T Kerig I/ A

Zimmermann
Economic
archaeology: in
from
structure tolandscapes,
performance
EuropeanAD
ye.
Technology,(eds.).
land use
and transformations
Scandinavian
c. in
8001300
archaeology. Habelt. Bonn. 2013. Pp. 295309

295

TECHNOLOGY, LAND USE AND

TRANSFORMATIONS IN SCANDINAVIAN
LANDSCAPES, C. 8001300 AD
Ingvild ye

This paper focusses on the interaction between technology and land use in Scandinavia c.
8001300 AD, a period of profound changes in the agrarian landscape and in agricultural
productivity. Farming technology and methods are seen as interrelated elements technological
complexes are considered as part of agrarian systems, related to general trends in societal
development, but also adapted to particular ecotypes and environmental conditions.

INTRODUCTION
The issues to be addressed in this paper
concern humanenvironmental interactions
and the relation between technology and land
use in Scandinavia in the period c. 8001300
AD, a time of profound changes in the
agrarian landscape, agricultural productivity
and society in general. This period is marked
by population growth, state formation
processes, institutionalisation, urbanisation
and an emerging market economy. By the end
of this period, demographic increase and the
agrarian economy reached a peak, followed
by a period of stagnation and recession before
the more dramatic turning point around 1350.
Drawing upon recent agrarian and
archaeological landscape studies on local,
regional and national levels, I look across

national borders to search for patterns of

similarity and dissimilarity among rural
landscapes in Scandinavia. The aim is to look
at the interaction between resources,
technology and society in order to address the
question of stability or change.
In this context, Scandinavia refers to
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, a
heterogeneous region with regard to
landscapes and resources and with different
conditions for agriculture in terms of soils and
subsoils, vegetation and climate (Figs. 1 and
2).
This makes it interesting to study how an
expanding population used the land and
possibly used different strategies towards the
surrounding landscapes.

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

The mechanisms of technological innovation

concern not only the process of introducing
something new, such as a new idea or method,
but also an acceptance and use of innovative
ideas and methods (ye et al. 2010). Several
issues will be looked at in this paper: not only
the ways technology and techniques were
integrated or affected by different social
systems and power structures, but also the
impact technology had on society and how
change and tradition were balanced or
disrupted. The natural environment, climate
and other ecological factors will therefore
also be considered.

Fig. 1: Map of Scandinavia with the presentday

borders and names mentioned in the text (Drawing:
P. Bkken)

Plain
Fissure valley terrain
Hilly terrain
Plain with residual hills
Premontan region
Mountain region
Alpine area
Table mountains
Loose deposits

In recent decades, there has been a renewed

interest in archaeological studies of rural
Medieval landscapes in Scandinavia, which
has brought about new information
concerning land use in both core areas and
more marginal parts. This information can
also be contextualised by both written records
and scientific evidence, which enables a more
holistic outlook on rural landscapes and their
economies.
Technology is often seen from a primarily
functionalistic perspective, although it also
comprises a wide range of cultural practices
as well as social aspects. Technology, human
interactions, social practices and structures
are closely interrelated.

Fig. 2: The geomorphology of Scandinavia. Map

adapted after Sporrong 2003: 23 (Drawing: P.
Bkken)

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

RESILIENCE THEORY
A theoretical framework for linking social
and ecological systems is offered by the
socalled resilience theory which seeks to
understand the source and role of change,
especially changes that are transformational
in adaptive systems. The term resilience here
denotes the ability of a system to maintain its
structure and patterns of behaviour in times of
disturbance (Redman and Kinzig 2003,
Rder et al. this volume). Although mainly
serving as a theoretical framework for
understanding modern ecological and
societal problems, it might also be a useful
perspective when assessing long term
processes in the past. One of the key features
that provides the underlying assumptions of
the theory is that change is neither continuous
and gradual nor always disorganised, but
appears rather episodically, disrupted by
rapid releases and reorganisations caused by
interactions between fast and slow variables
that are not necessarily synchronous. As
ecosystems are not stable, destabilising
factors as well as flexibility are important for
preserving productivity. One of the intrinsic
observations has been that management and
strategies that apply rigid rules for attaining
constant yields may over time cause loss of
resilience and cause systems to break down
when facing disturbances that could be dealt
with previously. The resilient character has
limits and when affected by random events
the system may rapidly change when limits
are crossed. The triggering event of release
may then lead to innovations and new systems
as a result of an internal change (Holling and
Gunderson 2002: 2527). In this perspective,
it is interesting to see how and to what degree
technological novelties were introduced in
different parts of Scandinavia in a period of
transition and vigorous population growth,
and what the consequences were.

