A GIS Approach to Understanding Post-sedentary Hunter-Gatherers: A Case from Northern Finland

Summary

This paper considers post-sedentism in hunter-gatherers: how the fact of having previously been sedentary affects the behaviour of societies that increase their mobility in response to changing environmental conditions. The case-study in question is the transition in Northern Finland from a sedentary Sub-Neolithic, supported by high concentrations of marine resources in the river estuaries of the region, to an increasingly mobile adaptation in the Early Metal and Iron Ages. Although village sites disappear, the tradition of building cairns and other stone monuments continues, and there is evidence of re-use of the older monumental landscape. The shifting patterns of monument construction, situation and clustering at the regional scale are analyzed using GIS techniques, and interpretations draw on resilience theory to try to understand the specific constraints a less-mobile history has on post-sedentary societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21278