Arctic Archaeology

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Archaeological excavations at Melkoya Island, Hammerfest Norway.

Arctic Archaeology February 28

Colin Amundsen

Archeologist Colin Amundsen will present an illustrated lecture on his research in Norway’s Arctic region at the Camden Public Library on Thursday, February 28, at 7:00 pm. During the late medieval period this region of Norway was the focus of intense fishing, trade, tribute collection, and conflict between the newly emerging Norwegian state and the Principality of Novgorod.  A noticeable artifact from this period of contact is the presence of several large irregular shaped structures known by historians and archaeologists as the “multi-room houses.”  Dr. Amundsen’s talk will highlight the scientific findings from the project that investigated these structures as well as discuss the role archaeologists have within Norway’s planning and regulation laws.
Dr. Amundsen currently lives and works in Bergen, Norway, but Rockport is his US residence. Raised in Connecticut, he attended the University of Maine at Orono for his bachelor’s in anthropology and then attended the Graduate Center at the City University of New York for his PhD in anthropology. His dissertation researched culture contact during late medieval period along the coast of the Barents Sea. He has worked as an arctic archaeologist for the last 15 years in Labrador, Canada, Iceland, and Finnmark, Norway. For the last 10 years he has been working in Norway’s arctic region and now the west coast. The title of his lecture is “Fishing and the multi-room houses of arctic Norway: Archaeological investigations along the coast of the Barents Sea from the late medieval to the early modern period (1200 to 1600 AD).”

Ground slate knife from the Late Stone Age (5000 – 1500 B.C.) (Hammerfest, Norway).

AbstractColin P. Amundsen (2008) Culture Contact, Ethnicity and Food Practices of Coastal Finnmark, Norway (1200 to 1600 A.D.). The City University of New York, Unpublished PhD Thesis. 473 pp.

Bone carving (unknown object) from the Late Medieval Period
 (ca. 1200 AD) (Skonsvika, Norway).

One of the consequences of early commercial fishing, with regard to Norway, was the partial influence upon the Norwegian state to expand its regional borders and influence further north. Although this was out of economic necessity it was not the only reason for the establishment of permanent settlements, in the form of fishing villages, along the coast of Finnmark. One of the outcomes of this movement was a more visible Norwegian presence in the Far North which brought with it more direct contact with the local indigenous population, the Saami, as well as more inflammatory contacts with tribal peoples (Karelian) from present day Northwest Russia who were in the region to trade and to collect tribute on the behalf of the Principality of Novgorod. This period of Finnmark’s historical past is characterized as a high point of stately hegemonic desires, both from the west and the east, which at times was considerably hostile. However, there were periods of economic cooperation in the form of trade between Norwegian, Saami, and Russian/Karelian. It is during this period that unique structures appear along the coast, known as multi-room houses, which have remained enigmatic monuments within north Norwegian archaeology. It is from these sites, and under the above historical context, that the material presented in this dissertation originated. Special attention will focus upon the ichthyological remains with an in-depth discussion devoted to the multiple butchery styles observed which are believed to be ethnically prescribed practices outside of what has been observed thus far in Northern Norway or the North Atlantic.