297

EXPANDED LAND USE

In terms of land use, Scandinavia has specific
characteristics. A special feature for the
middle and northern parts of Norway and
Sweden is the shortage of arable land and the
proportionally larger areas of outlying land
with special resources, meadows and
grazingland for animal husbandry,
woodland and mountainous areas. Norway
formed the most marginal area for agriculture
in Scandinavia. In the highlying areas and in
the far north of Scandinavia, climate does not
permit grain growing. Still, the agrarian
settlement reached as far north as 70 N in
Norway in the Viking Age (ye 2004: 81),
while in the eastern parts of Scandinavia only
to 63 N (Orrman 2003: 253). When assessing
land use and productivity in a Scandinavian
context, resources other than arable land and
pastures should also be taken into account,
including marine resources along the long
coastlines, wildlife for hunting and minerals
resources which increased their value by the
expanding commercial opportunities in the
Middle Ages. While Norway had the least
suitable areas for graingrowing, with hardly
more than 3 percent of its total land mass ever
been under cultivation, eastern parts of
Denmark and southern and central Sweden
had by far the best natural conditions. In the
period c. 8001300 AD, the climatic
conditions varied, with a climate optimum
around 9501200 AD followed by more
humid and colder weather in the last decades
of the thirteenth century and became more
pronounced in the first half of the fourteenth
century (Lamb 1995, Campbell 2009: 33).
The shifting climatic conditions may have
affected the geographical and climatic
heterogeneous areas of Scandinavia
differently.
Clearing of new land and subdivision of old
settlements transformed the layout of the

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

farmland during the period 8001300 AD.

New fields, farms and settlements were
established at the cost of woods and other
wasteland. Woodland was generally the most
important biotope that was subject to
Medieval colonisation in Scandinavia.
However, settlement patterns varied from
villages and hamlets in the areas with the best
farmland, such as in the eastern parts of
Denmark, including eastern Jutland (Jylland)
and the Danish islands, and in Scania (Skne),
in presentday Sweden, to single and more
dispersed farms in areas to the west and
further north. The coastal districts of Norway
could also comprise agglomerated farms or
clustered hamletlike settlements. In
southeastern Scandinavia, with the highest
population density and densest patterns of
Medieval urbanisation, rural settlements
were transformed and concentrated into
larger villages that could be split up in smaller
satellite hamlets (torps), a development that
reached its peak in the thirteenth century.
However, the new Medieval settlements and
farming territories were generally small, with
smaller and more dispersed settlements in
Norway and Sweden than in Denmark and on
the Continent (Sderberg and Myrdal 2002:
83; ye 2004: 99; Hybel and Poulsen 2007:
35).

Around 1300 and perhaps some decades

earlier, the Medieval settlement reached a
high point which was not repeated until the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in
Sweden and until the seventeenth, eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries in Norway and
Denmark (Myrdal 1999a: 27; ye 2004: 100;
Hybel and Poulsen 2007: 132). In Norway,
the expansion indicates that the population
may have doubled and even tripled in some
areas since the early Viking Period. However,
the estimates are approximate and uncertain
as evidence from various sources is generally
weak. Still this can give a rough idea of the
Medieval settlement in various parts of
Scandinavia by the end of the period (Table
1).

Areas

Number of rural
households c. 1300

Presentday Denmark

102,00/112,500

Presentday Norway

64,000/75,000

The Swedish provinces

75,000

Table 1: Medieval settlement in Scandinavia (Orrmann

2003: 269)

Fluctuations in the size and number of

settlements can only be estimated based on
different indirect sources and the
demographic trend before 1000 AD is not
clear at all. In Norway, as well as in Denmark
and Sweden, the strongest expansion seems to
have been in the most forested parts. In more
fertile areas, expansion was more limited to
already open land. In Denmark, the expansion
has been calculated to at least 50 percent in
some regions but the rapid expansion of
arable areas seems to have taken place
somewhat later, from about 1000 AD (Hybel
and Poulsen 2007: 9). Generally, the arable
areas expanded while other parts of the
resource areas, such as meadows, grazing
land and woodland became smaller.

Population growth was obviously a force

behind the process of land clearance and
expanding settlements, but geographical and
ecological conditions such as the topography,
of the soil, natural resources and climate were
also important. Added to this, the potential for
change was also determined by other
conditions, such as disposal and access to land
and earlier cultural practices. People from
different social strata had different objectives
and possibilities that may have limited their
actions and adaptive capacity, including
sovereignty, property rights, access to or
restrictions on land use. The new kingdoms,
urban centres and ecclesiastical institutions
also played a role in shaping land and
economic change. Socioeconomic factors
are therefore relevant aspects for
consideration.

