The Agrarian History of Sweden Read online

  Agricultural lands expanded all over Scandinavia, but the character of farming also changed and came to include new elements: cattle byres, hay-meadows, permanent field systems, and iron implements. Scandinavia became part of an agricultural system of mixed farming, which for two millennia was to dominate a wide belt from Ireland in the west across the northern half of Europe.2 It was not until the twentieth century, and the advent of artificial fertilizers and fossil fuel traction, that the mutual dependence of the two farming sectors began to dissolve.

  This agricultural system owed much of its existence to the environment, with its short vegetation period and temperate climate. However, rather than assuming that it was environmentally determined, we now have the data to interpret the move towards mixed farming as a more complex process. Much of the archaeological and palaeo-ecological research of recent decades has been intended to establish with greater precision when the various elements were introduced.

  Stalling or out-wintering livestock

  The earliest evidence of cattle byres along the Dutch and German North Sea coast dates to 1800–1500 BC. In Denmark, the earliest stalling of cattle has been dated to some centuries later, while in Sweden to the first millennium BC. From Skåne in the south to Uppland in central Sweden, similar long-houses from the first millennium BC have now been found. Such three-aisled long-houses, with their characteristic division between the dwelling unit and one or two rooms with other functions, become increasingly common in the archaeological record of this period. In some cases it has also been possible to use construction details, phosphate mapping, and the distribution of finds and ecofacts to prove that one part of the long-house was indeed used for stalling livestock and storing winter fodder.3

  However, the fact that byres have been documented for a given period does not prove that indoor stalling had become the dominant practice in livestock-keeping. In Östergötland, a large number of isolated hearths have been found. None of them has any close connection to settlement sites, burials, or ancient fields. Maria Petersson argues convincingly that in their sheer number they represent nodes in a ‘well organised system of grazing, where the animals were kept outdoors, winter as well as summer’. The dates of these isolated hearths (roughly 1000 BC to 1 BC) are contemporaneous with the opening up of grazing lands documented in pollen diagrams. The dates of similar hearths in Uppland support this evidence of an expansion and intensification of grazing on the outlying lands of permanent settlements. During this period of agricultural expansion, it thus seems that both increased winter stalling and large out-wintered herds were part of the picture. Moreover, the balance between stalling and out-wintering may have varied geographically. Even in the southernmost areas of Sweden, where otherwise there is early evidence of stalled cattle, out-wintering seems to have continued to play a role well into the first millennium AD. Using the age distribution of slaughtered animals, Stig Welinder has shown that in the second century AD one part of a herd in this area was out-wintered.4

  In the Swedish literature, climate deterioration in the first millennium BC has often been advanced as the explanation for the introduction of stalling. This increasingly cold period has also been given the name, taken from the Edda, of the fimbul winter (from the Icelandic fimbulvetr, great winter). Yet the connection to a period of cooling is not as obvious as it would seem. Cattle can withstand cold weather and snow up to a certain depth, and are able to browse bushes and trees. Thus the choice farmers had to make in the past, between out-wintering and stalling, in northern Europe as in other parts of the world, did not simply reflect climatic zones or other environmental factors. There are several reasons, beyond climate, that may explain why stalling was introduced. Stalling, through the closer connection between humans and animals, permits more intensive milk production, including a more productive use of fodder-producing areas. Furthermore, the connection between stalling and the use of cattle manure on intensively cultivated infields is one part of a more general intensification of agriculture. As has been shown for many other parts of the world, the increased role of private property and the security of the herd can be seen as factors that contributed to the spread of cattle byres during this period. While climate certainly played a role (especially in wet and windy areas) there is thus good reason to regard the introduction of winter stalling not as an environmentally driven adaptation, but rather as a new technological and social complex that spread from central parts of Europe to Scandinavia in the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.5

  The first hay-meadows?

