Cultural sites, traditional knowledge and participatory mapping : Long-term land use in a Sámi community in coastal Norway

Paper 2 of this thesis is not available in Munin: 2. Barlindhaug, Stine & Corbett, Jon: 'Living a long way from home: Communicating land-related knowledge in dispersed Indigenous communities, an alternative approach' (manuscript)Knowledge held by people who have been involved in intimate and direct engagement with their land is often valuable for our understanding of past land use. This study has through an interdisciplinary approach explored the possible benefits of emphasizing local knowledge, local participation and the increasing possibilities within digital media, seen from an archaeological viewpoint. The study areas are two areas in Finnmark County in North Norway and one comparative study from the west coast of British Colombia, Canada. Due to Norway’s "nation building" project and its focus on one Norwegian history and heritage, the Sami past was of little interest to archaeology through much of the twentieth century. It was not until around 1980 the research on Sámi culture and history became significant in academia. Parallel to this shift several legal changes led to an increasing demand for knowledge of Sami land use and cultural history. Despite this shift I argue that there still is a need for base data to meet Norway’s obligations and aims. In addition these comprehensive landscapes and many knowledgeable people represent a unique potential to gain new knowledge and for sharing knowledge. This thesis has put the use of Participatory GIS into practice within archaeological research and explored alternative ways to combine archaeology, participatory work and the existing flexibility in GIS to increase spatial knowledge and facilitate useful ways to share it to the benefit of cultural heritage management, researchers and local communities. I have shown how an interdisciplinary approach can lead to more effective archaeological surveying and consequently a more sustainable cultural heritage management. The approach has shown a potential to facilitate inter-thematic needs through the software’s flexibility. It can help fill the increasing knowledge gap between a mature population with intimate land use knowledge and the younger generations. Also by combining documented visible features with the transcribed georeferenced traditional knowledge into a GIS, the extent and intensity of land use emerges more complete and comprehensible. The value of involving local knowledge is exemplified, and shows how oral traditions and traditional knowledge can help archaeologists to contextualize and comprehend their findings in a given landscape.Lokal kunnskap om landskapsbruk har vist seg verdifullt for vår forståelse av fortidens arealbruk. Denne studien har gjennom en tverrfaglig tilnærming utforsket bruk av lokal kunnskap, lokal deltakelse og muligheter innenfor digitale medier i en arkeologisk sammenheng. Studieområdene er to områder i Finnmark fylke i Nord-Norge og en komparativ studie fra vestkysten av British Colombia, Canada. Grunnet Norges "nasjonsbygging" utover 1900-tallet og myndighetenes fokus på én norsk historie og kulturarv, var samisk historie av liten interesse for arkeologien gjennom store deler av det tjuende århundre. Det var ikke før rundt 1980 forskning på samisk kultur og historie ble vektlagt i akademia. Parallelt med dette skiftet kom rettslige utredninger og lovendringer som medførte økt etterspørsel etter kunnskap om samisk arealbruk og kulturhistorie. Det er derfor et kunnskapshull mellom den eksisterende kunnskapen om kulturminner og historisk landskapsbruk i samiske bosettingsområder og den kunnskapen som nå etterspørres fra myndigheter og forvaltning. Denne studien har tatt i bruk deltagende GIS og utforsket alternative måter å kombinere arkeologi, lokal deltagelse og eksisterende fleksibilitet i GIS for å øke kunnskap om arkeologi og historisk landskapsbruk. Videre er det diskutert ulike måter å tilrettelegge for kunnskapsdeling både til fordel for kulturminneforvaltning, forskere og lokalsamfunn. Jeg har vist hvordan en tverrfaglig tilnærming kan bidra til mer effektiv arkeologisk kartlegging og dermed en mer bærekraftig kulturminneforvaltning. Videre kan tilnærmingen som her er prøvd bidra til å fylle et økende kunnskaps gap mellom en eldre befolkning med stor kunnskap om lokal arealbruk og de yngre generasjoner som ikke lenger har den samme nærhet til de tradisjonelle landskapene. Gjennom å kombinere synlige kulturminner med stedfestet tradisjonell kunnskap i et GIS, visualiseres omfanget og intensiteten av arealbruk på en god og helhetlig måte. Verdien av å integrere lokal kunnskap er eksemplifisert, og viser hvordan muntlige tradisjoner og tradisjonell kunnskap kan hjelpe arkeologene og kontekstualisere og forstå sine funn i en gitt landskap

