Identifying and Situating the Medieval Ragundaskogen: A Tale of Forest, Fish and Farmers

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1 Institutionen för arkeologi

och antik historia

Identifying and Situating the Medieval Ragundaskogen:

A Tale of Forest, Fish and Farmers

Alexandra Harriet Cochrane

Ansjö village (Hällesjö Parish) (UTMA)

MA thesis 45 credits in Archaeology Spring Term 2021 Supervisor: Karl-Johan Lindholm Campus Uppsala

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Abstract

Cochrane, A.H. 2021. Identifying and Situating the Medieval Ragundaskogen: A Tale of Forest, Fish and Farmers

In several medieval written sources an area called Ragundaskogen (Eng: Ragunda Forest) is documented in eastern Jämtland. The references in the sources are general and lack specific information about location, meaning and the extent of this area. This thesis uses a theoretical framework based on niche construction and a method employing written sources, place names and archaeological remains to better understand the medieval concept of the Ragunda Forest.

The study will reconstruct and discuss the area’s geography, but also provide insight into the people who lived there, their relationships with each other and places in the landscape, as well as their relationship to the church in Uppsala and the monarchy in Norway. The Ragunda Forest was a niche in a border area and during certain periods seems to have had a certain form of independence. The Middle Ages are a period characterised by a series of crises due to climate change and diseases such as the plague. The Ragunda Forest will be used as a background to discuss how the medieval population and landscapes were affected. The thesis suggests that interdisciplinary studies of delimited and local landscape spaces are an effective method for better understanding historical human-environment relations.

Keywords: Eastern Jämtland, Medieval, Marginality, Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis,

Abandoned Farms, Ragundaskogen, Resource Use, Jämtland and Härjedalen Diplomatarium, Niche Construction, Archaeology

Master thesis in Archaeology, 45 hp. Supervisor: Karl-Johan Lindholm. Defended and passed 2021-01-22.

Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, 75126 Uppsala, Sweden

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Abstrakt

Cochrane, A.H. 2021. Identifiera och lokalisera den medeltida Ragundaskogen: En berättelse om skogen, fisket och bönderna som levde där.

I flera skriftliga källor från medeltiden omnämns Ragundaskogen i östra Jämtland.

Hänvisningarna i källorna är generella så det är svårt att avgöra Ragundaskogens exakta betydelse, läge och utbredning. Denna uppsats använder ett teoretiskt ramverk som bygger på nischkonstruktion och en metod som omfattar skriftliga källor, platsnamn och arkeologiska lämningar för att bättre förstå det medeltida begreppet Ragundaskogen. Studien kommer att rekonstruera och diskutera områdets geografi, men också ge insikt till människorna som levde där, till deras relationer sinsemellan och till platser i landskapet, samt till deras förhållanden till kyrkan i Uppsala och kungamakten i Norge. Ragundaskogen var en nisch i ett gränsområde och verkar under vissa perioder också haft en viss form av självständighet. Medeltiden är en tidsperiod som kännetecknas av en rad kriser till följd av klimatförändring och sjukdomar som pesten. Ragundaskogen kommer att användas som en bakgrund för att diskutera hur medeltidens människor och landskap påverkades. Uppsatsen föreslår att tvärvetenskapliga studier av avgränsade och lokala landskapsrum är en effektiv metod för att bättre förstå historiska människa-miljö relationer.

Nyckelord: Östra Jämtland, Medeltiden, Marginalitet, Medeltiden Agrarkris, Ödesböle, Ragundaskogen, Användandet av resurser, Jämtland och Härjedalen Diplomatarium, Nischkonstruktion, Arkeologi

Mastersuppsats i Arkeologi, 45 hp. Handledare: Karl-Johan Lindholm. Ventilerad och godkänd 2021-01-22.

Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala Universitet, Box 626, 75126 Uppsala, Sweden

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Acknowledgements

This day has been a long time coming but I finally have proven to myself that I can write a Master Thesis! That being said, there are numerous people that I cannot thank enough.

This thesis would not have been possible without the unwavering support and advice of my supervisor, Karl-Johan Lindholm. Thanks for helping me find and nurture a topic, for all the invaluable comments and ideas for editing, book loans, conference opportunities, the field trip to Jämtland and for pushing me so that this work can be the best it can.

Thanks also go to Eva Svensson for sending me all the information I could ever need about shielings and ödesböle in marginal areas. Also, thanks to Ove Eriksson for help with theory.

To my colleagues on the MA Humanities (Archaeology) programme at Campus Uppsala, thank you for all the pub nights where we came up with the best ideas and sorted out each other’s research problems. Thanks also for helping me translate Medieval Swedish into normal Swedish! OPA! Extra big thanks go to Birk (Erik) for all the GIS help, for allowing me to brainstorm wacky ideas, having the patience to deal with my questions at silly AM and for the company at conferences! Also, infinite gratitude to Rachel for opening up the fitness world to me, making me realise that endorphins help you write and keep you sane during the dark Swedish winters.

Till Åsa Larsson and Leif Gren på Riksantikvarieämbetet, tack så jättemycket för den stöd under min tid som en praktikant, för låta mig för tillgång till användbara resurser och för alla böckerna om svensk lantbruk!

To Nico, your encouragement somehow never waivers, thanks for the proof reading. To Tess, thanks for being inspiring. Till Ebba för alla motiveringen.

Tusen tackar till min underbara svensk familj, ni har alltid varit där för mig under den här hela tiden med stöd, god mat och kärlek.

To my Mum and Dad, thanks for all the million video-calls, the proof-reading, the food parcels, and crumpets. Thanks also for supporting me in allowing me to spread my wings by moving back to Uppsala. I miss and love you dearly but look what we have to show for it!

Lastly, to Den. What a crazy time it’s been. I can never thank you enough for your infinite love, support and encouragement. There’s no one else I’d rather sit in quarantine with during a global pandemic. Jag älskar dig.

This thesis has been undertaken in collaboration with the research project Contesting Marginality: The Boreal Forest of Inland Scandinavia and the Worlds Outside, AD-1500 AD (Vetenskapsrådet 2017-01483).

