Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:17:14.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trees for food – a 3000 year record of subarctic plant use

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Lars Östlund ,
Ingela Bergman  and
Olle Zackrisson
Lars Östlund
Affiliation:
Department of Vegetation Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-90183 Umeå, Sweden (Email: Lars.Ostlund@svek.slu.se)
Ingela Bergman
Affiliation:
The Silvermuseum of Arjeplog, S-930 90 Arjeplog, Sweden
Olle Zackrisson
Affiliation:
Department of Vegetation Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-90183 Umeå, Sweden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors present a unique long record of inner bark use by the Sami people of northern Scandinavia extending back to 2800 BP. Consistent patterns with respect to the direction and size of bark peeling scars shows that common values and standards were early applied. They further conclude that inner bark was important as a regular food and a vitamin C source at these northern latitudes. Bark-peeled trees as biological artefacts in forests also provide important data to understand subsistence strategies and spatial patterns of land use unique to areas with long winter seasons.

Keywords

AMS datingdendroecologySamiinnerbarkforest history
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 300 , June 2004 , pp. 278 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aronsson, K-Å. 1991. Forest reindeer herding A.D. 1–1800. Archaeol Environ 10. Umeå: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Airaksinen, M.M., Peura, P. Ala-Fossi-Salokangas, L. Autere, S. Lukkarinen, M. Saikkonen, M. Stenbäck, F.. 1986. Toxicity of plant material used as emergency food during famines in Finland. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 18:273–296 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barret, S. W. & Arno, S. F. 1988. Increment-borer methods for determining fire history in coniferous Forests. General Technical Report INT-244. Missoula: USDA Forest Service.Google Scholar
Bergman, I. 1995. From Döudden to Varghalsen – A study of continuity and change in hunter-gatherer society in the interior of northern Sweden, 5200 BC– 400 AD. Stud Archaeol Umensis 7. Umeå: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Bergman, I., ÖStlund, L. & Zackrisson, O.. The use of plants as regular food in ancient subarctic economies: A case study based on Sami use of Scots pine inner bark. Arctic Anthropology, in press.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. L. 1976. Mesolithic Europe: The economic basis, in Sieveking, G., Longworth, H & Wilson, K. E. (ed.), Problems in Economic and Social Archaeology : 449–82. London: Ducksworth.Google Scholar
Cordain, L., Eaton, S.B. Miller, J.B. Mann, N. & Hill, K.. 2002. The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: meat based, yet non-atherogenic. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56: 42–52.Google Scholar
Drake, S. 1918. Västerbottenslapparna under förra hälften av 1800-talet. Uppsala: Wahlström & Wistrand.Google Scholar
Eidlitz, K. 1969. Food and emergency food in the circumpolar area. Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia 32. Uppsala: Almkvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Erichsen–Brown, C. 1979. Use of plants for the past 500 years. Toronto: Breezy Creeks Press.Google Scholar
Ericsson, S., Östlund, L. Andersson, R.. 2003. Destroying a path to the past, culturally modified trees along Allmunvägen, N Sweden. Silva Fennica, 37 (2): 283–298.Google Scholar
Eronen, M., Hyvärinen, H. & Zetterberg, P.. 1999. Holocene humidity changes in northern Finnish Lapland inferred from lake sediments and submerged Scots pines dated by tree-rings. Holoc. 9: 569–580.Google Scholar
Fellman, J. 1906. Anteckningar under min vistelse i Lappmarken. Helsingfors: Finska Litteratursällskapet.Google Scholar
Fjellström, P. 1985. Samernas samhälle i tradition och nutid. Stockholm: Nordstedt.Google Scholar
Gottesfeld, L.M.J. 1992. The importance of bark products in the aboriginal economies of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. Econ. Bot. 46: 148–157.Google Scholar
Gottesfeld, L.M.J. 1995. The role of plant foods in traditional Wetsuweten nutrition. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 34: 149–169.Google Scholar
