Skandfer et al./Archaeological Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherer Landscapes, 2. Research History Overview

Archaeological investigations in the interior of northern Norway came late and have been few compared with the coastal region. The first systematic surveys and excavations took place in the late 1950s, and up until the 1970s northern Norway’s inland region was largely limited to ethnographic studies of Sámi culture. The inland of northernmost Fennoscandia was one of the central regions for this, and the research focus was on ethnographic documentation of Sámi premodern lifestyles, including language and folktales, religious practices and beliefs, material culture and economy and, particularly, premotorized reindeer herding. The leitmotif was that traditional practices were under pressure from Western modernization, and had to be documented before they disappeared. Processes of change over time were seldom addressed, and the outcome of these studies could be said to have left an impression of a timeless Sámi past, although some of the ethnographic studies included archaeological investigations. The title chosen for this chapter is not meant to indicate a transition in disciplines and related methods from ethnography to archaeology. Instead, it should be read as indicating a transition in aims, goals and objectives over time for culture-historical research interest in Norway’s northern inland. In this chapter, central factors and leading figures for the culture-history investigations in northern Norway are presented, giving precedence to developments and research relating specifically to the interior.