Iron Technology Transmission in Early Iron Age Northern Fennoscandia

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental archaeology invites you to a seminar with Carina Bennerhag, Luleå University of Technology, "Transmission of Iron Technology among Early Iron Age Hunter-Gatherers in Northern Fennoscandia".

Abstract

The emergence of iron technology has traditionally been associated with sedentary farming societies, increasing social complexity and specialised craft production, while hunter-gatherer communities have primarily been understood as recipients of iron, with evidence of local metallurgical practices often regarded as small-scale or underdeveloped, and technological developments originating elsewhere.

Over the past decade, archaeological and archaeometallurgical research in northern Fennoscandia has increasingly challenged this picture. Early dates for iron production and evidence for several stages of the technological chaîne opératoire demonstrate extensive knowledge of iron and steel production, with recently expanded analyses revealing both striking similarities and regional variation in metallurgical practices.

These results raise new questions about how such complex technological knowledge was transmitted, incorporated into existing practices and lifeways, and maintained over time. This seminar discusses these processes by considering how technological knowledge could be learned, reproduced and adapted to different social, material and landscape conditions across northern Fennoscandia.

Learn more about Carina Bennerhag at ltu.se 

About the seminar series

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology presents and discusses current research in archaeology and environmental archaeology.
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