UTMA-skrifter 3

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Two interconnected aspects of the natural world have always been affected through mankind’s interactions with them, and the alterations have only increased during the post- industrial era. These aspects are namely the physical landscape and the resources within it, both of which have been subjected to management for thousands of years. The surrounding environment is often altered for a perceived improvement, either to make it more habitable or to suit the specific needs of the ones doing the changing. The concept of an organism

modifying and impacting its own, or another’s surroundings is known as niche construction (Odling-Smee, et al., 2003, p.419). A form of community land and resource management and use is that of commons, which could be considered niches expressing community life and shared resources within a physical landscape. The act of creating and managing common land may thus be considered as resulting in one form of niche, affecting not only society’s

immediate environment but also impacting the ecosystems and ecologies of other species.

The main idea of this study is that if there exist spatial patterns resulting in concentration of certain forms of land-use it can be suggested that niches have been shaped. Moreover, if it is possible to establish links to collective action in different historic aspects of land

management and resource use, this could suggest locations for historic commons, niches feeding back and contributing to shaping everyday activities of a community (Lindholm, 2018). The approach of using historical archaeology for assessing locations of past niche construction and collective action will aid in unlocking a particular region of eastern Jämtland, Sweden.

The area under investigation is documented in historic written sources from at least the late thirteenth century as the Ragundaskogen (Eng: The Ragunda Forest), although there are dispersed remains consisting of flaked stone and certain burials positioned on promontories along the waterways which may suggest that the Ragundaskogen’s story begins earlier. The medieval concept of Ragundaskogen will be discussed throughout the thesis, mainly in Chapter 4 but as a matter of introduction, the concept is associated with a small area of eastern Jämtland, of middle Sweden (Fig 1.). This specific location was selected because it offers a relatively small and distinct study area. It also seemingly possessed a certain degree of integrity, thereby offering – at least theoretically – a suitable platform to study spatial and temporal relations of medieval community life in an inland boreal forest. An additional feature of the Ragundaskogen is that it was placed in the boundary zone of the medieval Kingdom’s of Sweden and Norway. With Ragundaskogen as a case study, the ambition is to offer a clearer understanding of how small forest communities organised their landscapes through their everyday activities. In addition, the study will inquire into whether it is possible to identify changed relations in response to various crises affecting the medieval

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8 communities, such as the Black Death or the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis.¹ Hence, the Ragundaskogen can be considered a ‘microscope’ to investigate human-environmental interaction, community life, as well as social issues, such as cultural and national identities among communities who lived and interacted in a border region. A final motive is that relatively little is known about the cultural history of eastern Jämtland, if compared to western and central parts of Jämtland. In order to understand the medieval concept of Ragundaskogen three research objectives have been formulated for this study.

1.1 Research objectives

The first objective is to situate the medieval concept of Ragundaskogen geographically and chronologically in order to establish whether Ragundaskogen was seen as a particular physical and cultural landscape during the time-period, and not only acting as a general geographical reference, similar to the notion of a ‘peripheral outland’ close to Ragunda.

The second objective is to identify principles of niche construction – i.e., an actively organised and shaped landscape – by noting spatial aspects of land-use and indications of collective action and community life of Ragundaskogen’s dwellers.

The third objective is to use these observations for writing a cultural history of the Ragundaskogen between c.1100-c.1500 A.D.

These objectives will be achieved through a combination of methods and a heuristic approach including a landscape analysis of contemporary written sources and the region’s archaeology.

The investigation of the research objectives is structured in the following way: Chapter 2 will begin by providing a general background to Jämtland and medieval research introducing themes and concepts important to the study. This will be done by a review of previous research within similar fields and topics such as research on drivers and effects behind the abandonment of farms in the medieval period and the concept of marginality. The research background will also review previous research on crises, e.g., the Late Medieval Crisis and the relation to climatic events or to disease, such as the Black Death. Chapter 3 will present the conceptual framework formulated for the study, followed by a presentation of the selected methods for compiling the observations that allows the identification and understanding of the medieval concept of Ragundaskogen. Chapters 4–5 focus on the empirical discussion, presenting the results of the study beginning with a geographical reconstruction of the Ragundaskogen, based on clusters of collective action and presumably past commons. The

1 The Black Death (also known as the Bubonic Plague) was an epidemic that swept through Europe between the late 1340s and the early 1350s, decimating the continent’s population size. The disease originated in central Asia and spread throughout the world via the land and sea trade routes. For more information see: O.J.

Benedictow, The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History (2004); J. Myrdal, Digerdöden pestvågor och ödeläggelse. Ett perspektiv på senmedeltidens Sverige (2004).

Meanwhile the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis occurring from c.1300-c.1450 was a period of severe famines in Europe and could have been caused by numerous factors including climate change, soil depletion, poor weather, war, changes in trade, the depleted population due to the Black Death and feudal exploitation. For more

information see: K. Pribyl, Farming, Famine and Plague. The Impact of Climate in Late Medieval England, (2017); H. Kitsikopoulos, Agrarian Change and Crisis in Europe, 1200-1500, (2012); P. Lagerås, Environment, society and the Black Death: an interdisciplinary approach to the late-medieval crisis in Sweden (2016).

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9 discussion in Chapter 4.5–4.11 places the Ragundaskogen in time and space through an analysis of written sources that mention the region. In Chapter 5, the cultural history of the Ragundaskogen will be discussed based on evidence compiled in Chapter 4. This will aid in determining distinct phases within the region’s history and will also note any changes it faced regarding social connections or resource and land use, under the umbrella of Niche

Construction. This will be followed by a summarising discussion in Chapter 6, noting

relevant topics and questions which require further analysis and will also offer subjects worth exploring for future research.

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2. Introduction to Jämtland and a History of Research

2.1. Jämtland’s Geography

Jämtland is a historical province (swe: “landskap”) and a modern county (sw: “län”) in the north western part of Sweden. Its borders form a part of the Swedish-Norwegian border alongside the provinces of Lappland, Härjedalen, Dalarna and Värmland. Jämtland today, according to the National Centre for Statistics (Statistiska centralbyrån), has over 117,000 inhabitants. This coupled with its large size (Sweden’s second largest region) means that population density is low and is centralised around the Great Lake Area and the metropolitan centre, the county’s only city, of Östersund (Statistiska centralbyrån, 2019). A small,

unequally distributed population has been a characteristic of Jämtland since prehistory through to the 1700s, which could be attributed to the natural and physical geography and its position on the ‘periphery’ (Antonson, 2009).

The province consists of several contrasting natural geographic regions which support and shape aspects of both the human and cultural geography occurring in Jämtland, historically and now. These environments include several valleys which contain two significant rivers, the Indalsälven and the Ljungan and both flow through and affect this research’s study area.

