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dc.contributor.authorSelsing, Lotte
dc.date.accessioned2012-10-30T10:36:10Z
dc.date.available2012-10-30T10:36:10Z
dc.date.issued2010
dc.identifier.citationSelsing, L. (2010) Mennesker og natur i fjellet i Sør-Norge etter siste istid med hovedvekt på mesolitikum. Stavanger : Arkeologisk Museumno_NO
dc.identifier.isbn978-82-7760-149-6
dc.identifier.issn0332-6306
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11250/181470
dc.description.abstractThe main aim of the project is to interpret people’s relationship to nature with emphasis on the culture of huntergatherers in the mountain area of South Norway in the Mesolithic period. The palaeoenvironment and traces of human interaction with nature in Dyraheio are used as a basis for a South Norwegian perspective. Further, the relation between nature and settlement in the mountain area is analysed from a South Norwegian perspective. The cultural characteristics of hunter-gatherers are used to analyse the relation between people, settlement and nature, to propose a cultural meaning of reindeer for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and a division of territories in South Norway. Dyraheio is located in the mountain area of Setesdal Vesthei in Southwest Norway in the low alpine vegetation zone. The climate is dominated by the Atlantic cyclones in the west, with more continental conditions in the east. This mountain area has harsh climatic conditions with 7-8 months of snow cover. The methods used in the study are palynology, radiocarbon dated pine mega fossils, stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates. The palynological analysis on samples of gyttja, peat and podsolic soil at the Late Mesolithic sites showed changes in the occurrence of charcoal particles. The variation in especially Onagraceae (probably fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium), ferns (Polypodiaceae), heather (Calluna, Empetrum and Ericales in general) and clubmosses (Lycopodium) is interpreted as being due to human action. Some of the variations of the palynomorphs may have resulted from gathering activities for food, for cleaning and use for resting places, for fuel and from vegetation management. The results indicate that people stayed more often and possibly for longer periods in these areas than recorded by archaeological observations alone. The environmental changes in the mountain areas of South Norway since deglaciation are synthesised. They occurred earlier in western areas than in eastern areas and earlier in higher areas than in lower areas. The forest limit was at its uppermost and most stable limit during the Early Holocene. Pine dominated the subalpine forest many places, especially in the east, and was mixed to varying degrees with birch. The “Holocene thermal optimum” started around 8000 BP (8900 cal BP). The dominance of pine started to decline around 6700 BP (7580 cal BP) and at the same time the first traces of a decline in the forest limit are recorded. Birch gradually became the dominant tree and the subalpine birch forest was established during the period 5700-4400 BP (6480-4970 cal BP) with a declining forest limit and deterioration of the climate. From about 4400 BP (4970 cal BP) grazing domestic animals influenced the composition of the vegetation. The grazing hampered the re-growth of trees as the animals were eating the young plants. Grazing husbandry also caused wearing and erosion of the soil. The “Holocene thermal optimum” ended in the period 4000-3500 BP (4470-3770 cal BP) and the subalpine birch forest was more open. The drop in the forest limit was considerable from 3700-3300 BP (4040-3520 cal BP) and low alpine vegetation spread over still larger areas at the same time as pasturing husbandry increasingly changed the vegetation into a cultural landscape similar to the one known in historical times and up to the present. Radiocarbon dates are used as a record of the Stone Age settlement in the mountain area. The dates show a continuous presence of people, and the only hiatus in the dataset is found during the Late Preboreal chronozone. This homogeneity indicates that hunter-gatherers regularly used the mountain area in an annual cycle. Presumably the range of the variations in nature was accepted and presupposed in the hunter-gatherer culture and generally satisfied the people’s living requirements. Nearly all the radiocarbon dated archaeological sites in the mountain area were located below the forest limit at the time of use. The subalpine forest was a better base than the alpine landscape to safeguard the regular economic resources of the society. This location provided easy access to resources in the alpine and subalpine areas, with more divergent biotopes than the alpine area alone. The subalpine forest probably also had richer and more varied resources than the alpine area and was the only vegetation zone where the three largest ungulates (reindeer, elk and deer) could be expected. When the forest limit dropped, the biotopes where settlement sites had been located were poorer and societal safety weakened. [...]no_NO
dc.language.isonobno_NO
dc.publisherArkeologisk Museum i Stavangerno_NO
dc.relation.ispartofseriesAmS-Varia;51
dc.subjectarkeologino_NO
dc.subjectmesolitikumno_NO
dc.subjectpaleomiljø
dc.subjectSør-Norge
dc.subjectreinsdyrkultur
dc.titleMennesker og natur i fjellet i Sør-Norge etter siste istid med hovedvekt på mesolitikumno_NO
dc.typeBookno_NO
dc.subject.nsiVDP::Humanities: 000::Archeology: 090::Nordic archeology: 091no_NO
dc.source.pagenumber371


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