The Farm as a Social Arena

Book Cover

Imprint

Preface

Contents

Introduction: The farm as a social arena (Liv Helga Dommasnes)

What is a farm?

Former research on the farm in Norway

Recent developments

The farm as a social arena

Papers and approaches

Why the farm?

Bibliography

Sheep, dog and man. Multi-species becomings leading to new ways of living in Early Bronze Age longhouses on Jæren, Norway (Kristin Armstrong Oma)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Changed way of living, changed way of building

Three-aisled longhouses – the research discourse of indoor stalling

Bronze Age house typology in relation to Rogaland houses

Finding a house shared by humans and animals

Did animals live in the Early Bronze Age houses of Rogaland?

Historical accounts of keeping sheep in Western Norway

Situating the Bronze Age farm in the wider environment

Faunal remains from Forsandmoen and Kvåle

Sheep in Bronze Age Europe – general trends

Wool textiles in graves

Primacy of sheep in Rogaland

Sheep and their social strategies

The domination discourse unbound

Trust, socialisation and habituation embedded in the architecture

Bibliography

Unlocking identities. Keys and locks from Iron Age farms in eastern Sweden (Emma Nordström)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction

Material, method and outline of the study

Vallhagar

Granby-Hyppinge

Locked doors and chests in the Icelandic Sagas

The keys to the farm

Unlocking identities

Acknowledgements

Understandings – burial practice, identity and social ties. The Horvnes Iron Age burials, a peephole into the farming society of Helgeland, North-Norway (Birgitta Berglund)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

The puzzling Horvnes burials

The Horvnes burials and the farming society

The magnate farm Sandnes

The Horvnes graves: Burial practices, analyses and presentations of the buried individuals

The Horvnes East grave: burial practices, analyses and presentations of the buried individuals

Towards a new understanding of the Horvnes burials

New perspectives of the Iron Age farming society and burial customs at the coast of Helgeland

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Individual lifeworlds and social structured societies in Merovingian settlements from the Munich Gravel Plain (Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction

Farms and settlements

The main source for social structure of early medieval society: Graves

Contemporary written sources

Conclusion and closing remarks

Bibliograhpy

One thousand years of tradition and change on two West-Norwegian farms AD 200–1200 (Liv Helga Dommasnes and Alf Tore Hommedal)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction

The monuments

Becoming European

Tradition, change and bases of power

Some conclusions

Bibliography

A shattered farm: Changes in making space from pagan to Christian Norway (Kristin Armstrong Oma)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

From pagan to Christian farms

From space to place

Animals and their changing ontological status

Posthumanism – or prehumanism? Animals in the pagan Norse universe

From pagan to Christian – changes in ontological status

Animals in the early Christian theology

Changes in the nature of being?

Bibliography

House, farmyard and landscape as social arena in a time of transition (Helge Sørheim)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Research focus and approaches

What creates the social character?

Iron Age and Medieval houses and farm in Norway, a short review

Tradition, conservatism? – why was the corner-timbering technique not used earlier?

Routines, rituals, habitus

Territories, space, home and building tradition

Borders, roles

The house and social levels

Interior of the house

The new farm plan

The towns

Conclusion

Between chiefdom and kingdom. A case study of the Iron Age farm Borg in Lofoten, Arctic Norway (Inger Storli)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction: Borg farm and its people

Some comments on archaeology and archaeologists

The archaeology of Borg

Borg I

Rich farms and their location

Court sites in Lofoten

The hall and its meaning

A possible high seat

On the scent of a line of princes?

From Borg to Iceland?

Borg between chiefdom and kingdom

Bibliography

Constructing society in Viking Age Iceland: Rituals and power (Timothy Carlisle and Karen Milek)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction

The role of ritual performance in Viking Age belief systems

Possible structured house deposits at Aðalstræti 16, Reyjkjavík

Possible structured house deposits at Hofstaðir, Mývatnssveit

Possible structured house deposit at Vatnsfjörður, Westfjords

Structured house deposits in a social perspective

Conclusions: Structured house deposits, domestic space, and society

Bibliography

The social structures of High Medieval rural settlements. An example from the Northern Rhineland, Germany (Timo Bremer)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

Introduction

The rural space of the northern Rhineland in the High Middle Ages

Archaeological excavations in Pier, its backcountry and the environment

The settlement formation in the research area before the High Middle Ages

High Medieval settlement structures in Pier

Sociological interpretation of the High Medieval features

Conclusions

Bibliography

“Being a vicar at the end of the world”. The priesthood at Alstahaug vicarage in North-Norway presents its identity through the household and daily life before AD 1750 (Birgitta Berglund)

Abstract

Zusammenfassung

The approach

Archaeological excavations and written sources

How did the priesthood present itself through the delights of the table?

Cooking pots and pans

How did the priesthood present itself through personal items?

How did the priesthood present itself through the buildings?

Concluding remarks and perspectives – presenting, producing and maintaining identity

Epilogue

Bibliography

Authors and editors