These rivers support many ecosystems and are rich in fish (e.g., migratory salmon), which would have been a major resource and income historically along the entire length of the river course (Hellbom, 1972, p. 43; Grundberg, 2006, p. 41). Other significant bodies of water within Jämtland include a vast lake system with the biggest being Storsjön, where the city of Östersund is situated. Due to the amount of water bodies in the county, settlements are usually located near to either a river (or a tributary) or to one of the many lakes as this can reduce the number of frost nights in late summer (Holm, 2012, p.23). This attests to the importance of being in proximity to natural resources, which have impacted and aided in forming the cultural and social history of the county.

Geographical areas include a mountainous region to the north and the Norwegian border.

According to Statistiska Centralbyrån, around fifty percent of the region is forested, either productive, unproductive, or protected (SCB). The forest covers a significant area of the county and will have done so for centuries, reflecting how important and prominent the forest is to the shaping of Jämtland’s physical and cultural geography. Forests, then in a sense, connect the past with the present, reflecting the close almost interdependent relationship between humans and the natural resources. The forest environment provides raw materials such as wood and fur, various foods, medicine, and shelter, so long as it is not decimated by human actions.

Jämtland is largely covered by boreal forest and only a small amount of the county is suitable for agriculture. However, the presence of an “agricultural belt” constituted on the larger rivers

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11 and the Great Lake has shaped and changed the cultural history of the area, especially in the medieval period (Welinder, 2019). In terms of archaeology, the agricultural belt, especially the Great Lake region seem to constitute a northern agricultural area sharing many

characteristic features of the fertile central agricultural regions of Sweden, such as the coast and especially around Lake Siljan and the Mälaren Valley where large cities such as

Stockholm, Uppsala and Örebro are located.

The Ragundaskogen is an area, which reflects several of the contrasting environments in Jämtland encompassing rivers, lakes, and suitable locations for agriculture, as well as

extensive forest areas for pastures, meadows and other natural resources. This makes the area a useful case study to understand how the medieval communities shaped landscapes

constituted on a range of different environments and ecosystems. In this study, areas of shared productive land (i.e., commons) are of particular concern, since these lands manifest community life. Moreover, the different physical environments of the Ragundaskogen have likely been productive in their own manner since the Iron Age when land began to be

organised into specific areas for specific tasks (Svensson, 1998; Eriksson et al., 2021). These areas of land are known as infields and outfields, with the former being privately owned and thus situated closer to the household. Outfields are thereby areas of meadows and forests located further away, used as areas of commons for intense collective action (Eriksson et al., 2021). To support the amount of possible yield in northern Sweden where production was generally lower than that in southern parts of the country, a new type of seasonal housing was constructed to also expand the range of outfields available. This housing became known as fäbod, which although lacks a direct translation into English, loosely can be equivalent to a Scottish idea of shieling, where the focus was on the transhumance of livestock (Lindholm, et al. 2013, p.5). This is also the term that shall be utilised for this research.

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12 Figure 1: The County of Jämtland shown within Sweden, including other main cities (QGIS 3.10).

Base Map © Lantmäteriet.

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2.2. Sweden and Jämtland: Medieval History and Studies

2.2.1 The History of Medieval Sweden

The medieval period in Sweden (c.1050–c.1520) is considered to begin with the

establishment and adoption of Christianity in the country during a period of social evolution with the formation of towns such as Sigtuna, the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, the minting of coins and the process of mining and working with iron (Lindkvist, 2015). Sweden divides its medieval period into two eras, the Older Middle Ages from 1050–

1350 and the Younger from 1350–1523, ending with the crowning of Gustav Vasa (Harrison, 2002, pp. 12-14). Sweden’s medieval borders also differ from those of the present day, with expansions into western Finland, and what is present day southern Sweden belonging to Denmark. These borders changed throughout the period due to wars and alliances between the states.

The Kalmar (or Nordic) Union is a significant period in the medieval history of Sweden and the Nordic Region as an entity, lasting between 1397–1523 when the kingdoms of Sweden, Norway and Denmark were united under one ruler. This union was formed perhaps as a reaction to the rising power of the Hanseatic League and The Order of the Our Lady of St.

Mary’s German House (Jerusalem), a religious order of knights (Lönnroth, 1959, p. 101).

The knowledge of Swedish society during the medieval period is based on numerous sources.

These sources include public records pertaining to royal letters and diplomas, runic inscriptions (especially for the earlier period) and some legal texts, notably the provincial laws (sw: landskapslagarna), which incorporates the Jämtland Law (sw: Jämtlandslagen) and the Hälsingeland Law (sw: Hälsingelagen). The provincial laws regulated the use and rights of resources and land, in addition to punishment for criminal offences. People’s rights were regulated based on their social status. Research indicates that in parts of the country, including Jämtland, farmers had a substantial amount of influence and strength during the medieval period (Holm, 2012; Ahrling, 2013).

2.2.2 Medieval Jämtland

Jämtland due to its position in the north west part of the country bordering Norway was in a different situation compared to other areas in present-day Sweden due to it being a political border zone with a divided governance in ecclesiastical and political aspects. From 1178 the province was under the kingdom of Norway, who allowed it a form of semi-autonomy until 1645. From the end of the thirteenth century, it is likely that Jämtland came under the control of the Uppsala Diocese (due to their ownership of land in the region), although their power would not have been as far-reaching as that of the Norwegian King. The province was therefore unusual, representing a form of ‘otherness’², where it was granted an amount of freedom, in terms of the lack of nobility (Holm, 2012, p. 7). This ‘otherness’ is still cultivated

2 ‘Otherness’ is used in this regard to mean neither one or the other- Jämtland was not completely Norwegian, or Swedish and therefore can be regarded as something else, an anomaly.

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14 today and is represented by the region’s distinct culture and dialect ‘jämtska’,³ reflecting its unique history and location.

The written sources prove useful to studying Medieval Sweden however it must be

considered that not every region of Sweden is equally represented in the written sources, due to factors such as population density or how important a region was considered to be by church and state authorities (largely based on tax purposes). This bias is evident when analysing written accounts and letters for Jämtland and how they are mainly focused on the western and central parts of the region, with the east featuring little in comparison. Crucially, the information that can be gathered is reliant on what has survived, in terms of written sources. It is evident from partial sections in the Jämtland and Härjedalen’s Diplomatarium (JHD), and based on the existence of other provincial laws, that a Jämtland Law existed. The rules were likely based on an elder Norwegian law specific to the Trøndelag Region, the Frostatinglova, that was in use until 1274 (Sunde, 2019). This law contained matters relating to both the church and agriculture reflecting how both had prominent aspects in society (Sandnes, 2006). The likelihood that a law for Jämtland would be based on laws from the neighbouring region strengthens the historical connection between the two areas and suggests that living in Jämtland and living in neighbouring Tröndelag would have been a similar experience (Vikstrand, 1995).

