Abstract

The age of the introduction of cereal cultivationin northern Europe has long been debated by researchersfrom many disciplines, in particular archaeology andpalaeoecology. Over the past 40 years extensive palyno-logical data have been collected concerning pre-industrialland use in northern Fennoscandia. This paper reviewspalynological studies that include records of fossil cerealpollen from northernmost Sweden, Finland and Norway atlatitudes north of 63°N. The geographical extent of knownearly cultivation sites is constantly expanding, with morethan 100 records of cereal pollen pre-datingAD1700. Theoldest records of scattered cereal pollen derive from Neo-lithic times. Periods of continuous cultivation, indicated bycereal pollen recorded recurrently in the sediment profiles,derive from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.Collectively, the reviewed pollen records indicate thatcereal cultivation was first introduced into areas close tothe coast and later to the interior, and that it may have beenpracticed locally long before sedentary settlements basedon intensive cultivation were established during medievaltimes. The data do not indicate a latitudinal spread ofcultivation from south to north. However, methodologicalproblems relating to pollen morphology of cereals, sitecharacteristics and lack of connections to archaeologicallyexcavated sites imply that the value of many early cerealpollen finds remains unclear. To increase our understand-ing of the context in which cereal cultivation was intro-duced in northernmost Fennoscandia, multidisciplinarystudies integrating palaeoecology, archaeology and historyare needed.

Keywords

Pollen; Cerealia; Hordeum; Agriculture; Land use; Scandinavia; Fennoscandia

Published in

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
2014, Volume: 23, number: 6, pages: 821-840

SLU Authors

• Josefsson, Torbjörn

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Institute for Subarctic Landscape Research (INSARC)

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-014-0446-2

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/61023