  Haymaking has long played a central role in the farming systems in Sweden, and hay-meadows of different types are a characteristic feature of the historical landscape. It is not surprising, then, that great efforts have been made to document the origins of mown hay-meadows. Different evidence has been adduced to date the introduction of haymaking: the indirect evidence of the implements used (sickles or scythes); the existence of stone-wall enclosures around wetlands; and palaeo-ecological evidence. For the first millennium BC, the strongest evidence comes from palaeo-ecology.

  Many pollen diagrams for southern and central Scandinavia show that during the first millennium BC alders (Alnus) decreased while a variety of key plants indicative of managed wetlands increased. The most probable explanation for this shift in pollen frequencies is that alder carrs were cleared for grazing or mowing, and in the process were transformed into sedge fens. From this we can infer that the first expansion of hay-meadows on wetlands began in 800 BC in Skåne. Lagerås has shown how a fen in northern Skåne was cleared in the period 700 BC to 400 BC, and further supports his contention that this managed wetland was a hay-meadow (rather than just a grazing area) with an analysis of the ecological characteristics of the vegetation that grew there.6

  A close examination of the vegetation characteristics has shown that in Skåne there were mown hay-meadows on dry ground from at least 200 BC. The palaeo-ecological analysis indicates ‘rich, fresh meadows, most probably mowed in early summer, and grazed during late summer and autumn’. Hay-meadows on fens probably came earlier than on dry ground, possibly because sedge fens were easier to harvest with a sickle, while the thinner growth of grasses and herbs on better-drained ground became easier to harvest only with the arrival of scythes.7

  Permanent field systems

  During the first millennium BC, farmers in Scandinavia started to invest more in permanent fields. Stones were cleared from the land and collected into clearance cairns, while cultivation led to the formation of lynchets and banks. It is from the patterns of field boundaries and the distribution of clearance cairns that we can discern, on a broader scale, what the general appearance of cultivated fields in different parts of Sweden may have been. On the Baltic island of Gotland and in Skåne the field systems were of the same character as in continental northern Europe, and consisted of extensive areas of ‘Celtic fields’–a term for small square or rectangular fields bounded by sandy or earthen banks.8 Investigations in some of the many extensive field systems of this type on Gotland show that they emerged in the eighth century BC, and were in use until the second century AD. While Celtic fields from this period are common in Denmark, they are less well documented in nearby Skåne, but there is reason to believe that they were widespread there during the first millennium BC. The fields were tilled with wooden ards, or scratch-ploughs, which since about 800 BC had been equipped with detachable wooden ard-shares to cut through the topsoil. Archaeological excavations of fields in different parts of Sweden have documented the characteristic criss-cross pattern associated with ard tillage; indeed, the fact that the fields were cross-ploughed is one reason why so many fields from this period are square or rectangular in shape.9

  However, the clearest evidence of arable fields in the first millennium BC comes from the prevalence of large clearance-cairn fields, especially in the interior of southern Sweden. The remnants of these field systems cover substantial parts of the present forests, extending well beyond what would later become infi
elds and meadows. Many of them originated in the late Bronze Age, from the ninth to the sixth centuries BC. There are few visible boundaries between separate plots in this type of ancient field. There seems to have been some short- or long-term field rotation, which together with the palynological evidence bears witness to a landscape that was a mosaic of small cultivated fields alternating with secondary woodland.10