The inherent bias in the written sources make archaeology an important compliment to

textual evidence however here there are also biases and the evidence is comprised of what has been recorded on the national cultural history database Fornsök by Sweden’s National

Cultural Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet), hereafter RAÄ. This is except for the evidence for medieval abandoned farmsteads (sw: ödesböle) where the material on Fornsök has been complimented by research from Antonson (2004). Within the archaeological data there are also problems such as difficulty in dating remains, without using methods such as dendrochronology for wood and radiocarbon for example, which appear to be lacking in site reports recorded on Fornsök, especially for Jämtland. Moreover, the types of evidence for activity in the region in general, such as pitfalls, were cultural aspects used over hundreds if not thousands of years (Hennius, 2020). Due to this, there appears to be a distinct lack of securely dated medieval archaeology in the region described as Ragundaskogen, if not Jämtland in its entirety, despite written sources proving otherwise. It is perhaps easier to note areas of concentrated intense and prolonged collective activity and alteration than distinct archaeological evidence from different periods. The archaeological record is also not free from bias, there is little recorded evidence of Sámi archaeology (from any period) and this could perhaps be due to the prevalence of non-Sámi in the recorded history of Sweden.

Archaeological interpretations are also open to those who investigate them and rely on their experience and knowledge to make judgements. They might not be familiar with local folklore or unique customs to the region that perhaps were not recorded historically. This could be especially true for rural areas like the Ragundaskogen.

3 There are academic discussions as to whether Jämtska should be considered its own language or a part of the dialect of the Norrland region of Sweden (Ringarp, et al., 2009) which can be listened to at:

https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/80966?programid=411.

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15 Numerous academics from various disciplines have sought to determine the impact of the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis on farmsteads within Jämtland with the vast majority of research occurring in the centralised great lake areas of the county, Östersund, Frösön and around Storsjön. This is understandable as this region has always been the main settlement area with both written and archaeological sources allowing for assessments of settlement patterns to determine abandonment during c.1300-1450 A.D. (Antonson, 2009, p.620).

Additionally, the area was a focal point for trade and religious purposes. Evidence from a churchyard in Frösö parish suggest the population of the parish increased between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries, implying migration from elsewhere (Salvesen, 1979).

Medieval research projects have also been undertaken in neighbouring Medelpad and

Ångermanland provinces that focused and provided a historiography of medieval centralised places within the provinces (Grundberg, 2006). The studies summarise work in both western Jämtland, Ångermanland and Medelpad and highlight a distinct lack of research in the area situated between the mountains and the coast, eastern Jämtland.

The identified research gap in eastern Jämtland is partially why this region was selected as the study area for this work. The work presented here aspires to amend some of the research gaps, particularly for the Middle Ages in this eastern area of Jämtland.

2.2.3 Medieval Eastern Jämtland

Information concerning eastern Jämtland during the medieval period has been limited at best and is somewhat restricted to local history. This could be problematic as it is unlikely to be subjective or unbiased as generally, the author has an emotional connection to the area but conversely, the research is more accessible to non-academics and could be considered an aspect of community history or archaeology (Marshall, 2002). Information is also

occasionally available through toponymy (place-name studies). However, the information that can be gained be gained from either local history or toponymy reveals how the residents used, interpreted, and saw the land and environment around them. A geographical reference point within eastern Jämtland is Skottkällan (also Skata kiældu), which was also seen as the border zone between Sweden and Norway and ran through eastern Jämtland in Dockmyr.

According to Ahnlund, referenced in Dahlstedt (1955), it is believed that a man from Ansjö (Hällesjö parish) killed another man from Håvdsjö (Nyhem parish) in the region and this event gave rise to the name of Skottkällan. However, the area is documented from the early 1300s and thus it is not certain what the meaning of ‘skott’ implies (Flemström, 1972).

Due to the crises in the Medieval period throughout Europe, changing climatic conditions have been suggested as factors for the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis and the abandonment of farmsteads. It is then noteworthy to provide a brief assessment of climate history in Sweden and Jämtland during the period in question.

2.2.4 Sweden and Jämtland’s Medieval Climate

Sweden’s climate, in common with that of western Europe is likely to have fluctuated during the medieval period. The substantial climate data that exists for the United Kingdom is not as extensive for mainland Scandinavia and historical climate dynamics of western Europe

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16 overall are a much-debated topic (Ogilvie, 1993, p. 94; Büntgen, Tegel, et al., 2011). The Medieval Warmer Period (MWP)⁴ occurring between c.950–c.1250 would have resulted in a warmer environment across much of the Northern Hemisphere. This is based on H.H. Lamb’s study of climate data which suggested that for a period during the eleventh and twelfth

centuries, the earth could have reached its warmest period since the end of the last Ice Age (Lamb, 1982, p. 162).

The Little Ice Age (hereafter LIA)⁵ is believed to be the coldest period since the last Ice Age.

A period of cooling is widely accepted to have occurred between the sixteenth and mid- nineteenth centuries with additional shorter cooling periods throughout the Holocene (Mann, 2002; Helema, et al., 2010). Some researchers believe it could have begun as early as

between 1275 and 1300 (Miller, et al., 2012). It is thought that the LIA hit the province of Jämtland especially hard. Temperate change in the region is believed by researchers to be one of the leading contributors to the high number of abandoned farms and villages in the region (sw: ödesböle/ödesgård)⁶, and simultaneously one of the reasons behind the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis (Antonson, 2004). The temperature increases of the MWP, especially in Jämtland, have begun to be challenged through dendrochronology by Swedish researchers who suggest the difference between temperatures during the MWP and the LIA were not as severe as previously thought (Linderholm & Gunnarson, 2019). However, it is apparent, based on evidence from the Det Nordiska Ödesgård Projektet (DNÖ), that Jämtland had a considerably high number of abandoned farms and villages that appear to coincide with the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis. The crisis alongside the Black Death seemingly had a significant impact on the province (Antonson, 2004; Hansson, 2005).