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

In the first three centuries of the period under

study, people who worked the land comprised
a large group of slaves (thralls), semi free
labourers and later tenants, dependant on the
conditions of their tenure (Myrdal 1999a: 96;
ye 2004: 89; Hybel and Poulsen 2007: 209).
Recent archaeological studies in both
Vestlandet and stlandet in Norway have
revealed that manorial tenure and social
stratification may have been more important
in the Viking Age than has been asserted in
previous
research.
Here,
Medieval
landownership reflects and indicates earlier
supremacy over land, but there are also
considerable regional differences in this
respect (Skre 1998, Iversen 1999, 2008). In
Denmark, the Viking Age has been regarded
as a period of primarily freeholders, despite
the unequal landownership some centuries
later. By the end of the period c. 1300, a large
percentage of the Scandinavian peasants were
tenants. It has been calculated that some 70
percent of the land was owned by noble
landowners and different ecclesiastical
institutions in Norway (Helle 1995, ye
2004: 89), and as much as 8590 percent of
the land in Denmark was integrated into
estates which were to a large extent related to
the advance of religious institutions (Hybel
and Poulsen 2007: 20910). In Sweden,
around 50 percent of the land was held by
freeholders, especially in the northern areas
(Sderberg and Myrdal 2002: 89).
Consequently,
social
and
economic
differences between farmers seem to be less
prominent by the end of the thirteenth century
than in the early Viking Period, at least in
Norway. However, the differences between
the countries may also have been tainted by
different
scholarly
approaches
and
assessment of the source material.
Historiographically, there are different views
as to the consequences of population pressure
and the interaction between resources and
demographic change. In the past, there has
been strong support for Thomas Malthus
theory from the late eighteenth century,
focussing on the problem of keeping food

299

production in pace with a rising population

due to a general inelasticity in production
related to population growth (e.g. Holmsen
1961, Postan 1966). This is based upon the
assumption that cultivation of new and
marginal land give rise to poorer yields and a
decline in harvest per capita, which lead to
reduced living standards, stagnation,
recession and eventually subsistence crisis
and pauperisation. However, Ester Boserups
economic and socioanthropological studies
substantiate that population pressure may
also lead to agricultural innovations.
Improved methods of cultivation, more
efficient tools and labour intensive use of
already existing acreage could increase yields
per area unit, and thus be able to sustain more
people (Boserup 1965, 1981). Population
growth and pressure on land may also have
been an economic drive in times of an
emerging market economy, opening up for a
more diverse and specialised land use (de
Vries 1974). All these options are relevant
when assessing changes in technology and
land use in the varied Scandinavian
landscapes in the period. The question of
resilience and the ability of systems to
maintain structures in times of pressure and
disturbance are other aspects to consider.

TECHNOLOGY AND LAND USE

Maximisation of yields to meet the demands
from the growing population seems to have
been a common challenge all over Europe in
this period. In this northern periphery of
Europe, with generally more marginal
conditions for arable farming, graingrowing
was especially important as it is reckoned to
have produced four times more calorific
output per unit area than animal (milk)
production (Lunden 2004: 152). Thus,
population growth encouraged grain
growing and arable farming which could
produce the greatest yield per unit of acreage
measured in terms of energy. Consequently,
fields were the zones with the most labour
input.

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

Fig. 3: Interconnections between Medieval agrarian innovations: Heavier and more solid equipment made it easier
to clear and cultivate heavy soils. Ploughing expanded because of better harnesses and equipment for horses

The necessity of bringing less fertile areas

into
cultivation
influenced
farming
technology. It can hardly be a coincidence that
technologies that had been known for
centuries further south first appear in
Scandinavia in the expanding centuries from
c. 1000 to 1200 AD, indicating that they were
first adopted when required. To a large extent,
new farming methods appear as an integrated
technocomplex (Myrdal 1997, ye 2002),
since one element of this suite of methods had
an impact on other parts of the system (Fig. 3).
Indeed, clearing, sowing, ploughing,
harrowing and harvesting were all
interconnected processes (Myrdal 1997, ye
2004). Tillage equipment and methods
underwent important changes, including the
introduction and increasing use of the plough
from the Viking Period. It had a ploughshare
completely made of wood with a thin
asymmetrical ironsheath and presumably
also a fixed mouldboard that would help to
turn the ground surface over, making it
possible to break up untilled and heavier soils.
The archaeological evidence for Medieval
ploughs in Scandinavia is generally scarce
and the iconographic evidence is only from
the Late Middle Ages. In Norway evidence of
iron shares and coulters are mainly from the

