Forskningsemne
Stone Age

The Early Northern Comb Ware of northern Fennoscandia

(Based on my Ph.D. (2003). Typological studies of Early Northern Comb Ware and associated lithic technolog, as well as a number of new datings, form the background for viewing social networks across Fennoscandia,including topics such as the question of Neolitisation, technolocial sequences and socio-cultural contexts, mobility vs. sedentarity and stability - transition in hunter-fisher-gatherer societies.

Deltaker(e):
Marianne Skandfer

Comb ceramic from Upper Pasvik River valley, Finnmark

Early Northern Comb Ware (ENCW) is found in a limited area of the easternmost part of Finnmark, arctic Norway, in the present border areas between Russia to the east and Finland to the south. It is the oldest pottery in Norway and among the oldest pottery in Fennoscandia. The pottery has been known since 1910, but has gained little interest in Norwegian archaeology. The reluctance within archaeological research to engage with this ceramic material contrasts with both the interest shown for Neolithic ceramics in south Norway and the extensive ceramic research conducted in more southerly areas of Finland.

Despite the lack of more thorough engagement with the details and variability of this ceramic material, the ENCW in Finnmark has been nonetheless taken as a chronological marker for the beginning of the Younger Stone Age in north Norwegian archaeology. As such, it has been viewed as a significant marker of cultural or ethnic diversity in Stone Age Finnmark. The discrepancy between the cursory analysis of the ENCW material, and the bold chronological and cultural interpretations attached to it, has been the subject of a series of my recent publications. In these publications, I review the on-going re-interpretation of the hunter fisher ceramic assemblages, focusing on morphological characteristics, chronology and the prehistoric socio-cultural contexts within which this ceramic technology was introduced, produced, used, understood and finally given up.


Selected publications:
2003 Tidlig nordlig kamkeramikk. Typologi - kronologi - kultur. PhD-thesis, University of Tromsø. Digital version at http://hdl.handle.net/10037/284

2005a Early, Northern Comb Ware in Finnmark: The Concept of Sãrãisniemi 1 Reconsidered. In: Fennoscandia Archaeologica XXII

2005b Fra eldre til yngre steinalder? Konologiske og begrepsmessige utfordringer sett fra Nord-Norge. I: Primitive tider no.8

In press ”All Change?” Exploring the Role of Technological Choice in the Early Northern Comb Ware of Finnmark, Arctic Norway. In: Jordan, P. and Zvelebil, M.(eds.):Origins of Ceramics and Hunter Gatherers of Northern Eurasia, UCL Press, London

Påbegynt år
1999/2005

(eve.) Fullført år
PhD 2003