussion. The sites are dated within the period 1000-1300 AD, and are unique within this corpus due to their rich bone assemblages. Among the species represented, reindeer is predominant (87 %), with fish (especially whitefish and pike) as the second most frequent category. Even sheep bones are present, and represent the earliest indisputable domesticate from any Sami habitation site. A peculiar feature is the repeated spatial pattern in bone refuse disposal, showing a systematic and almost identical clustering at the two sites. Combining analysis of bone assemblages, artefacts and archaeological features, the paper discusses changes in settlement pattern, reindeer economies, and the organization of domestic space.
Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and p... more Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and protected for their uniqueness, monumentality, beauty and/or historical and cultural significance. Heritage, thus, is almost by definition something unquestionably valuable and good, and of outmost importance for our wellbeing and identity. This paper takes a different position and asks what happens if we question heritage’s status as a selected reserve of desired things and traditions. Based on fieldwork conducted in contemporary settlements in the Russian North, it explores how the role and sig- nificance we ascribe heritage may come out radically altered upon facing the unruly legacies of the Soviet past.
Reference Module in Social Sciences, Elsevier, 2023, ISBN 9780443157851 , 2023
The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. I... more The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. It argues that the phenomenology that initially was enthusiastically embraced represented a very modified version heavily affected by post- processualist thinking. A main reason for this was that the idealist basis of this thinking, and the wider sociopolitical concern with individualism and human agency, made it difficult to fully take on the radical consequences of a philosophical project precisely challenging the modern idealist legacy. The entry further explores some crucial aspects of phenomenological thinking that remained marginal in its archaeological version and how these may enrich archaeological reasoning about things and things’ being. Finally, it provides some reflections on why the attempt to build a genuine phenomenological archaeology failed but also, and paradoxically, why phenomenological thinking regardless of this is more present than ever in archaeological reasoning
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have lo... more Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical and comparative linguistics data, a notable feature of the studies examined is that they also lean heavily on assumptions about the archaeological record in their reasonings. These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway. The article raises critical questions regarding the notions of cultural areas, ancestral homelands, and migrations that abound in these linguistic studies and challenges the a priori primacy assigned to language as the constituent of cultural identity. In conclusion, we outline a Sámi archaeological past that does not concur well with recent linguistic accounts and which, in the end, begs the question of whether this discrepancy can be reconciled and, if so, how this can happen.
For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in pre- senting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or a ected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide a ective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.
In Olsen, B.; M. Burström, C. DeSilvey, and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds) 2021. After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. London and New York: Routledge, 2021
Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene fo... more Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene for much of this is the rising current of scholarship performing under legends such as post-humanism, environmental humanism, new materialism, and object-oriented ontology. One specific concern has been the question of how matters of Anthropocene and climate change are approached and articulated within these new discourses. To some critics, the language applied has increasingly been dominated by airy deliberations filled with poetic and ambiguous expressions that prevent a clear analytical grasp of the situation and, in the end, therefore serve reactionary and anti-humanist interests. Anthropologist Alf Hornborg, for example, comments that the 'styles of thinking and writing recently encouraged in the environmental humanities are not conducive to analytical clarity, theoretical rigor, or effective critique of the practices and discourses that generate global inequalities and unsustainability,' and what is even worse, 'that the haziness, inconsistency, and inaccessibility of so-called post-human deliberations on the Anthropocene ultimately serve to promote the destructive economic forces that are responsible for such change' (Hornborg 2017, p. 61, emphasis added). There seem to be at least two assumptions in this criticism that call for attention. Firstly, that there are certain ways of writing that are considered (in themselves) analytical, rigorous, and effective. And secondly, that there is currently a trend in some academic fields to exchange this presumably analytical, rigorous, and effective language for alternative and less transparent genres. In this chapter we will address both these assumptions. The chapter is, however, not aimed at the Anthropocene particularly. It is rather concerned with the modes of thinking and writing that are stimulated in its wake and which more generally may be seen as concerning the articulation of matter and material compounds.
This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.
