Peopling Prehistoric Coastlines: Identifying Mid-Holocene Forager Settlement Strategies in Northern Norway

Peter D. Jordan,Charlotte Brysting Damm,Marianne Skandfer

doi:10.1007/s11457-021-09316-x

Peter D. Jordan, Charlotte Brysting Damm + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-021-09316-x

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Abstract

In circumpolar regions, coastlines offer rich constellations of diverse resources and have long been a focus of human habitation. Despite the rich archaeological records that are located along many northern coastlines, there is a relatively limited understanding of the range of factors that informed local settlement strategies. Northern Norway has one of the world’s longest and best-preserved archaeological records of coastal habitation due to post-glacial uplift. Occupation begins in the early Holocene and appears to peak in the mid-Holocene. Our aim in this paper is to investigate the constraints and opportunities that informed the mid-Holocene settlement patterns, between c. 5000 and 0 BC. We present new data that were generated by intensive field surveys and undertake a qualitative multi-scalar analysis of site-locational choices, evaluating the influences of geography, topography and seasonal resource availability. Having identified stretches of the rugged coast as uninhabitable, we proceeded with analyses of the rest of the coastline. Our results indicate that all major settlements were sited to provide safe boat landing, good vantage points and shelter from storms. From these habitation sites, boat technology would have provided flexible access to diverse resources that were available throughout the year, and within a limited travel radius. We also demonstrate that these settlement strategies contrast with the way that the same coastlines were inhabited by pioneering groups in the early Holocene but appear to have some similarities with mid-Holocene coastal settlement patterns in Newfoundland and the Aleutian Islands. Overall, our results suggest that the multiple resources available along northern coastlines often enabled populations to occupy relatively localized areas for long periods. Longer-range mobility and interaction may instead have been primarily driven by socio-political factors rather than subsistence needs.

Highlights

Northern coastlines can be rugged, and offer scope for human settlement with ready access to dense constellations of marine, coastal and terrestrial resources, and have attracted increasing human settlement throughout the Holocene (Bjerck 2009; Fitzhugh 2016)
We examined the early Holocene habitation patterns from Northern Norway
The present study aimed first of all to identify the choices and strategies that lay behind mid-Holocene settlement patterns in northernmost Norway

Summary

Introduction

Northern coastlines can be rugged, and offer scope for human settlement with ready access to dense constellations of marine, coastal and terrestrial resources, and have attracted increasing human settlement throughout the Holocene (Bjerck 2009; Fitzhugh 2016). We aim to reconstruct coastal forager strategies that underpin spatial demographic patterns commonly observed in northern latitudes through a targeted case-study situated in the counties of Troms and Finnmark, which we term northernmost Norway. Northernmost Norway witnessed an increased density of coastal sites during the mid-Holocene, here defined as 5000–0 BC. Much of the region has limited modern infrastructure. These circumstances have left stretches of ancient raised coastline relatively intact, with imprints of prehistoric dwellings visible as tent rings, cleared floors or house-pits. The archaeological data in this region are well suited to address patterning in mid-Holocene coastal habitation

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