Jörgensen, R. & Olsen, B.. 1988. Asbestkeramikk i Nord Norge. Finskt Museum 94: 5–39.Google Scholar
Kaye, M. W. & Swetnam, T. W.. 1999. An assessment of fire, climate, and Apache history in the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico. Phys. Geogr. 20: 305–330.Google Scholar
Leem, K. 1767. Beskrivelse over Finnmarkens Lapper. København: Rosenkilde og Bagger.Google Scholar
Lundius, N. 1905. Nicolai Lundii Lappi Descriptio Lapponiae. Svenska Landsmål 17:5. Uppsala: Wretmans.Google Scholar
Middendorff, A.T. 1875. Reise in den äussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens während der Jahre 1843 und 1844. Bd. 5:2. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Mithen, S., Finlay, N. Carruthers, W. Carter, S., & Ashmore, P.. 2001. Plant use in the Mesolithic: Evidence from Staosnaig, Isle of Colonsay, Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science 28: 223–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mobley, C. M. & Eldridge, M.. 1992. Culturally modified trees in the Pacific Northwest. Arct. Anthrop. 29: 91–110.Google Scholar
Mulk, I-M. 1994. Sirkas a Sami hunting society in transition AD 1–1600. Stud. Archaeol. Umensis 6. Umeå: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Niklasson, M., Mulk, I-M. 1994. Sirkas a Sami hunting society in transition AD 1–1600. Stud. Archaeol. Umensis 6. Umeå: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Niklasson, M., Mulk, I-M. 1994. Sirkas a Sami hunting society in transition AD 1–1600. Stud. Archaeol. Umensis 6. Umeå: Umeå University.Google Scholar
Niklasson, M., Zackrisson, O. & Östlund, L.. 1994. A dendroecological reconstruction of use by Sami of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) inner bark over the last 350 years at Sädvajaur, N. Sweden. Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 3: 183–190.Google Scholar
Östlund, L., Zackrisson, O. & Hörnberg, G.. 2002. Trees on the border between nature and culture. Env. Hist. 7: 48–68.Google Scholar
Östlund, L., Ericson, T.S.. 2003. Traces of past Sami forest use: an ecological study of culturally modified trees and earlier land use within a boreal forest reserve. Scand. J. For. Res 18: 78–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prince, P. 2001. Dating and interpreting pine cambium collection scars from two parts of the Nechako River drainage, British Columbia. J. Arch. Sci. 28: 253–263.Google Scholar
Sandgathe, D & Hayden, B.. 2003. Did Neanderthals eat bark? Antiquity 77:709–718.Google Scholar
Schefferus, J. 1674. The history of Lapland wherein are shewed the original, manners, habits, merriages, conjurations of that people. Oxford: George Best.Google Scholar
Speth, J. D., Spielmann, K.A.. 1983. Energy source, protein metabolism and hunther-gatherer subsistence strategies. J. Anthrop. Arch. 2:1–31.Google Scholar
Stewart, H. 1984. Cedar. Tree of life to the northwest coast Indians. Seattle: Univ. Washington Press.Google Scholar
Turner, N. J. 1997. Food plants of interior first peoples. Victoria: Univ British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Urbye, J.G. 1937. Barkemel som antiscorbuticum. Tidskrift for den Norske Laegerforeningen 57: 975–979.Google Scholar
Vanharanta, M., Mursu, J. Nurmi, T. Voutilainen, S. Rissanen, T. Salonen, R. Adlercreutz, H. & Salonen, J.T.. 2002. Phloem fortification in rye bread elevates serum enterolactone level. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56: 952–957.Google Scholar
Vorren, O. 1964. Barkebröd – hungersnöd? Ottar 41: 7–9.Google Scholar
Wandsnider, L. 1997. The roasted and the boiled: Food composition and heat treatment with special emphasis on pit-hearth cooking. J Anthropol Archaeol 16: 1–48.Google Scholar
Watanabe, H. 1985. The chopper-chopping tool complex of eastern Asia. An ethnographical – ecological re-examination. J Anthropol Archaeol 4:1–8.Google Scholar
Zackrisson, O. Östlund, L. Korhonen, O. & I. Bergman, I. 2000. Ancient use of Scots pine inner bark by Sami in N. Sweden related to cultural and ecological factors. Veg hist & Archaeobot. 9: 99–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zvelebil, M. 1994. Plant use in the mesolithic and its role in the transition to farming. Proc. Prehist. Soc. 60: 35–74.Google Scholar