International Journal of Heritage Studies (IJHS) , 2020
Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth res... more Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth rests heavier on some places. Teriberka is such a place, a small coastal settlement on the Kola peninsula. Once a prosperous Soviet fishing harbour it now epitomizes the depression and despair on the post-Soviet Russian periphery. Though post-Soviet seems quite misplaced here, because Soviet is still conspicuously present in Teriberka. Omnipresent, in fact, through its tenacious albeit ruining material legacy. Thus, for those who live here Soviet is not an optional past, a voluntary ‘something’ you may or may not be attentive to; it is Teriberka - the very world you are being in. How does this condition inflict upon understandings of heritage and significance? Is significance necessarily a voluntary attribute of humanly assigned value or may it be differently conceived, as something enacted and experienced rather than ascribed? Exploring these issues in relation to Teriberka’s ruining socialist past, the paper more generally is a commentary on the experience of living with a past considered far too insignificant to be assigned value as heritage but which still is so immensely significant that it impacts on nearly every aspect of life.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports volume 19, 2018
The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific ... more The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific inquiry from many different disciplines. In order to investigate the genetic traces within a Fennoscandian transition from a predominantly hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism, we obtained sequences from the mitochondrial control region from 193 reindeer samples from several archaeological sites dated between 1000 and 1700 CE in Finnmark County, northern Norway. A comparison with similar data from more recent archaeological sites, including extant domestic reindeer, demonstrates that the mitochondrial genome in Finnmark reindeer has gone through massive genetic replacement since medieval times characterized by a significant loss of native mtDNA haplotypes, together with a significant introduction of new haplotypes. Out of a total number of 62 haplotypes identified in both the modern and archaeological samples, only 14 were detected among samples known to represent domestic reindeer, while nine of these haplotypes were completely absent from the more ancient sites. Our documentation of a major genetic shift during the 16th and 17th centuries suggests that non-native animals were introduced during this period, at the same time as the transition to reindeer pastoralism took place.
At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have s... more At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have suggested that archaeological theory and theorizing is changing course; turning to metaphysics; leaning towards the sciences; or, even is declared dead. Resonating with these concerns, and drawing on our fieldwork on a northern driftwood beach, this article suggests the need to rethink fundamental notions of what theory is-its morphological being-and how it behaves and takes form. Like drift matter on an Arctic shore, theories are adrift. They are not natives of any particular territory, but nomads in a mixed world. While they are themselves of certain weight and figure, it matters what things they bump into, become entangled with, and moved by. Based on this, we argue that theories come unfinished and fragile. Much like things stranding on a beach they don't simply 'add up' but can become detached, fragmented, turned and transfigured. Rather than seeing this drift as rendering them redundant and out of place, it is this nomadism and 'weakness' that sustains them and keeps them alive.
During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museum... more During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museums worldwide. At the root of the debate lies the ever more pressing problem with overstocked collection; the consequence of decades and even centuries of allegedly far too liberal and eclectic collecting and acquisition practices. is paper presents some alternative views and argues in favor of such liberal collecting. Taking as its starting point a list of desired museum objects compiled by Swedish curator Ernst Manker, it emphasizes the immense value and unruly power of large and heterogeneous museum collections. By constantly being added to, these assemblages have developed into new and unforeseen becomings that may radically a ect and disrupt existing knowledge. e paper also addresses museums as caretakers, o ering spaces where things, including those once soiled and broken, can be treated with care and dignity.
According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today,... more According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations”. While exemplary inclusive, this hardly reflects concern for the fact that our legacy is becoming increasingly mixed and messy: landfills, archipelagos of sea-borne debris, ruining metropolises, industrial wastelands, sunken nuclear submarines and toxic residues in seals and polar bears. Our legacy has become so conspicuously manifest that it has become diagnostic of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. While this palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal... more Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology vol 1, no. 1, 2014
Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also... more Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also fill the glossy pages of art books and popular magazine issues, and are increasingly appropriating more prominent spaces in scholarly publication on modern decay and abandonment. While its popularity speaks to its attractiveness, this proliferating ruin imagery has also become the target of harsh criticism from both concerned scholars and people affected by ruination. To them much of this is little but "ruin porn": a superficial and one-eyed portrayal of urban decay that turns social and material misery into something seductive and aesthetically pleasing. This article takes a different position. Speaking from an archaeological perspective, and especially the archaeology of the contemporary past, it argues that the new engagement with ruin photography rather calls for a reconsideration and appreciation of the role of photography; not merely as a means of documentation but also as an interactive and attentive way to approach things themselves. By scrutinizing what the critics have claimed to be the fallacies of the image (its selectivity, timelessness, superficiality and tendency to aestheticize), and by emphasizing ruin photography as an engagement with things, the article aims to show that it is precisely the alleged shortcomings that make photography a valuable method in a new approach to things and ruins.