Skáiddeduottar siida. Landskapsbruk og tilpasning ca. 1920 - 2018

Med hovedvekt på muntlig overført kunnskap har vi undersøkt hvilke faktorer som har vært styrende for endringer i organsering og landskapsbruk gjennom de siste 100 årene i Skáiddeduottar siida. Rapporten går i dybden på én enkelt siidas landskapbruk gjennom 1900-tallet. Endringene i Skáiddeduottar siida er også en del av et generelt endringsforløp for reindriften i Finnmark. Vårt fokus er å gi et detaljbilde av hvordan disse endringene artet seg internt i en enkelt sommersiida. For framtiden er den største bekymringen knyttet til fortsatt adgang til nødvendig beiteareal. Det er en reell bekymring for at de blir «presset» høyere og høyere til fjells grunnet økende utbygging og aktivitet i de sjønære områdene som utgjør svært viktige beiteressurser for siidaen. Dårligere tilgang nede ved kysten vil bety et større press på de mindre frodige beitene på høyfjellet.Norges Forskningsråd og Framsenteret ved Terrestre flaggskippublishedVersio

Skáiddeduottar siida. Landskapsbruk og tilpasning ca. 1920 - 2018

Med hovedvekt på muntlig overført kunnskap har vi undersøkt hvilke faktorer som har vært styrende for endringer i organsering og landskapsbruk gjennom de siste 100 årene i Skáiddeduottar siida. Rapporten går i dybden på én enkelt siidas landskapbruk gjennom 1900-tallet. Endringene i Skáiddeduottar siida er også en del av et generelt endringsforløp for reindriften i Finnmark. Vårt fokus er å gi et detaljbilde av hvordan disse endringene artet seg internt i en enkelt sommersiida. For framtiden er den største bekymringen knyttet til fortsatt adgang til nødvendig beiteareal. Det er en reell bekymring for at de blir «presset» høyere og høyere til fjells grunnet økende utbygging og aktivitet i de sjønære områdene som utgjør svært viktige beiteressurser for siidaen. Dårligere tilgang nede ved kysten vil bety et større press på de mindre frodige beitene på høyfjellet

Kartlegging av historisk og nåværende landskaps- og ressursbruk i Finnmark

Pursuant to the Finnmark Act, the Finnmark Commissionwas established in order to identify potentially existingcollective or individual use- and property rights onland formerly defined as state-owned in Finnmark. TheCommission charged the Norwegian Institute for CulturalHeritage Research (NIKU) with reviewing historical andcurrent land- and resource use within selected survey areas.NIKU conducted several large-scale map-based surveysconcerning individual and communal traditional use, as wellas common understandings of the rights situation related toland- and resource use. Local knowledge describing traditional land- andresource use has so far been deemed of value for the ongoing rights processes in Finnmark. There is, however, little tosuggest that the physical traces of the described use have hadan important place in either the proceedings or the decisionsmade so far. In our opinion, cultural heritage sites and localknowledge are important sources of information for a timeperiod when written sources and public documents are lessthan adequate, and viewed together such data contribute toa broader understanding of both cultural heritage sites andthe relationship between sites and historic land- and resourceuse

Monitoring and Managing Human Stressors to Coastal Cultural Heritage in Svalbard

Svalbard’s cultural heritage sites are important remnants of an international history in the High North. Cultural heritage in the Arctic is being impacted by climate and environmental change as well as increased human activity. Tourism is a potential cause of transformation in cultural heritage sites, such as increased wear and tear, creation of paths and traces as people walk through cultural environments. Cultural heritage management is therefore an increasingly challenging endeavor as management authorities must take under consideration multiple impacts and threats to cultural heritage sites in a changing environment. Based on research conducted in Svalbard from 2014 to 2016 on methods for long-term systematic cultural heritage monitoring, this paper will discuss dilemmas for a sustainable use and management of vulnerable cultural heritage sites in the Arctic

Monitoring cultural heritage environments in Svalbard – Smeerenburg, a whaling station on Amsterdam Island