The next section will now provide an overview and a research history to the medieval

phenomena discussed above, namely that of the prevalent crises, the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis and the Black Death, but will also discuss the research made into ödesböle.

2.3. Medieval Phenomena

2.3.1 Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis

Research into how communities dealt with the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis has often centred on whether farmsteads were abandoned during the period (sw: ödesböle) and has thus mainly been undertaken on the more settled areas of centralised Jämtland. A particular farm has been the focus point for a number of these studies, Eisåsen (Berg parish). Through an interdisciplinary approach including analysis of tax records, pollen analysis,

4 It is important to note that the term Medieval Warmer Period, is essentially a Eurocentric view as the period correlates with the European Middle Ages epoch. Other terms have been utilised such as Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Climatic Optimum (Hughes & Diaz, 1994, p. 110).

5 The abbreviation LIA shall be utilised for the Little Ice Age. The author realises it is also an accepted abbreviation to mean the Late Iron Age, but when this period of time is discussed, it shall be written in full to avoid confusion.

6 The term ödesböle is a specific term in the Jämtland dialect to mean abandoned farmstead, whereas ödesgård is the accepted term in Standard Swedish. Ödesböle shall be utilised throughout this thesis as that is the term that is most utilised in Jämtland itself.

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17 dendrochronology, and radiocarbon dating (C14) it could be determined that the farm was abandoned c.1450, with the land continuing to be used as a meadow or shieling, prior to being deserted for good in the 1870s (Hansson et al., 2005; Welinder, 2019).

Conversely, a farm near to Eisåsen but further up the mountain, Munkbovallen, managed to survive the crisis without being abandoned, despite being established at a similar time to the abandonment of its neighbour (Welinder, 2019). It was argued that this was likely due to diversification of the farms and their ability to shift their focus to barley cultivation or iron production (Hansson et al., 2005; Berglund et al., 2007; Welinder, 2019). The adoption of new skills and the process of diversification ultimately expanded the region’s economy to also incorporate cattle-breeding which could have increased the resources available to trade trade to include hide, butter, and handicraft goods. This in turn would have expanded the resources that were immediately accessible to those who lived there, during and after the crises, with land being adapted between farmland, shieling, and pasture.

The level of abandonment due to the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis has been reanalysed considering new research and data where the desertion and agrarian crisis was also assessed according to a change in agrarian economy. The changes, occurred during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, reflected a move towards larger extensive farming and different outland production, such as the increase of iron and tar production against the decrease in grain production (Berglund, et al., 2009)⁷ which is important for the discussion in this thesis.

Jämtland was unique in terms of its diversified production, especially with iron. This was attributed to the introduction of new industrial methods from the eleventh century, leading to a considerable increase in iron production during the medieval crisis in the fourteenth century (Magnusson, 1986). Similarly, radiocarbon data on pitfalls suggested a major increase in trapping of reindeer and moose a century later. With regards to tar production in the county, it remained somewhat constant throughout the medieval crisis in line with the other study areas.

Meanwhile, the expansion in forest grazing in the region was a change towards the extensive household-orientated farming during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and thus the medieval crisis should be viewed as a period of continuous change, set amongst periods of plague and the development of an early industry.

Ultimately research concluded that the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis was a demographic and agrarian disaster, rather than economic, which expanded as resources and goods produced in the outland activity regions became more integral to society (Hansson et al., 2005; Berglund et al. 2007; Welinder, 2019). The Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis was not the only contributor to the abandonment of farmsteads, and it is therefore necessary to assess previous research undertaken of the effect and the extent of the Black Death (sw: digerdöden) in Sweden and Jämtland.

2.3.2 Black Death

Research concerning the extent and the effect of the Black Death within Sweden, including

7 This study included research on the Swedish provinces of Jämtland, Värmland, Dalarna and Gävleborg and the Norwegian provinces of Trøndelag and Hedmark.

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18 Jämtland, has been done through analysing textual sources of letters that were sent around the period. Evidence suggested that a decline in letters being sent in Jämtland between 1349 and 1350 was evidence of the plague (Myrdal, 2004, pp.113-116). This was attributed to a lack of surviving priests with only one said to have survived the period, suggesting a high mortality rate within the county (Holm, 1999).

Based on letters being sent throughout the country, it was possible to reconstruct the route that the plague took, beginning in Östergötland, Skåne and Småland before infecting counties more north including Uppsala, Västmanland and Närke (Myrdal, 2004, p.151). There are no written sources that directly attest to the plague affecting Norrland (i.e., north of Gävleborg), but a serious decline in letters between settlements within this region does suggest that there were likely no literate people left to compose and send letters. It is likely the Black Death would have reached this region through trade that occurred with the counties further south and does emphasise that marginalised areas were not cut off from society.

How the Black Death affected the abandonment of farmsteads was studied through a

combination of written sources and the results from the DNÖ which revealed that all classes of society were affected with, on average, Sweden suffering similarly to the rest of Europe regarding desertion with abandonment figures between forty and fifty percent. Jämtland however was classified as a part of Norway for the DNÖ and was thus not included in these figures (Sandnes, 1981). According to Myrdal’s assessment of the DNÖ, combined with the written sources, it could be suggested that the marginal and peripheral areas were largely abandoned between 1410s and 1420s, despite a brief rise in population towards the end of the 1300s. It was noted that the population did increase from the 1430s for the next thirty years alongside technological improvements which resulted in an expansion in the marginal areas (Myrdal 2004, p.249).

The research undertaken provides crucial evidence for assessing the resilience of Sweden as an entity (incorporating Jämtland), to manage and survive in crises during the medieval period. For a more focused archaeological stance it is thus necessary to address research undertaken on the medieval abandoned farmsteads (ödesböle), as these have been the focus of the research listed in 2.4 in order to understand the extent of the medieval crises.

2.3.3 Ödesböle

It is important to note abandoned farmsteads and villages from the medieval period are not unique to Northern Europe, and can also be found in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, parts of eastern Europe, Greenland and the Netherlands (Higham, 2001). The study of abandoned settlements (known as Deserted Medieval Villages, DMV) in the United Kingdom is still ongoing, the most famous site being Wharram Percy where changes in prices and wages during the fifteenth century (as opposed to the Black Death and famine) have now been shown to be the cause of its decline (Oswald, 2004). There are numerous abandoned medieval villages in Germany, known as wüstung, where abandonment has been explained because of agricultural crises, population decline, soil degradation, expansion of cities, war,

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19 and the LIA.⁸ In Nordic countries, existing research on ödesböle incorporates studies from international projects such as the DNÖ to undergraduate student theses, crosscutting the academic fields of cultural geography, archaeology and history.