This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World W... more This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World War II prisoner of war camp at Sværholt in northernmost Norway. The labour camp for Soviet prisoners was established in 1942 as part of the construction of the German coastal battery at Sværholt, a fortification within the Atlantic Wall. In late fall 1944 the camp, the coastal fort, and the local Norwegian hamlet were abandoned and destroyed in step with the massive and abrupt German retreat from this northern region. This paper describes the remains of the camp and the coastal fort, as still manifest in the barren landscape, and presents in detail the findings of excavations and associated investigations conducted in the camp area. Analysing these findings, particular emphasis is placed on the question of what an archaeological approach can divulge concerning the camp, its construction and conditions, and the ‘trivial’ details of everyday life often passed over by historical accounts. Ultimately, we suggest that the things found challenge our common assumptions about the relationship between prisoners, guards, and locals, and further discuss to what extent the forced encounter at Sværholt also may have included some measures of sympathy within the yet hostile context of war and occupation.
The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeolo... more The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeological works. Recently conducted archaeological investigations of two interior hearth row sites in Pasvik, Arctic Norway, have yielded new results that add significantly to the discussion. The sites are dated within the period 1000-1300 AD, and are unique within this corpus due to their rich bone assemblages. Among the species represented, reindeer is predominant (87 %), with fish (especially whitefish and pike) as the second most frequent category. Even sheep bones are present, and represent the earliest indisputable domesticate from any Sami habitation site. A peculiar feature is the repeated spatial pattern in bone refuse disposal, showing a systematic and almost identical clustering at the two sites. Combining analysis of bone assemblages, artefacts and archaeological features, the paper discusses changes in settlement pattern, reindeer economies, and the organization of domestic space.
After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. Routledge. , 2021
After Discourse is an interdisciplinary response to the recent trend away from linguistic and tex... more After Discourse is an interdisciplinary response to the recent trend away from linguistic and textual approaches and towards things and their affects.
The new millennium brought about serious changes to the intellectual landscape. Favoured approaches associated with the linguistic and the textual turn lost some of their currency, and were followed by a new curiosity and concern for things and their natures. Gathering contributions from archaeology, heritage studies, history, geography, literature and philosophy, After Discourse offers a range of reflections on what things are, how we become affected by them, and the ethical concerns they give rise to. Through a varied constellation of case studies, it explores ways of dealing with matters which fall outside, become othered from, or simply cannot be grasped through perspectives derived solely from language and discourse.
After Discourse provides challenging new perspectives for scholars and students interested in other-than-textual encounters between people and the objects with which we share the world.
Hunters in Transition: An Outline of Early Sámi History. Brill, 2014
Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sámi, the indigenous pop... more Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sámi, the indigenous population of northernmost Europe. Discussing crucial issues such as the formation of Sámi ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding, the book departs from the common trope whereby native encounters with other cultures, state societies, and "modernity", are depicted mainly in negative terms. Far from always victimizing "the other", the interaction with outside societies played a crucial role in generating and maintaining a number of features considered integral to Sámi culture. At the same time the authors also emphasize internal processes and dynamics and show how these have greatly contributed to the diverse historical trajectories with which this book is concerned.
Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past. Routledge., 2014
Since the nineteenth century, mass-production, consumerism and cycles of material replacement hav... more Since the nineteenth century, mass-production, consumerism and cycles of material replacement have accelerated; increasingly larger amounts of things are increasingly victimized rapidly and made redundant. At the same time, processes of destruction have immensely intensified, although largely overlooked when compared to the research and social significance devoted to consumption and production. The outcome is a ruin landscape of derelict factories, closed shopping malls, overgrown bunkers and redundant mining towns; a ghostly world of decaying modern debris normally omitted from academic concerns and conventional histories.
