Armstrong Oma/Sheep People, 1. Towards an Archaeology Informed by Human-Animal Studies

In the early Bronze Age in south-western Norway, architecture of farmhouses changed from two-aisled to three-aisled houses. The author suggests that this change came about as a result of bringing domestic animals into the houses. In this chapter, the research question is presented and contextualised. The archaeological data sets and geographical situations are oulined. The data sets include remains of houses, as well as palaeo-botanical evidence of land-use. The theoretical fundament is introduced, and the framework of the interdisciplinarity of the project is laid out. A discussion of zooarchaeology and postprocessual archaeology outlines a need for a different approach when studying relationships between humans and domestic animals.