Recalling the past
Northern Sweden is today the arena for active identity and ethnicity processes with strong political overtones. The lack of comprehensive research on the cultural and social contexts of the Iron Age and early Middle Ages has left the field open to essentialist interpretations of archaeological finds and historical sources.
The aim of the research program was to clarify and highlight landscape use and social change in the coastal areas of northern Norrland during a period when the cultural landscape was shaped by hunters, fishermen, reindeer herders and farmers, whose ethnic and cultural identities cannot be directly translated into today's ethnic map. The research program focused on social and economic structures and inter-regional relations from the 6th to the 20th century.
The Silvermuseet researchers were the initiators of the project and project owners. The research was conducted in an interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeology, forest history, ecology, palaeoecology, history and place name research with researchers at Umeå University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå and the University of Montana, Missoula.
Funder: Riksbankens jubileumsfond, Dnr M11-0361
Project duration: 2012 - 2018
Grant awarded: SEK 27 600 000
Project leader: Ingela Bergman
Grant administrator: Silvermuseet