Draught use and being ridden often result in typical pathological patterns in animal skeletons. M... more Draught use and being ridden often result in typical pathological patterns in animal skeletons. Moreover, physical activity patterns may be reflected in bone biomechanical properties and entheseal changes at muscle attachment sites. This paper presents the pathologies and entheseal changes observed in four draught and/or racing reindeer skeletons against information on their life histories and discusses the probability of linking the observed changes to their use. The results of this study are a useful point of comparison to researchers working on reindeer and other species of draught animals. However, our results also emphasize that entheseal changes and many pathologies have multifactorial etiologies and that interpretation of skeletal change patterns is not straightforward, even when there is information on the life history of the animal and its complete skeleton can be examined.
Unna Saiva is a Sámi offering site situated in Gällivare in Northern Sweden. The site was excavat... more Unna Saiva is a Sámi offering site situated in Gällivare in Northern Sweden. The site was excavated in the early 20th century. It yielded a large number of finds, including objects of silver, pewter and other metals, coins, and animal bones. The metal objects and coins date mainly to the late 10th century and 11th century AD, whereas the animal bone finds date from the 6th to the 17th centuries AD. Zooarchaeological analysis, radiocarbon datings of animal bones and stable isotope analyses conducted in this study reveal new information about religious ritual, religious change, and human–animal relationships among the Sámi. We argue that there was a change in the offering tradition, intertwining with changes in the subsistence economy and especially reindeer domestication. Our results indicate that reindeer domestication, acknowledged to have had a major impact on social organization and economy, was also a major factor in the transformation of Sámi indigenous religion. However, the underlying nature of the offering tradition remained consistent although the focal species of economic and religious interest changed.
"Contents Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Tiina Äikäs, Sanna Lipkin: Introduction Visa Immonen: Th... more "Contents Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Tiina Äikäs, Sanna Lipkin: Introduction Visa Immonen: The mess before the modern – Karen Barad’s agential realism and periodization in Medieval archaeology in Finland Anna-Kaisa Salmi: Man’s best friends? The treatment of the remains of dogs, cats and horses in early modern northern Finland Minna Lehtola: hoWhy theory and the cultural transition in the Sakha Republic Pirjo Hamari: Signifying Roman in the east – Identity and material culture in Roman archaeology Paula Kouki: Changing times, continuing traditions: the transfer of religious traditions at Jabal Harun Sanna Lipkin: Textile-making and religion in central Tyrrhenian Italy Juha Tuppi: A walk through the valley of death: The evolution of the Etruscan concept of the afterlife Jari-Matti Kuusela: Style as distinction – burials refl ecting distinction and the development of social stratifi cation of the Iron Age elites of Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland Samuel Vaneeckhout: A social panarchy: social changes on the Bothnian Bay between 6500 and 4000 cal BP Mirette Modarress: The past and present archaeological research in Iran – Development and some ethical questions Milton Núñez: Some thoughts on the workshop and Social Archaeology in Finland Bothnian Bay between 6500 and 4000 cal BP"
Journal of Material Culture June 2014 19: 145-167, Feb 20, 2014
This article discusses street mirrors or gossip mirrors in terms of urban social relations and su... more This article discusses street mirrors or gossip mirrors in terms of urban social relations and surveillance. These mirrors were introduced to Sweden and Finland during the 18th and early 19th century and have been used in coastal towns of Finland since the 18th century. Today, they are preserved in coastal towns with old wooden centers. Increasing urban populations and social insecurity caused the need to create monitoring and spying devices, such as street mirrors, since the 18th century. Mirrors were one material mechanism in the modernization process and in the development of contemporary individuality.
We evaluate whether entheseal changes (EC) can be used to reconstruct activity among reindeer to ... more We evaluate whether entheseal changes (EC) can be used to reconstruct activity among reindeer to study its domestication. Humans influence reindeer activity patterns through corralling, which renders them less mobile than free-ranging reindeer and through use as draught animals, which can result in overuse of certain muscles. There is also variation within free-ranging reindeer in baseline activity levels due to environmental factors. Other sources of variation at entheses include age, sex, pathology, size, and genetic disposition. Here we examine if there are differences in the entheses between zoo versus free-ranging reindeer. We recorded the entheses of reindeer long bones using a modified EC scoring system. Weight effects were accounted for by performing analyses separately for specimens under and over 95 kg, but unfortunately age information was lacking. We found that several flexor muscle insertion sites in the ulna were more developed among free-ranging reindeer. This difference is likely due to feeding behaviour. The free-ranging animals were digging for lichen from under the snow whereas the zoo reindeer were fed by their keepers. This difference in entheses, however, was found to be significant only among the heavier reindeer. Among the zoo reindeer, the insertion for Subscapularis muscle was more developed, possibly due to increased time spent immobile with the shoulder-bracing muscle apparatus activated. This difference was significant among the heavier deer and nearly statistically significant among the lighter weight reindeer. Domesticated Siberian draught reindeer fell between zoo and free-ranging reindeer in several tibial entheses. According to these results , some forelimb entheses may be useful to study differences in mobility and feeding patterns between groups of reindeer.