early part of the period. Norwegian

asymmetrical ploughs and symmetrical ard
sheaths dating from the Viking Period are
generally very light, but were improved by
considerably larger and broader iron shares
judging by written records (ye 2004).
During the Middle Ages plough shares
increased to 1 to 1.5 kg in Sweden and 1.5 to
4 kg in Danish areas, but lighter shares were
also in use (Lerche 1994, Sderberg and
Myrdal 2002). Medieval specimens known
through written records could be much
heavier (up to 7 kg). The heavier mouldboard
plough represents a more effective plough
which turned the furrows. Added to this, the
larger and heavier coulter could cut through
heavier soils and therefore be used in deeper
ploughing (Lerche 1994). In Jutland
(Jylland), there is evidence of ploughing with
traces of wheels and horse hoofs in a dated
fossil high ridged field, indicating ploughing
with a wheel plough in the eleventh century
(Porsmose 1988: 280). The customary
wheeled fortrain of the heavy plough also
helped to take its weight. Although it is
difficult to date its distribution more
precisely, there is enough data to substantiate
the argument that the use of the heavy
wheelplough was adopted in the
southeastern areas of Scandinavia, in
Denmark and Scania (Skne) and that these
regions became the northernmost outposts of

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

the wheel plough in Medieval Europe

(Myrdal 1999a: 56; Hybel and Poulsen 2007:
20203).
Ploughs and harrows are mentioned in
general terms in documents and laws from the
thirteenth century, but without further
description. In Norway, ploughs were mostly
used in the southern and western parts of the
country, mainly in stlandet and in the
Trndelag region. The two ploughing tools,
namely the traditional light ard (scratch
plough) and the new mouldboard plough,
existed side by side and were used for
different purposes and on different soils (ye
2004: 121). The ard was still in use in many
places in Scandinavia throughout the period
c. 8001300 AD and also held a dominant
position in Sweden, including in the central
agricultural region around the lake Mlaren
and in stergtland (Orrman 2003: 274).
Generally, increased use of iron also made
already wellestablished and traditional
implements stronger and more efficient for
both clearing and cultivation. There is
evidence of finds of ironshod spades dated to
c. 1000 AD in Denmark (Porsmose 1988:
28586), and these appear somewhat later
further north.
While the heavy wheel plough required
several draught animals, the lighter ploughs
required only a pair of oxen or one horse. The
development of more suitable harnessing and
the introduction of solid horseshoes by the
Early Middle Ages made it possible to make
more effective use of horses as draught
animals. When shod and better harnessed,
horses could work considerably faster (four to
five time quicker) than oxen, which was
important in areas with a short growing
season, and in the contexts of smallscale
farming. It is therefore interesting to observe
that the earliest evidence of horses used for
ploughing in Scandinavia stems from
northern Norway, dating to the latter part of
the ninth century. However, the earliest finds
of horseshoes appear somewhat later, namely

301

in the early eleventh century in Norway (ye

2004: 122). Later, workhorses also seem to
have been common in Denmark, as well as in
less fertile areas in Norway and northern
Sweden, where they were more frequently
used as draught animals than in central and
southeastern Sweden and southeastern
parts of Denmark. This was probably due to
their multifunctional qualities but also due
to the farming system as such, namely the
plough type and field systems (Myrdal
1999b: 10304).
Efficiency in harvesting was also increased
by using longer and more functional sickles,
leas and scythes, probably from the thirteenth
century in Norway (ye 2004: 123). In
addition, the flail appeared between c. 1000
and 1200 in Scandinavia, making
timeconsuming threshing more effective, a
novelty that has been related to the expansion
of rye (Porsmose 1988: 286). Water mills also
represented a new technology in
foodprocessing. They appeared in Denmark
and Scania (Skne) in the eleventh century
and in Norway from the late twelfth century
at the latest (Myrdal 1999a: 99; ye 2004:
124).
On a macro level, there seems to be a strong
concurrence between technology, settlement
structures, field systems and geo
topographical conditions. In the south
eastern parts of Denmark and Sweden, which
were areas with denser settlements and the
best conditions for arable cultivation, the
wheel plough and harrow seem to be
connected with the emergence of a new way
of cultivation, namely a threecourse rotation
within a threefield system. Fields lay fallow
in a three year cycle, two thirds of the total
area were cultivated and one third lay fallow
(Porsmose 1988: 289; Myrdal 1999b: 112),
thus allowing the cultivation of larger areas.
Palaeobotanical research has revealed an
extended use of winter rye in certain regions
during the Early Middle Age, which also may
have promoted a threefield system. The