The DNÖ project ran throughout the 1970s and involved researchers and evidence from across the Nordic region, prominently Sweden, Norway and Denmark (but also Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes and both Orkney and Shetland Isles). The research culminated in a final publication Desertion and Land Colonization in the Nordic Countries c.1300‒1600 (Svend, 1981). The project’s aim was to detail settlement developments in the Nordics to 1500 but was extended to 1600, with varying climate settlements selected to assess the role of the LIA in northern locations (Sandnes, 1981). It was evident that many factors outside of the agrarian crisis contributed to abandonment including land rent

development, constraints to agricultural and other production and specific price conditions.

It was realised the structure of farms and villages were different between Jämtland and the rest of Norway. Jämtland had a larger proportion of ‘split-up farms’, reminiscent of village structures in southern Scandinavia, whereas other parts of Norway consisted of more individual farms occasionally divided into a maximum of three smaller holdings. Desertion rate for Jämtland was placed as intermediate between Norway and Sweden between twenty- five and forty percent.

At the conclusion, the Norwegian team had identified more ödesböle and placed the desertion rates at around forty percent in Norway and twenty percent in Sweden. These results should be viewed cautiously, based on differences in how a farm or village was defined, the

definition of “abandonment” and the different methods adopted by the Norweigan and Swedish teams often produced different conclusions (Sandnes, 1981).

The amount of ödesböle, and thus the desertion level, have also been assessed by numerous academics, both included and outside of the DNÖ. Salvesen and Antonson both utilise similar methods (historical maps, tax, and tithe records, assessing ancient field systems) for

identifying and estimating the total of ödesböle. Salvesen identified 410 ödesböle in Jämtland (Salvesen, 1979) whilst Antonson’s later estimate was over 4000, studying the period 1000- 1750 A.D. (2004). Additionally, Antonson also realised that sites classified as ödesböle possessed similar features including terrace remains and edges (sw: terrasskanterna) and cultivation cairns (sw: odlingsröse) which could be utilised to aid in identifying additional sites. Toponymy was also adopted, with ‘-böle’ being unique to Jämtland and deriving from

‘dwelling’, thus likely indicating an abandoned farmstead. The term ‘ødhis bøle’ was first documented in 1447, with the prefix meaning abandoned. This date coincides with previous research undertaken on abandonment that has been reviewed in this chapter. The first

documentation about a potential ödesböle comes from an account in the JHD from 1273, but the site is not explicitly stated as abandoned, therefore the information is open to

interpretation. Additional examples of place names that point towards abandonment include the terms ‘-fann’ and ‘ödegods’ (Salvesen, 1979). A final important suffix in being able to identify places of settlement is that of ‘-sta’, deriving from ‘staðir’ and dates to the late Iron

8 For an example on German abandoned medieval settlements, see P.Grimm, Hohenrode: eine mittelalterliche Siedlung im Südharz, (Halle, Jaegar Publishings, 1939).

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20 Age or early Middle Ages. Many settlements retain this form and thus aids in dating the foundation of the settlement (Antonson, 2004).

Antonson utilised his database to reconstruct and assess settlement data for the recolonization of the region in the High Middle Ages, compared to data from both the Late Iron Age, and from farms constructed between 1700 and 1899. He proposed two progressions of

colonisation based on the idea that the population expanded during the Viking Age from the central agricultural tracts towards more peripheral ‘liminal’ zones settled until the High Middle Ages a settlement that abruptly ended with the Medieval Agrarian Crisis. It is

conceivable the recolonisation of the area towards the end of the crisis included regions in the peripheral areas, which would go some way to explain why farms constructed in the 1700s had to settle further away from the central areas (Antonson, 2004).

There have been shorter works of research published on ödesböle, most as student theses that focus on southern Norrland or encompassing the entire country. Feltzin’s master thesis (2008) focused on Medelpad, Hälsingland and Jämtland and is a critical source analysis of the research and inventory of ödesböle listed there. She noticed that there is no evidence through written sources or place name analysis to suggest medieval abandonment in

Hälsingland, whilst Medelpad has not really been studied in this regard. Njord-Westerling’s bachelor thesis dealt with archaeology and the Late Medieval Abandonment (2011) across Sweden and did not adopt a smaller case study area. His data was based on studies of nine single abandoned farms situated throughout the country and he assessed these in relation to research undertaken by the DNÖ and Myrdal (2004). The thesis concluded that without ödesböle being included as aspects of larger research projects into abandonment then it is difficult to determine the extent of desertion in the country through only using single farms.

2.4. Research on Outland and Marginality

The study of the outlands⁹ (sw: utmark) and areas considered marginal in Sweden’s

agricultural history is not a new phenomenon but is a growing field due to the realisation that these areas could help to explain some of the general developments of Scandinavian history, such as the development of trade and centralised communities. ‘Outland’ as a term can refer to two things: a term used to describe places and regions on the periphery of central

agricultural regions and a facet of a specific land-use organisation based on infields (settlement agriculture) and outfields (livestock, iron and tar production and hunting etc.) Current research suggests that this way of organising the land-use originated in the first centuries A.D. (Lindholm et al., 2013; Eriksson et al., 2021; Hennius, 2021). In the case of the Ragundaskogen, both definitions will be utilised. It was an area situated away from the centralised regions and the collective action undertaken in areas separated from the infields will be assessed.

9For an assessment of the term “utmark” and an appropriate English translation, see Ingunn Holm et al., 2009, pp. 12–13. The translation of “outland” is used as it is deemed to be perhaps the most useful term, although it is not entirely correct and is also utilised more in American English than British English.