SUMMARY: Some of the most prominent characteristics of the early modern period are increasing con... more SUMMARY: Some of the most prominent characteristics of the early modern period are increasing control over human bodies and the increasing class differences in bodily practices. The rigid class society prevailing in early modern Sweden was refl ected in the way people in different classes were expected to behave, dress and eat, amongst other things. This paper discusses how bodily practices — with foodways and dress as case studies — were involved in negotiating class identities in a small town on the northern edge of Europe. It will examine how disciplinary codes of bodily behaviour were played out on the geographical margins of European society.
While researchers within Sámi archaeology have dealt with issues closely related to postcolonial ... more While researchers within Sámi archaeology have dealt with issues closely related to postcolonial theory and critique since the 1970s onwards, this has rarely been done with explicit mention or coherent use of this theoretical complex. This somewhat paradoxical situation was addressed in a session at the 14th conference of the Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group at Stockholm University in April 2014, an initiative that eventually resulted in the present collection of articles. In this introduction we briefly present the historiographical and discursive background for the debates that are outlined in the following contributions.
Draught use and being ridden often result in typical pathological patterns in animal skeletons. M... more Draught use and being ridden often result in typical pathological patterns in animal skeletons. Moreover, physical activity patterns may be reflected in bone biomechanical properties and entheseal changes at muscle attachment sites. This paper presents the pathologies and entheseal changes observed in four draught and/or racing reindeer skeletons against information on their life histories and discusses the probability of linking the observed changes to their use. The results of this study are a useful point of comparison to researchers working on reindeer and other species of draught animals. However, our results also emphasize that entheseal changes and many pathologies have multifactorial etiologies and that interpretation of skeletal change patterns is not straightforward, even when there is information on the life history of the animal and its complete skeleton can be examined.
Unna Saiva is a Sámi offering site situated in Gällivare in Northern Sweden. The site was excavat... more Unna Saiva is a Sámi offering site situated in Gällivare in Northern Sweden. The site was excavated in the early 20th century. It yielded a large number of finds, including objects of silver, pewter and other metals, coins, and animal bones. The metal objects and coins date mainly to the late 10th century and 11th century AD, whereas the animal bone finds date from the 6th to the 17th centuries AD. Zooarchaeological analysis, radiocarbon datings of animal bones and stable isotope analyses conducted in this study reveal new information about religious ritual, religious change, and human–animal relationships among the Sámi. We argue that there was a change in the offering tradition, intertwining with changes in the subsistence economy and especially reindeer domestication. Our results indicate that reindeer domestication, acknowledged to have had a major impact on social organization and economy, was also a major factor in the transformation of Sámi indigenous religion. However, the underlying nature of the offering tradition remained consistent although the focal species of economic and religious interest changed.
"Contents Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Tiina Äikäs, Sanna Lipkin: Introduction Visa Immonen: Th... more "Contents Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Tiina Äikäs, Sanna Lipkin: Introduction Visa Immonen: The mess before the modern – Karen Barad’s agential realism and periodization in Medieval archaeology in Finland Anna-Kaisa Salmi: Man’s best friends? The treatment of the remains of dogs, cats and horses in early modern northern Finland Minna Lehtola: hoWhy theory and the cultural transition in the Sakha Republic Pirjo Hamari: Signifying Roman in the east – Identity and material culture in Roman archaeology Paula Kouki: Changing times, continuing traditions: the transfer of religious traditions at Jabal Harun Sanna Lipkin: Textile-making and religion in central Tyrrhenian Italy Juha Tuppi: A walk through the valley of death: The evolution of the Etruscan concept of the afterlife Jari-Matti Kuusela: Style as distinction – burials refl ecting distinction and the development of social stratifi cation of the Iron Age elites of Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland Samuel Vaneeckhout: A social panarchy: social changes on the Bothnian Bay between 6500 and 4000 cal BP Mirette Modarress: The past and present archaeological research in Iran – Development and some ethical questions Milton Núñez: Some thoughts on the workshop and Social Archaeology in Finland Bothnian Bay between 6500 and 4000 cal BP"
Journal of Material Culture June 2014 19: 145-167, Feb 20, 2014
This article discusses street mirrors or gossip mirrors in terms of urban social relations and su... more This article discusses street mirrors or gossip mirrors in terms of urban social relations and surveillance. These mirrors were introduced to Sweden and Finland during the 18th and early 19th century and have been used in coastal towns of Finland since the 18th century. Today, they are preserved in coastal towns with old wooden centers. Increasing urban populations and social insecurity caused the need to create monitoring and spying devices, such as street mirrors, since the 18th century. Mirrors were one material mechanism in the modernization process and in the development of contemporary individuality.