The archaeology of the recent or contemporary past has grown fast during the last decade. This development has been concurrent with a broader popular, artistic and scholarly interest in modern ruins in general. Ruin Memories explores how the ruins of modernity are conceived and assigned cultural value in contemporary academic and public discourses, reassesses the cultural and historical value of modern ruins and suggests possible means for reaffirming their cultural and historic significance. Crucial for this reassessment is a concern with decay and ruination, and with the role things play in expressing the neglected, unsuccessful and ineffable. Abandonment and ruination is usually understood negatively through the tropes of loss and deprivation; things are degraded and humiliated while the information, knowledge and memory embedded in them become lost along the way. Without even ignoring its many negative and traumatizing aspects, a main question addressed in this book is whether ruination also can be seen as an act of disclosure. If ruination disturbs the routinized and ready-to-hand, to what extent can it also be seen as a recovery of memory as exposing meanings and presences that perhaps are only possible to grasp at second hand when no longer immersed in their withdrawn and useful reality?
Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. University of Calfornia Press., 2012
This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline ... more This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things
Hybrid spaces. medieval Finnmark and the archaeology of multi-room houses. Novus Forlag., 2011
The late medieval period brought dramatic social and demographic changes to the northern coastal ... more The late medieval period brought dramatic social and demographic changes to the northern coastal region of Arctic Norway and northwest Russia. From the 13th century on, the native Sámi found themselves increasingly surrounded by foreign peoples that had come here to trade and collect tribute, to harvest the sea, to make political ambitions manifest, and even to combat each other.The flow of people, things, and practices created a direct and compressed articulation of cultural differences formerly set apart, and thus a far more diverse cultural environment in the high north. The number of new archaeological signatures added to the costal landscape is a conspicuous manifestation of this medieval diversity.
Paramount in this respect are the so-called multi-room houses, a complex and enigmatic settlement structure confined to these northern shores. Although for centuries attracting the curiosity of scholars and laymen, the recently completed research project presented in this book is the first attempt at a more thorough and inter-disciplinary approach to understanding these sites. Challenging the mono-cultural interpretations that hitherto have dominated their interpretations, our main conclusion is that the multi-room houses were used by rivaling groups and for different purposes. Despite being introduced as dwellings for distant peoples, they soon came to host both natives and newcomers. Their very design moreover was the result of a mixture of faraway traditions, borrowings, and local adaptations, thus making the multi-room houses truly hybrid spaces. CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgement 5
List of illustrations 9
Notes on contributors 19
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction – Bjørnar Olsen 25
Chapter 2: A Brief Outline of the Historical Setting – Bjørnar Olsen 29
Chapter 3: Scholars and Multi-Room Houses: A Historiography – Jørn E. Henriksen 33
Chapter 4: Coastal Finnmark and the Environment of the Multi-Room Houses – Colin P. Amundsen 39
Part II: Fieldwork
Chapter 5: The Multi-Room House Sites: Surveys and Test Excavations – Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen and Elin Rose Myrvoll 49
Chapter 6: Excavation of Iron Age Sites – Elin Rose Myrvoll 83
Chapter 7: The Skonsvika Site – Katarzyna Skrzynska-Jankowska and Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 93
Chapter 8: Boathouse Excavation at Skonsvika – Gørill Nilsen and Stephen Wickler 121
Chapter 9: The Kongshavn Site – Jørn E. Henriksen and Bjørnar Olsen 131
Chapter 10: Minor Excavations: The Løkvik and Nordmannset Sites – Elin Rose Myrvoll, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk and Colin Amundsen 149
Chapter 11: Geophysical Surveys in Skonsvika, Løkvik and Nordmannset – Krzysztof Misiewicz 159
Chapter 12: Skonsvika and Experiments with Digitalised Recording System – Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 169
Part III: Artifacts, Architecture and Chronology
Chapter 13: Artifacts: The Finds Retrieved – Jørn E. Henriksen, Camilla Nordby and Cora Oschman 181
Chapter 14: Multi-Room Houses: Site Organization and Architecture – Bjørnar Olsen and Jørn E. Henriksen 207
Chapter 15: Comparative Approach to Architecture and Formation Processes at Skonsvika – Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 221
Chapter 16: The Chronology of Multi-Room Houses - Jørn E. Henriksen 229
Part IV: Beyond Artifacts: Bones, Grains and Sediments