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

system of cultivation of rye with another

cycle in croprotation seems to have spread
with the threecourse rotation and was
mainly constrained to the southeastern parts
of Sweden, the Lake Mlaren region and the
adjoining region to the south, Scania and in
eastern Jutland, and the Danish isles (Orrman
2003: 271, 273).
In Denmark, the new agricultural systems
seem to have emerged around the millennium
shift, around the time villages became stable
settlements (Porsmose 1988: 22831).
Shifting cultivation within common fields
represents a linked system that required
regulations and management to maintain the
systems. Thus, it can be argued that the layout
of the fields reflects socioeconomic
organisation, denoting an entire social
system. Local institutions may also have
played an important role with regard to
communal and less communal systems
(Hopcroft 1999). New technology, settlement
structure, landownership as well as
communal institutions and local customs
concerning land use are therefore all factors
which had an impact on productivity and
farming systems. Altogether, these changes
represent intensification in land use with
more labour input per acre than in earlier
periods, enabling an increased productivity.
In Scandinavia as a whole, two and onefield
systems and variants between the two were
most common. Studies of fossil field
landscapes in Scania (Skne) have
documented a twocourse system around
1000 AD, where half of the arable lay fallow
every second year. By the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries and possibly earlier, this
had become a wellestablished system in
eastern and central Sweden, in the most fertile
areas in the Mlar region, including Uppland,
Sdermanland,
Vstmannaland
and
stergtland and to some extent also in
southern Norway (Myrdal 1999b: 111;
Orrman 2003: 265). In some areas in Norway,
such as Trndelag and stlandet, which had

more arable land than the rest of the country,

one fourth of the arable should lay fallow
according to Medieval law codes, evidently to
avoid soil exhaustion. This system is also
known from southwestern parts of Sweden
along the border with Norway. In Norway and
Sweden, the spread of new technology and
technocomplexes could appear in different
regional combinations adapted to particular
ecotypes and environmental conditions (ye
2004: 125; 2009b).
In areas with less arable land in other areas in
Norway and Sweden, the most common
traditional farming method involved
increasing animal husbandry, prevailingly
single farms, enclosed fields based on annual
cropping, largely without fallow periods.
This also represents a highly productive
arable agriculture, as animal husbandry could
supply more manure per unit. In such areas
the light ard, hoes and spades were the
dominating implements.
Palaeobotanical studies have shown more
diverse grain production than in the early part
of the studied period. This type of production
was adapted to different soils, climates and
ways of farming. Barley, the dominant grain
in Scandinavia in the Iron Age, now seems to
have lost some of its central position, except
in northern areas of Sweden and Norway. Not
only did rye become more important, but oats
also increased in importance in western parts
of Norway and Sweden, making these area
part of the north Atlantic oats area. Wheat was
less common and reserved for the best grain
growing areas (Orrman 2003: 27374).
There is no direct data on grain productivity
before the early Modern Period in
Scandinavia. During this time, the crop yield
per unit varied considerably according to both
species and geography, varying from 34 to
56 in yield ratio in Sweden, but lower as well
as higher yields have also been registered
(Myrdal 1999b: 10708). Indeed yield ratios
were probably around 34 in Norway
(Lunden 2004: 175). In general, both

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

Medieval and postMedieval agriculture was

characterised by low productivity and low
yields even in the best agricultural areas. As
grain played a fundamental role in the
production of foodstuffs in terms of nutrition,
people seem to have taken maximum
advantage of the cultivable land, even when
the yields were low. Cultivating different
species of different qualities and
requirements in terms of soil and climate
became a new strategy. The fact that rye
produces a higher yield ratio than barley was
probably also considered an important factor.
However, in Norway, rye seems to have
played only a minor role compared to
Denmark and Sweden, where it became
integrated in two and threecourse rotations
(Sderberg and Myrdal 2002: 5051; Lunden
2004: 166). It has been estimated that grain
represented some 60 to 75 percent of the
caloric consumption in Scandinavia
(Sderberg and Myrdal 2002: 53; ye 2002:
323; Hybel and Poulsen 2007: 27). Grain
growing was therefore carried out wherever it
was possible, and in Norway, the domestic
production may even have been higher than in
the early Modern Period, as indicated by a
tithebased estimate of west Norwegian grain
outputs around 1340 (ye 2004: 126). Still,
demographic growth may lead to food
scarcity in Norway around 1300 AD (Lunden
2004), making the households more
vulnerable and the margins for sufficient
nutrition smaller.
A more varied brand of vegetables, fruits and
spices is also reflected in the pollen record
and in evidence from macro fossils such as
apples, plums, cabbage, angelica, turnips,
leek, onions and various sorts of legumes
(peas, beans and vetches). These were grown
in horticultural enclosures, known from the
eleventh and twelfth centuries (ye 2002).
Hops and hemp may also have been new
crops in Scandinavia during this period. Still,
it is difficult to make inferences about their
role and value in Medieval food production.
Based on postMedieval sources, legumes
had a rather limited distribution in both

