Etnesjøen – en førromersk landsby på Vestlandet

Abstract

In the summer months of 2013, the University Museum of Bergen conducted an archeological excavation of a large prehistoric settlement area at Etnesjøen in Etne parish, Western Norway. By use of mechanized top soil stripping numerous buildings, inhumation burials, cooking pits and kilns were uncovered. The site dates from the Late Bronze Age to Early Medieval Period. The focus of the article is the discovery of a Pre-Roman Iron Age village, formed of up to six farms chronologically spanning up to five generations of continuous occupation. At the time of the excavation, this was only the second pre-historic village of its kind found in Norway, indicating a significant and important discovery.

Effective Houses: Property Rights and Settlement in Iron Age Eastern Norway

“…There is no study of possibly varying practice amongst the local authorities (fylkeskommuner) in the area covered by the Museum of Cultural History in respect of recording, recommendations of dispensation or required protection. 4 There is reason to believe, however, that there are differences, and it is probably of fundamental significance that local authority archaeologists' specialist advice can be over-ruled, either administratively or by politicians (Groseth 2006;Diinhoff 2013). It is the local authority that determines whether an area is to be registered or not.…”

“…I would emphasize in particular its short life-span. This could be as little as 25-50 years and can scarcely have been more than a century even if a few buildings may have survived even longer (Draiby 1991;Løken 2020;Zimmermann 1998:60-2;Ängeby 1999;Gerritsen 2003:39;Webley 2008:39-40;Herschend 2009:143;Diinhoff and Slinning 2013). The earth-fast posts suffered from damp, and rotted quite rapidly.…”