Cultural environments are not static and unchanging, they are subject to a number of site transfor-mation processes. Environmental hazards and human activity are among the primary degradation parameters for cultural heritage in Svalbard. The objective of this contribution is to demonstrate the potential advantages of utilising remote sensing for mapping and monitoring cultural heritage in a high arctic environment such as Svalbard. Our data illustrate how various factors associated to an underlying site transformation impact a cultural environment in Svalbard. Furthermore, our findings are a basis for some clues regarding the use of vegetation as a potentially suitable indicator for cultural heritage monitoring. We utilised digital aerial photographs (NIR-R-G) and scanner data including the Vexcel Ultracam sensor (RGB-NIR), WorldView-2satellite imagery, RGB data from an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Ground-based surveys included vegetation cover and species composition analysis. There were differences concerning the various sensor abilities to detect the full range of structures and objects within the cultural environment in Smeerenburg. This performance was highly dependent on image resolution, the character of the structures and objects, as well as the vegetation. Our data provide strong indications that Smeerenburg as a cultural environment has been im-pacted by both environmental and anthropogenic processes linked to the site formation since 1990. Using vegetation indices NDVI and a greenness index, this study showed a decrease and damage on vegetation during the period 1990-2014. Indirectly a pressure on the cultural heritage could be detected, especially around and on the structures. The impact on the cultural environment in Smeerenburg was primarily attributed to coastal erosion, wind, sand drift, trampling and other damage by tourists. The impact from natural hazards such as erosion and sand drift is readily ap-parent throughout Smeerenburg, but human activity has contributed to the cumulative impact on structures and objects. The wear and tear by tourists to the vulnerable Arctic vegetation and cul-tural heritage features are exacerbating an ongoing degradation of Smeerenburg as a cultural envi-ronment. We focused on vegetation as a potential useful indicator for cultural heritage monitoring in Sval-bard, and we found that data describing the state of the vegetation and the factors that impact the vegetation can provide valuable information for threat and vulnerability assessments and for as-sessing the state of the cultural environment as a whole

Archaeological Surveying of Subarctic and Arctic Landscapes: Comparing the Performance of Airborne Laser Scanning and Remote Sensing Image Data

What can remote sensing contribute to archaeological surveying in subarctic and arctic landscapes? The pros and cons of remote sensing data vary as do areas of utilization and methodological approaches. We assessed the applicability of remote sensing for archaeological surveying of northern landscapes using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) and satellite and aerial images to map archaeological features as a basis for a) assessing the pros and cons of the different approaches and b) assessing the potential detection rate of remote sensing. Interpretation of images and a LiDAR-based bare-earth digital terrain model (DTM) was based on visual analyses aided by processing and visualizing techniques. 368 features were identified in the aerial images, 437 in the satellite images and 1186 in the DTM. LiDAR yielded the better result, especially for hunting pits. Image data proved suitable for dwellings and settlement sites. Feature characteristics proved a key factor for detectability, both in LiDAR and image data. This study has shown that LiDAR and remote sensing image data are highly applicable for archaeological surveying in northern landscapes. It showed that a multi-sensor approach contributes to high detection rates. Our results have improved the inventory of archaeological sites in a non-destructive and minimally invasive manner

Archaeological Surveying of Subarctic and Arctic Landscapes: Comparing the Performance of Airborne Laser Scanning and Remote Sensing Image Data

What can remote sensing contribute to archaeological surveying in subarctic and arctic landscapes? The pros and cons of remote sensing data vary as do areas of utilization and methodological ap-proaches. We assessed the applicability of remote sensing for archaeological surveying of northern landscapes using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) and satellite and aerial images to map archae-ological features as a basis for a) assessing the pros and cons of the different approaches and b) assessing the potential detection rate of remote sensing. Interpretation of images and a LiDAR-based bare-earth digital terrain model (DTM) was based on visual analyses aided by processing and visualizing techniques. 368 features were identified in the aerial images, 437 in the satellite images and 1186 in the DTM. LiDAR yielded the better result, especially for hunting pits. Image data proved suitable for dwellings and settlement sites. Feature characteristics proved a key factor for detectability, both in LiDAR and image data. This study has shown that LiDAR and remote sensing image data are highly applicable for archaeological surveying in northern landscapes. It showed that a multi-sensor approach contributes to high detection rates. Our results have improved the inventory of archaeological sites in a non-destructive and minimally invasive manner