303

Sweden and Norway (Myrdal 1999b: 117;

Lunden 2004: 177).
The causal mechanisms which promoted
change or stability are often difficult to
identify empirically. These changes cannot be
explained by one cause only, as they represent
complex and integrated processes, marked by
a slow development of longue dure that
could also be interrupted by faster nonlinear
shifts (Braudel 1980), a perspective that
corresponds with the assumptions of the
resilience theory, that change is neither
continuous and gradual nor always
disorganised, but may appear rather
episodically, disrupted by rapid releases and
reorganisations caused by interactions
between fast and slow variables that are not
necessarily synchronous. As a whole, the
differences in land use and technology within
Medieval Scandinavia to a large extent seem
to be related to the physical variations in the
agricultural potential of the land, especially
when comparing north and south and east and
west Scandinavia. Settlement structure but
also ownership seem to have influenced field
systems, technology and plant production.
By the end of the thirteenth century,
Scandinavian arable farming had largely
reached a technical level to the period that
preceded the agricultural revolution of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Increased access and use of iron did, however,
make the tools stronger and more efficient
(Myrdal 1999a, ye 2002, Lunden 2004).
The regional differences within Scandinavia
seem to be long lasting, representing a
cumulative culturally transmitted body of
knowledge that seems to have evolved by
horizontal adaptive processes. These
processes may have been supported by
institutionalised rules and memory integrated
in different socioeconomic systems. The
changes that caused reorganisation of land
must have been based on close cooperation
between the inhabitants of the new villages
and hamlets and were probably caused by
direct and perhaps external agency.

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

Fig. 4: Different zones within the farms territory according to use and use rights in Medieval Norway (Drawing:
P. Bkken)

The areas where the new technologies first

appeared were also the most densely
populated. Still, it is difficult to establish a
clear chronology and causal connections. The
scarcity of quantifiable evidence makes it
hard to measure how the expansion of arable
land was balanced to the growing population
and should therefore also be assessed in a
wider agrarian perspective of the rural
economy.

MARGINAL LAND?
During the last decades, archaeological
research has increasingly turned its attention
to the significance of what has often been
denoted as marginal lands in Scandinavia.
The expansion into the marginal areas led to
more extensive and specialised use of these
areas. From an agricultural point of view and
as an ecological system, such outlying areas,
including meadows, woodland, marshlands
and heath land, supplied energy to the infield,
as a large part of the energy came from

noncultivated areas. The infield and

outfields were thus complementary, making it
possible to maintain animal husbandry, which
in turn benefited arable production through
manure (ye 2003).
The outlying areas in different zones within
the resource area contained important
resources, partly complementary and partly
supplementary to agriculture (Fig. 4).
In major parts of Norway and Sweden and to
some extent Denmark, it was the outlying
land that was capable of providing a surplus
to meet economic demands from the
landowners and the expanding landowning
institutions. In Norway, about 30 percent of
the total produce of farming was taken away
to meet the obligatory demands on an
ordinary peasant around 1300 AD, including
land rent, tithe and other duties. These
demands were about the same level in
Sweden and Denmark (ye 2004: 108;
Porsmose 1988: 312).