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21 The activities that occur in the outland, especially historically, have also been a focus of interest, in addition to how the outland was viewed by those who lived by it and interacted with it. Research concerning the outland and its activities has not been limited to one area of Sweden, with significant projects and publications assessing the outlands and activities of marginal life in Värmland (Svensson, 1998, 2001; Emanuelsson et al., 2003), Uppland (Hennius, 2018) and Jämtland (Magnusson, 1991; Berglund et al, 2009; Welinder, 2019) to name but three. In recent years, research has sought to argue that life on the periphery was not any less connected than it was in central areas, with peripheral locations still possessing strong trade networks, acting as a location for meeting up with all members of society, and the ability to often diversify in terms of crises reflecting an element of resilience (Svensson, 1998; Emanuelsson et al., 2003; Berglund et al., 2009; Welinder, 2019, Hennius, 2020a,b, 2021). Furthermore, it is also believed to be an area where women and children were also involved in collective activities due to their labour-intensive nature, although they did not perform all tasks (Magnusson, 1991; Svensson, 2001; Emanuelsson et al.,2003, pp.138-140) Research undertaken at peripheral locations in Värmland has focused on the effects of the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis on small forest communities in the medieval parishes of Dalby and Gunnarskog (another border region to Norway) with three main approaches being utilised to define outland use: the outland as part of an integrated system of infield and outland, outland as settlement locations in marginal areas and as areas of settlement expansion where distinct economies and cultural identities developed (Svensson, 1998). Outland activities studied included bloomeries (sw: blästbrukplats), pitfalls (sw: fångstgrop), shielings (sv:

fäbod), tar production sites (sw: tjärproduktion) and soapstone quarries (sw: täljstenbrott).

The research focused on how outland use and activities developed from numerous aspects including how people used and interacted with the natural environment, the structure of society and patterns of land division and it was evident that the different parishes engaged in and specialised in different outland activities. This could have been a sensible idea as there would likely still be a need for the different resources without the market becoming

overflooded with one type of produce. It was also clear from the results that households in the forests, especially at Dalby, changed what and how they produced during and after the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis which displays resilience (Svensson, 1998; Emanuelsson et al.

2003). Similar results were also witnessed in studies in central Jämtland where an increase in iron production occurred during the crisis which highlighted diversification (Berglund et al.

2007).

Additional outland research has also assessed how the area was viewed by those who used it, and how this might have affected the activities that occurred there in earlier periods. This included beliefs that the outland was a ‘dangerous area’ based on a pre-Christian worldview and mythology, but that the Scandinavian outlands were more accessible than their European counterparts, despite their often-restricted use due to their being controlled by various

authoritative institutions (Svensson, 2001). The dangerous notion could also have derived from academic’s interpretations of sources and a lack of contextualisation from

archaeological material. The outlands could also be viewed as a liminal and marginal area if studied from a phenomenological stance. The notion of a forested periphery area conforms to theories about liminality aspects in the natural landscape and could reflect how the land was

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22 utilised and considered by the society. Dahle (2009, p.96-99) noted these theories included the outland being a zone or area between settlements and secondly that it is an area betwixt the human and supernatural areas of living, thus making it a zone of liminality.

The previous research undertaken on the outland areas provides a stable base for this study in assessing the small forest community of the Ragundaskogen, an area considered to be outland and on the margins of society. Central to land use and management for forest communities seems to have been the presence of an inland-outland organisation that was likely very established by the middle of the medieval period, with traits from them suggesting an Iron Age establishment. It was clear that at the research sites, labour division was divided between communities and that the land was used and managed over a prolonged period.

There was also evidence for communities and settlements surviving through the crises via means of diversification. The research of the outlands largely encompassed the medieval era, and this is also the period under investigation for this study. In order to fully understood how everyday life would have been in a forest community during this time, it is necessary to assess the historical background, and necessary research on the medieval history and climate of the region.

2.5. Summary

The research history of medieval Sweden has revealed that the country, and specifically Jämtland as a county, did suffer a population decrease during the fourteenth and fifteenth century as a result of the Black Death, the Late Medieval Agrarian Crisis and smaller aspects such as land rates, which resulted in thousands of farmsteads being abandoned. However, it was noted that diversification was key to survival during the period with iron production blossoming and cattle herding becoming new resources. This was especially true in areas considered outland and marginal to society, with evidence suggesting that these regions were not on the periphery and played an integral role in trade as they were sites for collective action involving all members of society. The previous research has largely focused on the more centralised areas of Jämtland, thus there is a research gap for gaining a better

understanding of everyday life and society in the outland in eastern Jämtland. In order to achieve this aim, a coherent framework and method must be devised, and this shall be discussed next.

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3. Theory and Method

3.1. Theory

As stated in the introduction, written evidence suggests that the peripheral Ragundaskogen contained settlements during, and likely prior to the medieval period (c.1100-c.1500). This is despite the area being considered “outland” in relation to the more settled areas of Sweden.

Seen in relation to the discussion of the main topics and directions of current research, outlined above, the central idea of this study is to use the medieval concept of

Ragundaskogen as a framework for gaining a better understanding of medieval everyday life in an eastern Jämtland boreal forest.

In this section, the conceptual frames of the thesis will be introduced, followed by a presentation of the methods that will be applied for undertaking the study.

The first theoretical presumption is related to the objective to situate the Ragundaskogen geographically and chronologically. This means that it will be necessary to establish that Ragundaskogen was seen as a particular physical and cultural landscape during the medieval period, and not a general geographic reference, like the notion of an outland or a mård. Here, the idea is that the medieval textual sources can be used for approaching Ragundaskogen from a dwelling perspective (cf. Ingold, 2011). A dwelling perspective explores how humans live in places and landscapes and how they construct their everyday lives in relation to each other, with reference to places and cultural geographies (ibid.). In this thesis, such views have inspired an assessment of the Ragundaskogen’s role as a context for everyday interaction and communication of different actors and events to meet the needs of their daily lives. If these activities, as well as other activities taking place in the worlds situated outside, were evidently associated with Ragundaskogen or to distinct geographies within, it would at the same time also be possible to argue that the area was something more than a general

reference during the medieval era. Outside actors includes the church (mainly the influential Uppsala Diocese) and the royal courts of both Norway and Sweden. Inside actors, the

‘dwellers’ of Ragundaskogen would include individuals, farmers, priests, officials, etc. who sustained their daily lives by referring to their places as situated within the Ragundaskogen.

This is supported by evidence that shall be discussed in Chapters 4.8 and 5 which suggests the area surrounding Ragunda was, for a period, a separate enclave perhaps functioning as a

“farmer’s republic”. Geographies and place names require that a large group of people, both dwellers and people who were transient (or never) there, still needed the possibility to relate to the area, as well as to different places situated within Ragundaskogen.

