Trialectic Archaeology: Monuments and Space in Southwest Norway, 1700-500 BC

Description

This book is based on the PhD thesis in archaeology at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, where the author was awarded the degree Doctor of Philosophy in 2004. The aim of this project is to challenge established theories on how the Bronze Age landscape in Scandinavia in general, and Southwest Norway in particular, is formed, reformed and discursively constructed. The Bronze Age landscape in Norway has never been studied in its own terms. The archaeological material is usually compared with finds from areas further south, and Southwest Norway has been considered as a periphery, and even a colony, of centres in Denmark. What is different has either been neglected or given a less fortunate place within systems of evolution. The centre as a starting point for evolution and diffusion has created a myth of totality – an entirety that gives the impression of an inseparable entity of centre and periphery. For that reason the periphery is reduced to the centre’s ideas of it, in terms of what is identical with the centre’s own interpretation of the world. Then the periphery does not exist and extend beyond being an 'other' in a binary hierarchy, and becomes the second part in one and the same reality. Abstract 5 Acknowledgements 8 List of figures 10 Abbreviations 15 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 17 1.1. Choosing the margin 17 CHAPTER 2. ARCHAEOLOGY AND OTHER WAYS OF SEEING 26 2.1. Transit to third space 26 2.2. Towards a trialectic epistemology 29 2.3. Methodological framework 31 CHAPTER 3. RETURNING TO BRONZE AGE RESEARCH 35 3.1. In praise of an imperfect history 35 3.2. Antiquarianism and the prospect of monuments 35 3.3. Differences and dualism 37 3.4. When rock art becomes a marginal manifestation 42 3.5. Rock art research in Rogaland 44 3.6. Ships and the idea of fertility 48 3.7. Making the margin 50 3.8. Searching for the farm 51 3.9. Hunting, herding and farming 52 3.10. Caves and rock shelters 54 3.11. Pastoral settlement and agriculture 56 3.12. From agrarian spatiality to an archaeology of mobility 58 CHAPTER 4. LANDSCAPE AND SEASCAPE IN SOUTHWEST NORWAY 61 4.1. The light 61 4.2. The land 65 4.3. Deforestation and heathland 67 4.4. The sea 68 4.5. The voyage 70 CHAPTER 5. MONUMENTAL MILIEU IN ROGALAND 71 5.1. Seeing things – thinking space 71 5.2. Sub-area 1: Delination of the Tjøtta – Re passage 76 5.3. Sub-area 2: The Ridge of Særheim 79 5.4. Sub-area 3: The Braut – Kleppe hill 84 5.5. Sub-area 4: The Reef of Jæren and the enclosures of the Orre lagoon 86 5.6. Sub-area 5: The Grude – Bore entrance 89 5.7. Sub-area 6: Along drained waterways of Skasvannet 91 5.8. Sub-area 7: The Rege moraine and the seaside sites of Ølberg and Vigdel 95 5.9. Sub-area 8: The in-between space of Tananger peninsula 101 5.10. Sub-area 9: Adressing the Hafrsfjord basin and the passages beyond 104 5.11. Sub-area 10: Around the lake of Bø and the Harestad bog 114 5.12. Sub-area 11: At the edge of Jæren and beginning of the Ryfylke fjords 117 5.13. Sub-area 12: The islands of Åmøy, Bru, Mosterøy and Hundvåg 119 5.14. Sub-area 13: Between open sea and a system of fjords 142 5.15. Sub-area 14: The island of Karmøy 147 Notes 162 CHAPTER 6. TRAVELS IN AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF WATER 169 6.1. A spatial expression of time 169 6.2. Circulation of ships 171 6.3. Flint trade and early ship history 174 6.4. Distribution of rock art 176 6.5. In-between visible and invisible space 177 6.6. Voyage to an-other world 180 6.7. Chronology and composition of carved ships 184 6.8. Schemes of ship typology 185 6.9. Dating of decorated grave slabs 190 6.10. Chronological conditions of carved ships 192 Notes 204 CHAPTER 7. BARROWS BEYOND BELONGING206 7.1. Unfinished things 206 7.2. Arrangement of monuments 209 7.3. From feminine space to masculine rooms 211 7.4. The crossing place 213 7.5. En-closing the death 217 Notes 221 CHAPTER 8. THE LAST VOYAGE 222 8.1. Openings and conclusions 222 References 230