Where are the Missing Boats? The Pioneer Settlement of Norway as Long-Term History

Abstract

During the last ten years there has been a growing interest in understanding the earliest settlement of northern Europe. In Norway, specialized marine adaptation and high mobility based on traffic with seafaring skin boats are key elements in a new synthesis of the colonization process. This article addresses the process of colonization from a perspective of long-term history, analysing the record in an archaeological retrospective perspective. Such an analysis is intended to challenge and discuss some of the presumptions giving an implicit framework to the current state of knowledge. The main argument is that the long-term structures of Mesolithic settlement and subsistence in Norway are key for understanding the colonization of this landscape. Key elements in such a discussion are the nature of the early Mesolithic transport and communication systems. It is reasonable to question the range of mobility and the seagoing quality of the vessels. The sites preserved show traces of boat production that resembles the rest of the Mesolithic. This touches upon a more fundamental question concerning the status of the archaeological record as source material for understanding human societies and history.

Keywords:

• Stone Age
• settlement
• Mesolithic
• experimental archaeology
• environment
• anthropology

View correction statement:

Discussion Erratum

Notes

Note: This discussion originally went online with some uncorrected portions in the comments section. These sections have now been revised. For more details, see Erratum http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2013.808505