A second theoretical presumption is that it would be possible to establish patterns of spatial organisation that represent ‘dwellers’, or with other words, communities organising

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24 landscapes. Here, it can be presumed that the medieval settlements that constituted the

landscapes of Ragundaskogen would have organised their everyday activities through the pattern of field-and meadow systems (e.g., Svensson, 1998; Lindholm et al., 2013; Hennius, 2021). Infield areas and the settlements – i.e., the farmsteads in historical accounts and in the archaeology – should be positioned in more arable areas of the landscape. However, in this, part of Jämtland agricultural crop production involved uncertainty and risk for unsuccessful yields due to harsh environmental circumstances like frost before the harvest in the late summer (cf. Holm, 2012). Farmsteads had to be associated with places with more predictable farming conditions like south–southwest facing slopes located close to larger water bodies, lakes, and larger rivers, such as Indalsälven. Places in the medieval documents and the archaeological remains of ödesböle should reflect such locations.

The forested outlands of these landscapes maintained a buffer to the unpredictability of farming by supporting pasture, fodder, hunting, crafts, and other outland activities sometimes organised through secondary farms or shielings (e.g., Svensson, 1998; Lindholm, 2018). The outlands were mainly forested areas stretching over large distances and the labour intensity involved in using these lands may have stimulated cooperative efforts of a community, suggesting they were managed as commons (e.g., Lindholm et al., 2013). Commons in this manner refers to areas within the landscape that display aspects of common pool resource management (CPRM) maintained by cooperative efforts (Ostrom, 1990; Lindholm et al., 2013). The idea here is that CPRM would reflect collective action within Ragundaskogen and would have occurred to manage the use of natural resources needed for daily life and land. In this study the approach to collective action and commons developed by Lindholm et al., 2013, 2018 will be used to establish that communities were maintained within the Ragundaskogen.

In order to understand how collective action shaped the landscapes of Ragundaskogen

ecologically and socially it is necessary to identify the landscape elements of collective action (Svensson, 1998; Antonson, 2004; Lindholm, 2018). Here the study will draw on Niche Construction theory. Niche Construction theory derives from ecology and it is adapted for explaining how one specific element of the environment, referred to as a niche, is changed and developed by an organism through its actions or choices (Odling-Smee, et al. 2003, p.419). From this view, a niche could be considered the biophysical or material (in terms of archaeology) consequences of dwelling. Niche Construction theory is becoming more popular within social sciences, including archaeology (e.g., Eriksson et al. 2017). Within archaeology it can be used to address and understand how the ‘active agency’ of humans has altered the environment in terms of climate change and agriculture for example, and thus places them as central actors within their own environmental history (Laland & O’Brian, 2010). Niche Construction theory is appropriate for understanding CPRM because the immediate natural environment and the surrounding ecological system are frequently altered to maintain the resource for recurrent use. This in turn would contribute to the overall framework of Ragundaskogen as an area of dwelling with a community-shaped landscape.

So far, internal processes of dwelling, collective action and niche construction have been discussed. Utilising these processes will support initial theories made such as that the

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25 Ragundaskogen was more than just a geographical reference within the landscape, but an actual physical and cultural landscape with residents who identified with a common identity and maintained shared knowledge systems (Holm, 2011, p.277). The use of the processes detailed will also reveal patterns of collective action, occasionally labour intensive, in the outland which will provide suggestions for locations of previous commons. This supports the theory that communities were constructed and maintained throughout the Ragundaskogen who utilised both field-and-meadow systems and outland resources in their everyday life in an administratively divided peripheral region.

3.2. Method

To test the theoretical presumptions presented above, and thereby achieve the research objectives, a historical archaeological method will be utilised. Ancient remains documented in the database of Sweden’s National Cultural Heritage Board, Fornsök will be discussed noting certain characteristic features in terms of placements in the landscape. The aim is to retrieve indications that will help in identifying characteristic features of landscape

organisation seen in relation to niche construction and collective action. The historical method will contain a qualitative analysis of contemporary written sources (i.e., written shortly after the events they depict) spanning four centuries. These note place names, people (including both farmers and non-farmers) and events that occurred within eastern-Jämtland, occasionally in association to Ragundaskogen. The analysis of the texts is central and the main component of this study because it provides crucial information concerning the social relationships of places in the area, which sporadically also contain material evidence.

The written sources consist of letters and documents from the JHD (and where relevant, Holm’s Supplement till Jämtland och Härjedalens Diplomatarium). Additional attention will be paid to references in the written sources that reveal more information about land

management or resource use/management, because this will support the belief that

established communities, ‘dwellers’, in the Ragundaskogen maintained and organised the landscape. Furthermore, inferences can be made about the networks and connectivity of the Ragundaskogen through assessing the written sources and analysing who wrote the letters, their destination, and the language it was composed in (either Latin, Swedish or Norwegian).

Analysis of the texts will specifically aid in resolving the first objective of the thesis, namely, to situate the Ragundaskogen geographically and chronologically. Identifying settlements whose names have been continually in use or have recognisable features (such as the

själastuga) will be a significant support to the analysis. The aim is to understand how society functioned during this period in terms of assessing evidence of widespread communication, administrative networks, and evidence of collective action. Studying the evolution of the cultural history of a small area allows for both macro- and microscale changes in society and powers structures (such as the role of the church) to be understood.

Archaeological observations are seen as material manifestations of land use and management undertaken by Ragundaskogen’s past residents, hence providing information to social and ecological relationships of niche construction. Archaeological sites classified as “boplats”

(fire-cracked stones) will be used for noting placement of general activity areas in the

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26 landscape, although the age of these places remains unclear. Other outland activities such as

“bloomeries” and “pitfalls” are interpreted as manifestations of cooperation, the aim is to highlight elements of the landscape that infer community and collective action. The

information (largely geographical coordinates and information from previous archaeological assessments at the sites), will be used for highlighting patterns of the landscape organisation.

An additional site classification, based on a combination of archaeological and historical information are the “ödesböle” (medieval abandoned farmsteads) will be analysed in the study. Here they will be used for noting locations that could contain agrarian infield areas constituting farms and villages. The information on ödesböle derives from Hans Antonson’s ödesböle database which was compiled using a historical archaeological method (Antonson, 2004). The final objective of assessing the cultural and social history of the Ragundaskogen between c.1100-c.1500 will be managed through identifying three phases within its history and assessing evidence for key actors during them (such as the church or the king for instance). Resource, land use and management (and any changes overtime) will also be analysed through evidence in both the written and archaeological sources. The next chapters will present the results of the proposed historical archaeological approach as well as

providing an overview of the Ragundaskogen.

Identifying and Situating the Medieval Ragundaskogen: A Tale of Forest, Fish and Farmers