Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

Abstract

In its analysis of the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, this book provides a focus on animistic-shamanistic cosmologies and the associated humanenvironment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. The North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, as an enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities. Rich archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folkloric materials combine in this book with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, producing a fresh approach to the prehistory and history of a region that is pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. This book examines the mythical and actual northern worlds, with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand, and the 'place' of the North in European culture on the other. This book is an indispensable read for scholars of archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies and folklore in northern Europe, as well as researchers interested in how the North is intertwined with developments in the broader European and Eurasian world. It provides a deep-time understanding of globally topical issues and conflicting interests, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation and indigenous rights.

Minoan Lapland: fieldwork, spirituality and connecting across time and space

“…An important aspect of knowing and engaging with such a world is to know and be aware of the relationships between different entities and phenomena, as relationships ultimately define what things are and what they do in given specific contexts (see further e.g. Ingold 2000Ingold , 2019Herva and Lahelma 2019).…”

Minding the field: sensory and affective engagements with high Arctic fieldwork

“…It has been conceived as a land of natural and supernatural marvels through centuries both in 'positive ' utopian and 'negative' dystopian terms (e.g. Davidson 2005;Naum 2016;Herva and Lahelma 2019).…”

“…This has important implications for knowledge, as knowing such a dynamic world is essentially situational. It requires continuous and active attentiveness to one's surroundings, as well as negotiating one's place in the world, which frequently calls for improvisation and adapting to particular situations of interaction (see further Herva and Lahelma 2019). All this has potential implications to doing fieldwork or 'fielding' in the high North.…”

Changing perceptions of rock art: storying prehistoric worlds

“…It seems significant that both pyrite and quartz were utilized as strike-a-lights and that quartz can emit a bluish glow when struck (cf. Herva and Lahelma 2019).…”

“…Norway and Fennoscandia witnessed an intensification of the rock art tradition after 5500 BCE (e.g. Gjerde 2010;Herva and Lahelma 2019). At the same time, there seems to be a tendency to more often depict multiple animals together, a tendency interpreted by Fuglestvedt (2017) as reflecting the value placed on the collective in society, expressed in images of the herd.…”