Innovation and Collapse: Bucket-Shaped Pottery and Metalwork in the Terminal Migration Period

What Happened at Augland? A Social Chronology for the Demise of a Roman Iron Age Ceramic Workshop in South Norway

“…The following analysis shows that manufacture at the prolific workshop site at Augland in southernmost Norway came to an end 70-80 years prior to the dust veil. Resonating with recent studies that point to institutional changes in the foregoing fifth century as key to understanding craft developments (Kristoffersen and Magnus 2010;Rødsrud 2012;Fredriksen et al 2014), our data underscore the need to fine-tune the spatiotemporal lens through which we view technological and social change.…”

“…The demise of the previously thriving ceramic craft milieux in the western part of the Scandinavian Peninsula in the Migration Period (MP, AD 400-550) has intrigued generations of Iron Age archaeologists (Fredriksen et al 2014;see Rødsrud 2012;. High-quality potting seems to have gone from vibrant to virtually extinct in a few decades.…”

“…The secondproducing a unique bucket-shapewere made using a markedly different plate/mould technique that, at least in its early phase, was easier to copy by non-specialists. The two modes had different geographical origins and historical trajectories (Kristoffersen and Magnus 2010;Fredriksen et al 2014). While the first appeared at the transition to the Late Roman Iron Age (LRIA, AD 200-400) and seems to terminate by the turn to the sixth century, the latter emerged in the fourth century and continued until the end of the MP in the mid-sixth century.…”

“…1 Secondly, in order to establish the necessary chronological comprehension of the final century of the site, an adequate proportion of diagnostic samples from both production modes were selected. The western mode, better known as bucket-shaped pottery, is divided into Phases I-III (Fredriksen et al 2014): it became clear at an early stage in the study that only material from Phase I and the transition to Phase II is found at Augland. Diagnostic samples of this mode could, therefore, provide a baseline for developing a relative chronology.…”

The Agrarian Life of the North 2000 BC–AD 1000

“…As a result of the division of the land, a more equal society emerged. levels towards the end of the Migration Period in the early 6 th century (Fredriksen, Kristoffersen & Zimmermann 2014), after which it disappears rather abruptly. In this article, I will focus on this break in continuity and attempt to outline various explanations for what may have caused this and how it may shed light on other processes taking place during the transition to Merovingian Period.…”