Chapter 17: The Zoo-Archaeology of Multi-Room Houses. – Colin Amundsen 241
Chapter 18: Vegetation History and Anthropogenic Impact on Vegetation at Localities with Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway – Christin Jensen 265
Chapter 19: Activities and Accumulations: Micromorphology Analyses of Archaeological Sediments from Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway – Ian A. Simpson and W. Paul Adderley 285
Chapter 20: The Archaeo-Botany of Multi-Room House Sites – Roger Engelmark 307
Part V: The Medieval Context: Ethnicity, Settlement and Borders
Chapter 21: Finnmark, Bjarkøy and the Norwegian Kingdom – Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 315
Chapter 22: Finnmark between the East and the West – Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 329
Chapter 23: The Russian-Norwegian Border in Medieval and Early Modern Times. - Lars Ivar Hansen 355
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 24: Interpreting Multi-Room Houses: Origin, Function and Cultural Networks – Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen And Przemyslaw Urbanzcyk 371
Persistent memories. Pyramiden - a Soviet mining town in the High Arctic. Tapir/Fagbokforlaget, 2010
In 1998 the Russian Arctic Coal Company decided to end its more than 50 years of continuous activ... more In 1998 the Russian Arctic Coal Company decided to end its more than 50 years of continuous activity in Pyramiden in the High Arctic archipelago of Norwegian Svalbard. A remarkably abrupt abandonment left behind a mining town devoid of humans but still filled with all stuff constituting a modern industrial settlement. Today the well-equipped Pyramiden survives as a conspicuous Soviet-era ghost town in pristine Arctic nature. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2006, this book explores what things left behind can tell us about how people lived and coped in this marginal town. It is also concerned with Pyramiden's post-human biography and the way the site provokes more general reflections on things, heritage and memory. Challenging the traditional scholarly hierarchy of text over images, this book stands out by using art photography as a means to address these issues and to mediate the contemporary archaeology of Pyramiden.
In Defense of Things. Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects. AltaMira Press, 2010
In much recent thinking, social and cultural realms are thought of as existing prior to―or detach... more In much recent thinking, social and cultural realms are thought of as existing prior to―or detached from―things, materiality, and landscape. It is often assumed, for example, that things are entirely 'constructed' by social or cultural perceptions and have no existence in and of themselves. Bjornar Olsen takes a different position. Drawing on a range of theories, especially phenomenology and actor-network-theory, Olsen claims that human life is fully mixed up with things and that humanity and human history emerge from such relationships. Things, moreover, possess unique qualities that are inherent in our cohabitation with them―qualities that help to facilitate existential security and memory of the past. This important work of archaeological theory challenges us to reconsider our ideas about the nature of things, past and present, demonstrating that objects themselves possess a dynamic presence that we must take into account if we are to understand the world we and they inhabit.
Samenes historie fram til 1750. Cappelen Akademisk, 2003
For første gang foreligger det nå en samlet framstilling av eldre samisk historie. Den omfattende... more For første gang foreligger det nå en samlet framstilling av eldre samisk historie. Den omfattende og rikt illustrerte boka er et resultat av flere års forskningsarbeid.
Forfatterne bygger på og problematiserer eldre og nyere forskning innenfor arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap, etnografi og lingvistikk, og presenterer den til nå mest omfattende oversikten over eldre samisk historie.
Forfatterne diskuterer inngående aktuelle spørsmål som tilkomst av samisk etnisitet, eksistensen av samiske rettigheter til områder og ressurser, tamreindriftens oppkomst og prosessen rundt kristningen av samene. Sentralt i framstillingen står samenes forhold til andre samfunn.
Boka er skrevet av to av Nordens fremste kjennere av samisk historie. Lars Ivar Hansen er professor i eldre historie ved Universitetet i Tromsø; Bjørnar Olsen professor i arkeologi ved samme universitet.
Od predmeta do teksta: teorijske perspektive arheoloških istraživanja. GeoPoetika, 2002
Knjiga se bavi teorijskim perspektivama arheologije. Ona pokušava da predstavi različita viđenja ... more Knjiga se bavi teorijskim perspektivama arheologije. Ona pokušava da predstavi različita viđenja odnosa između teorije i podataka, društva i promena, materijalne kulture i uloge arheologije u društvu, a namera joj je da predstavi sadržaj i različite centralne teorijske postavke koje su korišćene u arheološkim istraživanjima. Naslov knjige pre svega pokazuje promenu u gledanju arheologije na materijalnu kulturu tokom poslednjih sto pedeset godina.