  Crops

  The manifest changes in the farming system in the first millennium BC were that the rearing of livestock and the cultivation of fields became more closely integrated. But the composition of the crops grown also changed. The main crops until the late Bronze Age had been millet (Panicum miliaceum), emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum), einkorn (T. monococcum), spelt (T. spelta), and nude barley (Hordeum vulgare var. nudum). However, in the course of the first millennium BC, hulled barley (H. vulgare var. vulgare) had an ever-increasing role, and from then on came to dominate amongst the grain crops in Sweden for more than two millennia. There is no simple explanation for this change. The cooler climate could be a reason why the cultivation of millet and emmer wheat decreased, but that can hardly explain the decline of spelt, since in the same period the cultivation of spelt increased in the British Isles as a substitute for the climatically more sensitive emmer. Another explanation may be that the older grains had more fragile ears, so that it was simpler to harvest them ear by ear. Better sickles, especially from 100 BC on, made a more efficient harvest possible, but might at the same time have favoured the cultivation of less fragile grains: new harvesting techniques may thus have influenced the choice of crops. The spread of hulled barley in southern Sweden is also in clear contrast to recent results from south-western Denmark, where for the same period hulled barley took a more modest role. It has also been proposed that the preference for hulled barley in Swedish areas was connected to changed cultural preferences in cooking and brewing.11

  The first millennium BC can thus be characterized as a period of agricultural expansion and change. It is difficult to isolate a single element of technological or social change that might explain these developments. While a cooler climate is certainly part of the picture, it should not be thought the main explanatory factor. Rather, we should see the change as arising from the introduction of a technological complex of cattle stalling, hay-meadows, manuring, increased tillage, and the establishment of permanent, stone-cleared fields. The increased tillage and stone-clearing may have been motivated by the need to mix manure into the soil.

  Intensification and technological change, AD 200–600

  In the early centuries of the Christian era, the evidence of farming practices, tools, landscapes, and social organization becomes much clearer than for the preceding centuries. Written evidence also provides us with our first opportunity to gain some sense of the social context in which this took place. From classical writers we start to get an idea of the different peoples and lands in Scandinavia, even if the information is brittle and contradictory. Scandinavia at this point was divided into a series of small lands or petty kingdoms, often with roughly the same boundaries as the landskap (provinces) known later in medieval times. The writings of Jordanes are especially valuable, for he provides us with the names of regions that can be located–and confirmed–by the distribution of ancient monuments. Centres of power are evident from their monumental mounds, and a detailed picture begins to emerge of the large and wealthy settlements that formed central places for these hierarchies.12

  Beginning shortly before the Christian era, and well evidenced for in the second and third centuries AD, there were a series of changes in technology and farming practices. The richness of the archaeological material shows that these changes were partly the result of settlements expanding, so of course it is possible that some of the innovations were developed earlier, but only later surface in the archaeological record. The sources indicate a technical change in almost all aspects of farming, from the harvest to the processing of produce. It is only in tillage that there seem to have been no changes from the previous period, while it was now the only newcomers amongst domesticated animals in the entire Iron Age appeared: hens, geese, and cats.

  During the first millennium BC, iron sickles had gradually replaced bronze sickles. From the available evidence, the huge increase in the use of iron implements for harvesting and haymaking began in Sweden around 200 BC. For the period 200 BC to AD 200, over 260 iron sickles and leaf-knives (used to gather leaves for fodder) have been found in Sweden, mainly as grave-goods. They show great variety of form, indicating that this expansion was based on a long tradition of smithying. Some forms of sickle were well suited to coppicing for leaf-fodder, while others would have been better used to collect herbs or harvest cereals by cutting just under the ears. Whatever their specific purpose, their small size may indicate that harvesting was mainly carried out by women and children.13

  Most of the sickles have been found in simple cremation graves. Around AD 200 there was a sudden change, and simple cremation graves with implements petered out. The harvesting implements that previously had almost exclusively been placed in graves of a distinctly female character or in graves with very simple grave-goods now began to appear in male graves with weapons. The symbolic aspect of depositing harvesting implements thus shifted from the distinctly female sphere to one that was generally male. In this new male sphere, new types of implement appeared. The previous array of different forms that reflected local traditions was replaced by a smaller selection of harvesting implements, all related to Roman or Celtic types, and noticeably longer than the previous sickles. It was also at this time a specialized implement for hay collection was developed–the short scythe–which made for a much more efficient hay harvest than the previous sickles. The evidence of the increased importance of haymaking is further underlined by the first finds of hay-rakes, dating from the third to fourth centuries AD. This technological development completes the picture of the crucial role played by stall-feeding, which by now was well established across the whole of Scandinavia.