We evaluate whether entheseal changes (EC) can be used to reconstruct activity among reindeer to ... more We evaluate whether entheseal changes (EC) can be used to reconstruct activity among reindeer to study its domestication. Humans influence reindeer activity patterns through corralling, which renders them less mobile than free-ranging reindeer and through use as draught animals, which can result in overuse of certain muscles. There is also variation within free-ranging reindeer in baseline activity levels due to environmental factors. Other sources of variation at entheses include age, sex, pathology, size, and genetic disposition. Here we examine if there are differences in the entheses between zoo versus free-ranging reindeer. We recorded the entheses of reindeer long bones using a modified EC scoring system. Weight effects were accounted for by performing analyses separately for specimens under and over 95 kg, but unfortunately age information was lacking. We found that several flexor muscle insertion sites in the ulna were more developed among free-ranging reindeer. This difference is likely due to feeding behaviour. The free-ranging animals were digging for lichen from under the snow whereas the zoo reindeer were fed by their keepers. This difference in entheses, however, was found to be significant only among the heavier reindeer. Among the zoo reindeer, the insertion for Subscapularis muscle was more developed, possibly due to increased time spent immobile with the shoulder-bracing muscle apparatus activated. This difference was significant among the heavier deer and nearly statistically significant among the lighter weight reindeer. Domesticated Siberian draught reindeer fell between zoo and free-ranging reindeer in several tibial entheses. According to these results , some forelimb entheses may be useful to study differences in mobility and feeding patterns between groups of reindeer.
SUMMARY: Some of the most prominent characteristics of the early modern period are increasing con... more SUMMARY: Some of the most prominent characteristics of the early modern period are increasing control over human bodies and the increasing class differences in bodily practices. The rigid class society prevailing in early modern Sweden was refl ected in the way people in different classes were expected to behave, dress and eat, amongst other things. This paper discusses how bodily practices — with foodways and dress as case studies — were involved in negotiating class identities in a small town on the northern edge of Europe. It will examine how disciplinary codes of bodily behaviour were played out on the geographical margins of European society.
While researchers within Sámi archaeology have dealt with issues closely related to postcolonial ... more While researchers within Sámi archaeology have dealt with issues closely related to postcolonial theory and critique since the 1970s onwards, this has rarely been done with explicit mention or coherent use of this theoretical complex. This somewhat paradoxical situation was addressed in a session at the 14th conference of the Nordic Theoretical Archaeology Group at Stockholm University in April 2014, an initiative that eventually resulted in the present collection of articles. In this introduction we briefly present the historiographical and discursive background for the debates that are outlined in the following contributions.
We are planning to organize a session entitled “Indigenous perspectives on historical archaeology... more We are planning to organize a session entitled “Indigenous perspectives on historical archaeology of colonialism” in the SHA (Society for Historical Archaeology: https://sha.org/conferences/) conference in Texas in January 2017. The session will focus on colonial encounters between indigenous peoples and European state powers from a trans-indigenous perspective (see abstract attached). The deadline for the paper abstracts is already at the end of June so we wish to have a preliminary list of papers by the end of May. If you are interested, contact us with your preliminary title before that. tiina.aikas@oulu.fi
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New deadline 19 February 2018: Please submit your paper abstract for EAA 2018 session #483: "Road... more New deadline 19 February 2018: Please submit your paper abstract for EAA 2018 session #483: "Roads of the North. Medieval and Early Modern Infrastructure of Travel and Exchange in the Far North" at https://e-a-a.org/EAA2018. Any questions about the session can be directed to Marte Spangen by email (see details in CfP) or here at academia.edu.
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Please feel free to circulate the session this to anyone who might be interested.