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

The customary practice of sending animals to

distant pastures in the summer months, a type
of transhumance, represents a longstanding
tradition in Norway as well as in the central
and northern areas of Sweden bordering
Norway, where grazing was largely organised
through a system of shielings in the distant
outfields, woodlands and mountains.
This system has primarily been connected
with animal husbandry, grazing, dairying and
cheesemaking in a subsistence farming
system (Myrdal 1999a: 294, ye 2004: 119).
Archaeological studies in Norway have
shown that this system was partly combined
with haymaking, gathering of fodder,
hunting and fishing, tar and iron production,
demonstrating a multifaceted use of
resource areas in the Late Iron Age and Early
Middle Ages (Bjrgo et al. 1992, Dahle 2005,
2007, Rundberget 2007). The multifaceted
use of resource areas which from a strictly
agricultural perspective can be considered
marginal, thus appear as central in a wider
economic perspective. Consequently, control
over and rights of use to such resources were
of vital importance. The outlying areas,
therefore, should also be seen in a wider
socioeconomic perspective, in the context of
changing power structures beyond the level
of the individual farm or hamlet.
Whether the aforementioned marginal
resources were available to everyone or
subject to a magnates control as part of an
estate is debated and this may have varied in
time and space. This debate is also connected
to the question of whether these resources
were used within the economy of separate
farms or as a specialised occupation within an
estate economy (ye 2002, Iversen 2008,
Tveiten 2010). In western Norway, Medieval
tenants who rented land had restricted rights
of use to forests and outfields and these rights
were limited primarily to household use and
were not for sale (ye 2004: 13, 19). The use
rights in commons were also regulated, but
varied in different regions. In Denmark,

305

control over outlying areas, heathland and

woodland became areas of conflict. Here,
commons, meadows, grazing land and
woodland became integrated parts of the
communal farming systems of villages and
hamlets (Hybel and Poulsen 2007: 14546).
The question of use rights also concerns iron
production, an industry that gained new
importance in this period in both Norway and
Sweden and may also explain the
improvements in agrarian technology.
Archaeological evidence of largescale
production of iron based on lake and bog ore
is concentrated to the inner parts of stlandet
and the Trndelag region in Norway and in
western and central presentday Sweden,
Smland, Hlsingland, Dalarne and Jmtland
(Orrman 2003: 281). Archaeological
evidence has revealed a rapid increase in the
period c. 8001100 in Norway, reaching a
maximum around 1200, followed by a decline
(ye 2009a). By the High and Late Middle
Ages in central Sweden, in the district of
Bergslagen, it developed into the largescale
production of mined ore refined in blast
furnaces to also satisfy foreign demands and
international markets (Orrman 2003: 282).
It is a long debated issue who worked in and
organised the timeconsuming iron
production in the Early and High Middle
Ages. It is not clear whether this production
process was an integrated part of farming
activities or a more specialised industry,
organised and controlled by an elite outside
the farming communities (Tveiten 2010). All
these options are possible, but this probably
varied over time. The situation of extraction
sites dated to the Late Iron Age and Early
Middle Ages in Norway generally indicates
an extensive connection to shielings, while
more recent extraction sites were often
located further away (Rundberget 2007:
35658; Tveiten 2010), signifying that
shielings were complex and multifunctional
during an early phase in a period when
manorial lords had interests and territorial
rights over larger areas than later in the

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

period. By controlling the production and

distributing the products to wider markets,
these lords could accumulate wealth.
It is interesting to observe that the same
temporal pattern, namely a pattern of growth
and decline, also applies to the largescale
hunting systems (reindeer and elk) recorded
in the inland valleys and mountains in eastern
Norway. These systems were probably
organised by an elite. However, as the local
magnates and institutions lost their role in
large scale trading when the Hansa League
gained a hegemonic role in foreign trade in
Scandinavia during the first part of the
fourteenth century, such hunting systems also
seem to have lost importance (ye 2002:
38081).
Another specialisation which became
economically important in the Middle Ages
was the extraction of minerals, such as
soapstone and schist. These raw materials
were used for the construction of buildings
belonging to the new royal, ecclesiastical and
monastic institutions and for making various
utensils and tools, including whetstones,
querns and millstones. The fact that both
whetstones and quernstones from different
areas rich in mineral resources in Norway
have been recorded in early urban contexts
from the Late Viking Period and the Early
Middle Ages over large geographical areas in
southern Scandinavia, as well as in the North
Atlantic islands and the Baltic (Resi 1991,
Carelli and Krestn 1997, Baug 2007) clearly
signifies the importance of this production
and its role in foreign trade. Similar patterns
can also be observed in quarries for extracting
building stones, pots and bake stones, an
activity which also became a new large scale
industry in the Early Middle Ages in Norway
(Weber 1984).
Catch from hunting and fishing also became
important export merchandise. In the coastal
areas of Scandinavia, sea fishing was vital,
not only for consumption, but as an export

