1999-2003

People, fire and landscape

The project dealt with the establishment and ecological conditions of the fishing community in the Norrland hinterland 9000 - 6000 BP, i.e. the period after the melting of the ice sheet. The focus was on the earliest settlements, with associated questions about where people came from and why. Another important question was how humans affected the landscape, especially the importance of fire for the colonization process and landscape transformation.

The early post-glacial colonization and settlement history of Fennoscandia is to a large extent related to the recessional process of the Wichsel Glacier. The hinterland of Upper Norrland was the last area in Europe to be exposed. The lack of early post-glacial settlements meant that studies of the course and causes of pioneer colonization could not be carried out.

The aim of the project was to identify older shorelines and associated settlement remains, based on the non-uniform isostatic land uplift. The so-called tipping effect on the shoreline displacement of watercourses had not previously been recognized in archaeological and ecological research. The aim was to clarify the course, causes and ecological conditions of pioneer colonization. The interaction between the early fishing community and its natural environment was a central problem area.

The research was carried out in an interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeology and palaeoecology.
The Silvermuseet's researchers were the initiators of the project and project owners. The work was carried out in collaboration with researchers at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå.

Funder: Riksbankens jubileumsfond, Dnr K1998-5116
Project period: 1999 - 2003
Grant awarded: SEK 9 800 000
Project leader: Ingela Bergman
Grant administrator: Stiftelsen Silvermuseet