  Rotary querns and bread

  Similarly, when it comes to the processing of agricultural produce, important technological changes occurred in the third and fourth centuries AD. The simple saddle quern had long been the only milling implement, and was still in use well into the Iron Age. But from 100 BC on, the first rotary hand-querns came into use in Scandinavia, and by the third and fourth centuries AD we know them from settlement sites, burials, and hill-forts in Uppland, Östergötland, and Bohuslän. It is significant that the first finds of rotary hand-querns and bread occur at the same time and in the same type of elite social environment.

  Hearths specially designed for baking bread, usually built of stone and covered with clay, have been found in long-houses in Norrland from AD 100–400. Specialized baking ovens have also been found from the period AD 200–500. The Tune stone, an important rune-stone found in the Norwegian province of Østfold, has a runic inscription from around AD 400 that explicitly mentions bread:

  Ek wiwaR after woduride witadahalaiban worahto r(unorR)

  The translation is: ‘I Wiwar, in memory of Woduridar, the lord (‘bread-provider’), made the runes’. The word witandah(a)laiban, the bread-provider, is interpreted as a noble title and a cognate of the Old English lord. The word for bread is halaiban (Sw. lev, Eng. loaf). This was the thin, unleavened bread cooked on special baking stones, of which there are several finds dating from the Swedish Iron Age.

  Amongst the elite sites, which seem to have played a central role in the cults of the local district, is the settlement at Helgö in Uppland. Remnants of thirty rather thin loaves of bread were found there in layers dating to the third and fourth centuries AD. What makes the Helgö site spectacular are the numerous finds of rotary querns from the same period. Rotary querns, pieces of rotary querns, and loaves of bread were all deposited, apparently repeatedly, on a stone ledge close to the settlement. If nothing else, the ritual function of the site now seems well established. In Old Norse
cosmology there was a cosmic quern that controlled time, the seasons, and fertility. Torun Zachrisson points out that for the ‘metaphor of the cosmic quern to be appreciated, rotary querns must have been known and used in everyday life’, and this was apparently the case at the Uppåkra site in Skåne, the elite, fortified manors in Östergötland, and at Helgö in Uppland. Both the bread and the rotary querns seem to have been part of the Roman cultural baggage introduced in Sweden during this period.14

  Wool and textiles

  Apart from the clothing found on the bog corpses that have been recovered (especially in Denmark), only a few complete garments have survived from the Scandinavian Iron Age. However, the tiny pieces of cloth that have been preserved in contact with corroding metal, especially in graves, as well as the evidence of textile-working tools and animal breeding, can tell us much about changes in textile production. In the second century AD, there were the first signs of sheep being selectively bred for both better wool and specific shades. From then on, white-wool sheep became increasingly common. The same period saw an important change in how people dressed. Leather was no longer used as much as before, and leather clothing vanished almost completely, as is evident from the finds from bogs and graves alike, where leather cloaks gave way to long mantles of woven wool fabric. Leather and fur were no longer the ordinary necessities of life; they became luxury goods.

  The second and third centuries AD also saw a break with the past in terms of textile production, as in so many other areas of life. Sheep were bred to improve the quality of their fleeces and there are also the earliest indications that the wool was dyed. There are traces of a variety of dyes in surviving examples of cloth: vegetable dyes such as woad for blue, madder for red, along with lichen purple and insect cochineal, both producing shades of red. The first definite signs that the Scandinavians had begun to use linen cloth occur around AD 200, although based on the archaeological remains it seems as if linen clothing did not come into widespread use until after AD 600. It is possible that linen was more common in earlier periods than first appears, but since it does not survive as well as wool it may be considerably under-represented in the archaeological record.