commodity when urbanisation and the market

economy expanded during the Middle Ages.
The large scale fisheries of cod in the Atlantic
and the Arctic Ocean and herring in the North
Sea and the Baltic Sea became incorporated in
a long distance trade system when the
European markets opened to Scandinavian
fishery products from the early twelfth
century and by the fourteenth century these
were closely integrated in the commercial
network of the Hanseatic League (Nedkvitne
1983, ye 2002: 38183; Hybel and Poulsen
2007: 22122). In the coastal districts in
northern and western Norway, exploitation of
marine resources thus became more
significant in combination with farming. As a
consequence, arable farming decreased in
relation to husbandry, making the population
more dependent on imports of grain, a parallel
situation to the development in the Norse
communities in the North Atlantic (ye
2004: 12526, 2005).
The outfield resources and the obtained
surplus, including wealth in livestock, metals,
minerals, fishery and hunting products, were
important in terms of acquiring and
sustaining social status and economy in the
first part of the period. They also seem to play
an important role in the Medieval estate
economy under the new institutions.
Churches and monasteries also became active
in foreign trade by the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. Dependence on resources other
than
the
arable
fields,
including
diversification and specialisation related to
different resources, played an increased role
in both coastal and inland areas in Norway
and Sweden and seems to represent a regional
division of labour, but probably mainly as
seasonal occupations integrated in farming
economies. Large landowners seem to have
played an important role as entrepreneurs in
agricultural innovation in the first centuries of
the period, a role which was later taken over
by the new ecclesiastical institutions that
canalised the surplus in the market economy.
Increased agricultural production is thus
visible in both central and more peripheral

I ye. Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 8001300 AD

areas. In Norway but also in other areas of

Scandinavia, economic growth could perhaps
easiest be obtained in the marginal areas that
provided areas of agricultural expansion and
in areas where agriculture could be combined
with catch from the sea, forests and mining.
Marginal lands were integrated into a larger
economy, providing all the main export
articles in the Middle Ages and making
Scandinavia an important economic region
closely integrated in the European economy
and trade (ye 2009a).
The varied environmental conditions were
important for the formation of rural systems
and land use in Scandinavia but not in a
simple adaptive way. People used different
strategies towards their surrounding
landscapes and resources in the different
areas. The stagnation and break up of some of
the occupations during the thirteenth century
may therefore be a symptom of emerging
societal and environmental disruption as
arable farming and settlements seem to have
reached a climax.

CONCLUSION
In Scandinavia, the introduction of new
technologies, species and field systems as
well as new industries in outlying areas seems
to have occurred over brief periods of creative
opportunities with rapidly occurring
innovations and experimentation in the Early
Middle Ages, in a time of social and political
transformations. The varying types of
landscapes reflect spatial heterogeneity in
land use and technologies where changes
occurred on regional scales and across
national borders, especially in the northern
areas. Interactions between social and natural
dynamics culture, institutions, property
rights, economic status, human population
density, shifting climate, changes in
vegetation and wildlife were significant,
over a long term and on interconnected scales.

307

Climate, human demography and human

culture represent fairly slow changes,
paralleling Braudels longue dure outlook.
However, the observed regional changes
seem to represent more discontinuous shifts
in terms of opportunities and vulnerabilities,
with expansion and innovation both in the
infields and outfields, starting in the Viking
Period and escalating in the Early and High
Middle Ages. These shifts do not always
appear synchronically, and in all parts of
Scandinavia. In the most fertile agricultural
areas to the south, changes seem to appear
earlier than further north, as can be seen from
the introduction of a whole technocomplex
including the wheel plough, threefield and
twofield systems and the expansion of rye,
water mills. In Denmark, the intensification
in land use seems to have started earlier, the
expansion occurred later and lasted
somewhat longer than in Norway and
Sweden, before the climax of Medieval
population was reached. In the western and
northern areas of Scandinavia, the
innovations were to a larger extent related to
the outlying areas, which produced another
kind of surplus.
The Scandinavian developments between c.
8001300 AD may support both Ester
Boserup and de Vries hypotheses concerning
population
growth
and
innovation,
specialisation and diversification. The later
stagnation and incipient recession in land use,
which can be related to both arable farming
and outlying resources, may support a
NeoMalthusian outlook on the problems of
keeping pace with a growing population, but
in a more complex way, as this stagnation and
recession can also be related to changing
socioeconomic structures. Added to this,
environmental factors also probably
influenced various developments. Finally, the
loss of resilience may first have had an effect
on less fertile areas which were under long
term pressure and which had smaller margins
in terms of sustainability in a period of
population growth and socioeconomic and
environmental stress.

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T Kerig / A Zimmermann (eds.). Economic archaeology: from structure to performance

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