Fra ting til tekst - teoretiske perspektiv i arkeologisk forskning. Universitetsforlaget, 1994
Bjørnar Olsen gir her en innføring i teori for arkeologistudenter. På en lettfattelig måte presen... more Bjørnar Olsen gir her en innføring i teori for arkeologistudenter. På en lettfattelig måte presenterer han de ulike teoretiske retningene og deres syn på forholdet mellom teori og data, på samfunn og endring, på materiell kultur og på arkeologiens rolle i samfunnet.
Perceiving rock art: Social and political perspectives. Novus Forlag, 1995
The papers presented in this volume originate from the Alta Conference on Rock Art, which was hel... more The papers presented in this volume originate from the Alta Conference on Rock Art, which was held in Alta, North Norway, in June 1993. One of the goals of the conference was to present Scandinavian rock art research to an international group of scholars and to promote Scandinavian research and international contacts. Another goal was to emphasize the international significance of the Alta rock carvings in order to increase local and regional understanding of this cultural heritage.The theme social and political perspectives signals the dual identity of rock art as both a scientific source material for archaeological inquiries and as a present-day political and economic resource.
Camera archaeologica: rapport fra et feltarbeid. Tromsø Museum skrifter. 1993
En fotografisk dokumentasjon av det arkeologiske feltarbeidets sosiale og fenomenologiske diimens... more En fotografisk dokumentasjon av det arkeologiske feltarbeidets sosiale og fenomenologiske diimensjoner
Bosetning og samfunn i Finnmarks forhistorie. Universitetesforlaget., 1994
En moderne innføring i forhistorien til vårt nordligste fylke, skrevet for arkeologistudiet. Denn... more En moderne innføring i forhistorien til vårt nordligste fylke, skrevet for arkeologistudiet. Denne oversikten fokuserer i større grad enn tidligere litteratur på de sosiale prosessene i forhistorien. Målgrupper: studenter på arkeologi grunnfag, men også for mer generelt interesserte lesere
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Papers by Bjørnar J . Olsen
palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
The new millennium brought about serious changes to the intellectual landscape. Favoured approaches associated with the linguistic and the textual turn lost some of their currency, and were followed by a new curiosity and concern for things and their natures. Gathering contributions from archaeology, heritage studies, history, geography, literature and philosophy, After Discourse offers a range of reflections on what things are, how we become affected by them, and the ethical concerns they give rise to. Through a varied constellation of case studies, it explores ways of dealing with matters which fall outside, become othered from, or simply cannot be grasped through perspectives derived solely from language and discourse.
After Discourse provides challenging new perspectives for scholars and students interested in other-than-textual encounters between people and the objects with which we share the world.
The archaeology of the recent or contemporary past has grown fast during the last decade. This development has been concurrent with a broader popular, artistic and scholarly interest in modern ruins in general. Ruin Memories explores how the ruins of modernity are conceived and assigned cultural value in contemporary academic and public discourses, reassesses the cultural and historical value of modern ruins and suggests possible means for reaffirming their cultural and historic significance. Crucial for this reassessment is a concern with decay and ruination, and with the role things play in expressing the neglected, unsuccessful and ineffable. Abandonment and ruination is usually understood negatively through the tropes of loss and deprivation; things are degraded and humiliated while the information, knowledge and memory embedded in them become lost along the way. Without even ignoring its many negative and traumatizing aspects, a main question addressed in this book is whether ruination also can be seen as an act of disclosure. If ruination disturbs the routinized and ready-to-hand, to what extent can it also be seen as a recovery of memory as exposing meanings and presences that perhaps are only possible to grasp at second hand when no longer immersed in their withdrawn and useful reality?
Paramount in this respect are the so-called multi-room houses, a complex and enigmatic settlement structure confined to these northern shores. Although for centuries attracting the curiosity of scholars and laymen, the recently completed research project presented in this book is the first attempt at a more thorough and inter-disciplinary approach to understanding these sites. Challenging the mono-cultural interpretations that hitherto have dominated their interpretations, our main conclusion is that the multi-room houses were used by rivaling groups and for different purposes. Despite being introduced as dwellings for distant peoples, they soon came to host both natives and newcomers. Their very design moreover was the result of a mixture of faraway traditions, borrowings, and local adaptations, thus making the multi-room houses truly hybrid spaces.
