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dc.contributor.advisorDamm, Charlotte
dc.contributor.authorJørgensen, Erlend Kirkeng
dc.date.accessioned2020-09-23T09:16:57Z
dc.date.available2020-09-23T09:16:57Z
dc.date.issued2020-11-06
dc.description.abstractThis thesis has two overarching goals. One is to reconstruct human population dynamics in Stone Age Arctic Norway (12.000-2000 cal BP). The other is to explain the demographic changes as population ecological phenomena. Thus conceived, the project is fundamentally engaged in contributing to the Human Ecodynamic research agenda of investigating the co-evolution of human and natural systems. This agenda is operationalized as a set of objectives: • Reconstruct relative population size changes through time. • Compare with relevant palaeoenvironmental records. • Provide detailed case studies of human adaptive responses to ecological change. • Establish middle-range causal mechanisms connecting macro-scale climate forcing with micro-scale human risk reduction strategies, by way of aggregated demographic, technological and ecological effects. • Track the evolution of maritime adaptation in the region. The justification for the project is provided by the general lack of integrated socioecological research of Arctic Norwegian prehistory. As such, this project attempts to plug a marked knowledge gap concerning the causal role of environmental drivers in long-term cultural change. Equally important however, is the ambition of contributing to the general understanding of human ecology and adaptability by way of generalizable, empirical results, and case studies of causal mechanisms driving integrated socioecological change. An important premise of this work is that such is achievable only through the study the ecological and environmental drivers of change in human cultural systems. The project has a marked interdisciplinary profile, relying on data and analytical tools provided by various palaeo-disciplines. It synthesizes large sets of proxy data concerning human demographic variation, environmental dynamics and technological mitigation capabilities – trying to get at the adaptive features of a high-latitude, maritime adapted foraging population. Past human demographic changes are modelled on the basis of the summed probability distribution method, applied to the North Norwegian Radiocarbon Record dataset newly compiled for this very purpose. The outputs consist of four peer-reviewed papers and an extensive introductory text presenting important background information and analytical considerations. Result highlights are: 1) The demonstration of repeated and significant population cycles throughout the 10.000 year study period. 2) That both long-term population trends and shorter-term demographic events are shown to be strongly regulated by environmental drivers. 3) Detailed case-studies demonstrate how adaptive and technological changes are interrelated with the environmental and demographic changes. The various papers explore and attempt to explain the particular processes that produce correlated demographic and environmental dynamics. Consequently, a major result of this project is the developed a middle-range causal framework for tracing the impact of large-scale environmental drivers on human adaptive responses, as mediated through resource availability, risk reduction strategies and shifts in subsistence technologies.en_US
dc.description.doctoraltypeph.d.en_US
dc.description.popularabstractWhat do we know about the population history and how people adapted to climatic changes since the last Ice Age in Arctic Norway? Until now: very little. The study of deep-time demography and humans within ecosystems is essential in getting at nearly every domain of human culture and evolution of our species. I therefore investigate the co-evolution of humans and environment in Stone Age Arctic Norway (12.000-2000 years ago). This is done by modelling human population histories, synthesizing environmental changes and reviewing the means of coping through technology. Result highlights are: 1) Repeated and significant population growth and collapses. 2) Environmental productivity is the main regulator of both long-term population trends and shorter-term events. 3) Technologies were adapted to cope with environmental changes, yet have limited potential for overcoming environmental limits. In sum: Long-term cultural changes are well-explained by the same ecological principles as in nature.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by the “Stone Age Demographics” project funded by The Research Council of Norway (grant number: 261760) and through a doctoral fellowship funded by UiT - The Arctic University of Norway.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/19458
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherUiT Norges arktiske universiteten_US
dc.publisherUiT The Arctic University of Norwayen_US
dc.relation.haspart<p>Paper 1: Jørgensen, E.K. (2020). The palaeodemographic and environmental dynamics of prehistoric Arctic Norway: An overview of human-climate covariation. <i>Quaternary International, 549</i>, 36-51. Also available at <a href=https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.05.014> https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.05.014</a>. <p>Paper 2: Jørgensen, E.K. & Riede, F. (2019). Convergent catastrophes and the termination of the Arctic Norwegian Stone Age: A multi-proxy assessment of the demographic and adaptive responses of mid-Holocene collectors to biophysical forcing. <i>Holocene, 29</i>(11), 1782-1800. Also available in Munin at <a href=https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18080>https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18080</a>. <p>Paper 3: Jørgensen, E.K., Pesonen, P. & Tallavaara, M. (2020). Climatic changes cause synchronous population dynamics and adaptive strategies among coastal hunter-gatherers in Holocene northern Europe. <i>Quaternary Research</i>. Published version not available in Munin due to publisher’s restrictions. Published version available at <a href=https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.86>https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.86</a>. Accepted manuscript version available in Munin at <a href=https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18241>https://hdl.handle.net/10037/18241</a>. <p>Paper 4: Jørgensen, E.K. (2020). Scalar effects in ground slate technology and the adaptive consequences for circumpolar maritime hunter-gatherers. <i>Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory</i>. Also available in Munin at <a href=https://hdl.handle.net/10037/19457>https://hdl.handle.net/10037/19457</a>.en_US
dc.relation.projectIDinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/RCN/FRIHUMSAM/261760/Norway/Stone Age Demographics: multi-scale exploration of population variations and dynamics//en_US
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2020 The Author(s)
dc.subject.courseIDDOKTOR-001
dc.subjectVDP::Humaniora: 000::Arkeologi: 090::Nordisk arkeologi: 091en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Humanities: 000::Archeology: 090::Nordic archeology: 091en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Økologi: 488en_US
dc.subjectVDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Ecology: 488en_US
dc.titleMaritime Human Ecodynamics of Stone Age Arctic Norway: Developing middle-range causal linkages between climate forcing, demography, and technological responsesen_US
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen_US
dc.typeDoktorgradsavhandlingen_US


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