The main goal of the research group is to investigate how economic resources, food-safety, lifeways and environmental and climate change were interrelated in the Arctic Atlantic 5000 BC – AD 1500.

We have defined three subgoals organized into three integrated modules:

• 1) Determine economic resources, diet and food-safety and predict future levels of toxicity to a detail that has never been possible before by combining traditional approaches (e.g., zooarchaeological and macrofossil analyses) with isotope, chemical element, x-ray fluorescence, and ancient environmental DNA analyses of bones and soils.
• 2) Determine changes in lifeways, inclusive settlement and social patterns in their land/seascape settings in order to determine social drivers for change. We use data on archaeological site locations and resource use schedules, houses, social differentiation of human diets, material culture, seal-oil production sites, boat houses, field systems, mortuary practices, exchange and trade.
• 3) Environmental change. Determine local and regional, climate, environmental land-and seascape changes in order to determine climate and environmental drivers for changes in the above, using, for example, ancient DNA, pollen, entomological evidence, pollen, sea-level, sea-surface temperatures and other climate data.

News

Heavy metals progress and excavations at Værøy, Lofoten

ARCWAYS & COVID-19

Heavy metals progress and excavations at Værøy, Lofoten

Although Covid-19 is still lingering, we are slowly, but surely, getting momentum in our activities.

As to our isotope and chemical element (heavy metals) investigations of Younger Stone Age and Early Metal Age diet and health, we have now gotten the results of 75 new samples from Atlantic cod, harp seal and humans. Preliminary analyses of the results look very promising. We will continue to process the data over the autumn and aim to get them published as soon as possible.

We have also made a small excavation at the important, extremely bone-rich site, Nordlandet, at Værøy in the outmost Lofoten archipelago. Partly excavated in the 1980s, we needed additional 14C-dates and otherwise to maximize the information potential by taking profile samples for aDNA, heavy metal, multielement pXRF, phosfate, lipid, pollen, entomological and phytolite analyses. We also found huge amounts of bird bones in the midden layer. We have almost only gotten back from the field, but will also in this case continue our work in our labs over the autumn.

---

Link to this page

Close

---

ARCWAYS & COVID-19

ARCWAYS was hardly formally approved before Covid-19 struck and Norway went into lockdown on 12 March 2020.

This has naturally caused havoc to all plans, work and progress for the year. Being confined to working from home and with only occasional limited, access to our offices and not the least our laboratories, is one thing, but the impact on the work in cooperating chemical laboratories is also important to mention.

We look forward to get into full mode again, hopefully by mid-2021.

---

Link to this page

Close

---

History and Progress

The ARCWAYS interdisciplinary and international research group, approved by the Faculty for Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway in early 2020,  is a more focused continuation of the 2015 – 2019 Joint Proxies Research Group (Joint research on human and natural adaptation to changing climates and environments in the High North by proxy data).

From originally covering a broad range of topics within the Circumpolar area, we have over the years narrowed the scope considerably and will in the future focus on innovative, cutting-edge research on foodways, lifeways and environmental and climate change in the Arctic Atlantic 5000 BC-AD 1500.

Over the past few years much effort has gone into the study of heavy metal contamination of prehistoric human seafood as exampled by our pilot study from the north-Norwegian Younger Stone Age (5000 – 1800 BCE), (see Blankholm, Lidén, Kovačević & Angerbjørn 2020 Dangerous food. Climate change induced elevated heavy metal levels in Younger Stone Age seafood in northern Norway).

This showed, among other things, that the levels of cadmium, lead and mercury in Atlantic cod and harp seal were highly elevated, from 3-70 times higher than what is today considered safe limits for consumption. In other words, our Younger Stone Age seafood was unhealthy if not unsafe. We will, naturally, continue this line of food-safety research as part of our ongoing investigations by extending the time-line to encompass 1800 BC – AD 1500 to see whether this also was the case for the Early Metal Age, Iron Age, Viking Age and Medieval period. We will contextualize our results with analyses of foodways (economic resources, resource management and diets) and we will predict future levels of toxicity vis-à-vis ongoing global climate change.  Simultaneously, we will study lifeways (settlement and social patterns in their land/seascape settings) in order to identify social drivers for change, and we will study environment and climate in order to determine environmental and climate drivers for change and human impact on the landscape.

Research group leader

Hans Peter Blankholmemeriti

Hans Peter Blankholm  –  emeriti

Contact:

E-mail: hans.peter.blankholm@uit.no

Private phone: 932 32081

Link to employee page (Hans Peter Blankholm)

Link to this page

Close

Members

Eva PanagiotakopuluSenior lecturer, School of GeoSciences

Eva Panagiotakopulu  –  Senior lecturer, School of GeoSciences

University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Contact:

Link to this page

Close

Matthias ForwickHead of Department

Matthias Forwick  –  Head of Department

Contact:

E-mail: matthias.forwick@uit.no

Work phone: +4777644453

Link to employee page (Matthias Forwick)

Link to this page

Close

Morten Haldguestresearcher

Morten Hald  –  guestresearcher

Contact:

E-mail: morten.hald@uit.no

Link to employee page (Morten Hald)

Link to this page

Close

Kerstin LidénProfessor in Archaeometry at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Archaeology

Kerstin Lidén  –  Professor in Archaeometry at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Archaeology

University of Stockholm, Sweden

Contact:

Link to this page

Close

Inger Greve AlsosProfessor

Inger Greve Alsos  –  Professor

Contact:

E-mail: inger.g.alsos@uit.no

Work phone: +4777620796

Link to employee page (Inger Greve Alsos)

Link to this page

Close

Peter Rowley-ConwyProfessor, Dept. of Archaeology

Peter Rowley-Conwy  –  Professor, Dept. of Archaeology

University of Durham, England

Contact:

Link to this page

Close

Nikola Kovačevic

Nikola Kovačevic

Contact:

E-mail: nko018@post.uit.no

Work phone: +4777645737

Link to this page

Close

Antony BrownProfessor

Antony Brown  –  Professor

Contact:

E-mail: antony.g.brown@uit.no

Work phone: +4777645018

Link to employee page (Antony Brown)

Link to this page

Close

Johan Eilertsen ArntzenAssistant Professor

Johan Eilertsen Arntzen  –  Assistant Professor

Contact:

E-mail: johan.arntzen@uit.no

Work phone: +4777660422

Private phone: 905 94311

Link to employee page (Johan Eilertsen Arntzen)

Link to this page

Close