Hunters, herders and hearths: interpreting new results from hearth row sites in Pasvik, Arctic Norway Sven-Donald Hedman¹, Bjørnar Olsen² & Maria Vretemark³ ¹ UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Centre for Sami studies, 9037 Tromsø, Norway (Corresponding author:
[email protected]). ² UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Department of archaeology and social anthropology, 9037 Tromsø, Norway. ³ Västergötlands museum, Box 253, 53223 Skara, Sweden. Abstract: The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeological works. Recently conducted archaeological investigations of two interior hearth row sites in Pasvik, Arctic Norway, have yielded new results that add significantly to the discussion. The sites are dated within the period 1000-1300 AD, and are unique within this corpus due to their rich bone assemblages. Among the species represented, reindeer is predominant (87 %), with fish (especially whitefish and pike) as the second most frequent category. Even sheep bones are present, and represent the earliest indisputable domesticate from any Sami habitation site. A peculiar feature is the repeated spatial pattern in bone refuse disposal, showing a systematic and almost identical clustering at the two sites. Combining analysis of bone assemblages, artefacts and archaeological features, the paper discusses changes in settle- ment pattern, reindeer economies, and the organization of domestic space. Key words: heart rows; Sami archaeology; reindeer; sheep; hunting; herding; bones; zoo-archaeology. Rangifer, 35, (1), 2015: 1-24 Introduction During the Viking Age and Early Medieval were highly interregional and thus indicate that Period (c. 800 – 1300 AD) some remarkable shared practices and common material features changes took place among the Sami hunting spread rapidly over a vast territory.