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgement 5
List of illustrations 9
Notes on contributors 19
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction – Bjørnar Olsen 25
Chapter 2: A Brief Outline of the Historical Setting – Bjørnar Olsen 29
Chapter 3: Scholars and Multi-Room Houses: A Historiography – Jørn E. Henriksen 33
Chapter 4: Coastal Finnmark and the Environment of
the Multi-Room Houses – Colin P. Amundsen 39
Part II: Fieldwork
Chapter 5: The Multi-Room House Sites: Surveys and Test Excavations –
Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen and Elin Rose Myrvoll 49
Chapter 6: Excavation of Iron Age Sites – Elin Rose Myrvoll 83
Chapter 7: The Skonsvika Site – Katarzyna Skrzynska-Jankowska and Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 93
Chapter 8: Boathouse Excavation at Skonsvika – Gørill Nilsen and Stephen Wickler 121
Chapter 9: The Kongshavn Site – Jørn E. Henriksen and Bjørnar Olsen 131
Chapter 10: Minor Excavations: The Løkvik and Nordmannset Sites –
Elin Rose Myrvoll, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk and Colin Amundsen 149
Chapter 11: Geophysical Surveys in Skonsvika, Løkvik and Nordmannset – Krzysztof Misiewicz 159
Chapter 12: Skonsvika and Experiments with Digitalised Recording System –
Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 169
Part III: Artifacts, Architecture and Chronology
Chapter 13: Artifacts: The Finds Retrieved – Jørn E. Henriksen, Camilla Nordby and Cora Oschman 181
Chapter 14: Multi-Room Houses: Site Organization and Architecture –
Bjørnar Olsen and Jørn E. Henriksen 207
Chapter 15: Comparative Approach to Architecture and
Formation Processes at Skonsvika – Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 221
Chapter 16: The Chronology of Multi-Room Houses - Jørn E. Henriksen 229
Part IV: Beyond Artifacts: Bones, Grains and Sediments
Chapter 17: The Zoo-Archaeology of Multi-Room Houses. – Colin Amundsen 241
Chapter 18: Vegetation History and Anthropogenic Impact on Vegetation at
Localities with Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway – Christin Jensen 265
Chapter 19: Activities and Accumulations: Micromorphology Analyses of
Archaeological Sediments from Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway –
Ian A. Simpson and W. Paul Adderley 285
Chapter 20: The Archaeo-Botany of Multi-Room House Sites – Roger Engelmark 307
Part V: The Medieval Context: Ethnicity, Settlement and Borders
Chapter 21: Finnmark, Bjarkøy and the Norwegian Kingdom –
Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 315
Chapter 22: Finnmark between the East and the West –
Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 329
Chapter 23: The Russian-Norwegian Border in Medieval and Early Modern Times. -
Lars Ivar Hansen 355
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 24: Interpreting Multi-Room Houses: Origin, Function and
Cultural Networks – Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen And Przemyslaw Urbanzcyk 371
References 389
Today the well-equipped Pyramiden survives as a conspicuous Soviet-era ghost town in pristine Arctic nature. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2006, this book explores what things left behind can tell us about how people lived and coped in this marginal town. It is also concerned with Pyramiden's post-human biography and the way the site provokes more general reflections on things, heritage and memory.
Challenging the traditional scholarly hierarchy of text over images, this book stands out by using art photography as a means to address these issues and to mediate the contemporary archaeology of Pyramiden.
Forfatterne bygger på og problematiserer eldre og nyere forskning innenfor arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap, etnografi og lingvistikk, og presenterer den til nå mest omfattende oversikten over eldre samisk historie.
Forfatterne diskuterer inngående aktuelle spørsmål som tilkomst av samisk etnisitet, eksistensen av samiske rettigheter til områder og ressurser, tamreindriftens oppkomst og prosessen rundt kristningen av samene. Sentralt i framstillingen står samenes forhold til andre samfunn.
Boka er skrevet av to av Nordens fremste kjennere av samisk historie. Lars Ivar Hansen er professor i eldre historie ved Universitetet i Tromsø; Bjørnar Olsen professor i arkeologi ved samme universitet.