Archaeology of Dwelling. Architecture, household, and social structure in Scandinavia through deep time, 1800BCE-1000CE

Research narratives of Scandinavia's later prehistory (the Bronze and Iron ages) have largely been period-specific, and have traditionally focused on top-down topics such as the development of chiefdoms and kingdoms, long-distance trade, monumental expression in the form of halls or burial mounds, and élite networks. ArchDwell springs from the bottom-up - that is, the sphere of domestic space. The primary aim of the project is to understand how and why the basic layout of the dwelling - the three-aisled longhouse - could be built and rebuilt through almost three millennia, from the Bronze Age to the medieval period, seemingly unaffected by the Scandinavian societies' profound political, economical, and social breaks and transformations. The project uses small-scale, architectural changes within the conservative longhouse over the longue durée as a seismometer to investigate the dynamic relationship between macro-scale social change and the micro-scale of everyday, domestic life. The project centres on four topics: a) the spatial development of the longhouse; b) the size and composition of households; c) the relationship between the house and the dead; and d) links between settlement and landscape. Consequently, the changes and developments of these attributes of the house and its immediate surroundings are compared with known macro-scale events and processes. Ultimately, ArchDwell is expected to generate a new framework to understand the dynamics between macro- and micro-scales of social production, to challenge current narratives, and to generate a new and original understanding of Scandinavia's later prehistory from the point of view of the house. In July 2017 the first article springing from the project was published. The paper explores a tradition of depositing infants and small childen in wetlands and within the longhouse. They have particularly chosen to deposit the remains of children in postholes and hearths. Among other things, the paper argues that the household forged intimate connections between infants and the social institution of the house, where the dead infants were connected with the social biography of the house. The article can be downloaded here: http://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2017.1340189 In year two (Oct 2017-Oct 2018), particularly theme (c) on the relationship between the house and the dead was explored further through a series of invited lectures on deposition of human remains in settlements (Chester, UK, The Norwegian Institute in Rome, Stavanger, Norway, and Reading, UK). In the last phase of the project, Oct 2018-March 2020, a number of project milestones were reached: An international workshop was held in Cambridge in March 2019: 'Where the wild things are ? From the comfortable domus to glimpses of past ontologies?, with a number of international guest speakers. A monograph that was reconceptualized through the project was published by Cambridge University Press, also in March 2019: Architecture, Society, and Ritual in Viking Age Scandinavia. Doors, Dwellings, and Domestic Space. (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108667043) A new article was published in World Archaeology, this time focussed on deposited crania in settlements from the Pre-Roman Iron Age to through the Viking Period: ?Body-objects? and personhood in the Iron and Viking Ages: processing, curating, and depositing skulls in domestic space (https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2019.1741439). Two book chapters springing from ArchDwell were also submitted and accepted in the period, these will be published in 2020, and a third article is under review. Research springing from the project was also published via The Conversation (UK), forskning.no, Apollon Forskningsmagasin and NRK Viten. In total 31 guest lectures and papers based on the project have been presented, 9 dissemination pieces in the media; and so far 1 monograph, 2 journal articles and 3 book chapters have been written based on this research project.

ArchDwell har: - Aktivisert arkeologiske data utgravd gjennom skattefinansiert kulturminneforvaltning og lagret i arkiver/upubliserte rapporter. Dette har ledet til utviklingen av nye internasjonale prosjekter, bl.a. et ERC StG under evaluering. - Så langt publisert 5 artikler, som er brukt i undervisning ved Yale, Oslo, Oxford og Cambridge. Totalt 31 avholdte foredrag. - Vært med på å utvikle et faglig program for bosetningsarkeologi ved UiO, (2021, nivå 1). Dette forventes å påvirke utgravningspraksis, kulturminneforvaltning og forskning. - Gjennom fokus på mindre utforskede arenaer (huset) og sosiale grupper (barn, treller, kvinner) har prosjektet forsøkt å bidra til en mer nyansert, mindre androsentrisk offentlig forståelse av forhistorien. Den store medieinteressen indikerer at prosjektet har lykkes: omtale i Newsweek (US), The Conversation (UK, lest 100 000 ganger), forskning.no, Apollon, NRK radio, NRK Viten, og snart BBC World Service.

Research narratives of Scandinavia's later prehistory have largely been period-specific, and have traditionally focused on top-down topics such as the development of chiefdoms and kingdoms, long-distance trade, monumental expression in the form of halls or burial mounds, and élite networks. Archaeology of Dwelling emanates from the bottom-up - that is, the sphere of domestic space. The primary objective of the project is to understand how and why the basic architectural template of dwelling - the three-aisled longhouse - could be built and rebuilt through almost three millennia, from the Bronze Age to the medieval period, seemingly unaffected by the Scandinavian societies' profound political, economical, and social transformations and breaks. The project will use small-scale, architectural changes within the conservative longhouse over the longue durée as a seismometer to investigate the dynamic relationship between macro-scale social change and the micro-scale of everyday, domestic life. To operationalize the research objectives, integrative analyses of the material remains of prehistoric houses from Bronze and Iron Age Norway, overwhelmingly unearthed through publicly funded excavations, will be executed. This entails a sophisticated and eclectic methodological framework (2.2.2) executed through four work packages (2.2.3), investigating the development of spatial order, the size and composition of households, the relationship between the house and the dead, and links between settlement and landscape. Consequently, the changes and developments of these attributes of the house and its immediate surroundings will be compared with known macro-scale events and processes. Ultimately, the research is expected to generate a new framework to understand the dynamics between macro- and micro-scales of social production, to challenge current narratives, and to generate a new and original understanding of Scandinavia's later prehistory.