Svalbard er en øygruppe beliggende omtrent midt mellom Norges fastland og Nordpolen, og denne fjerne beliggenheten er nok forklaringen på at de rike ressursene i hav og på land så sent ble utnyttet. Willem Barentsz oppdaget Svalbard 17. juni 1596, og vi har ingen eldre sikre spor etter mennesker på øygruppen (Bjerck 1999). Langs kysten, særlig på den største øya, Spitsbergen, ser man i det nakne, ...

In this special section of journal “Arctic and North” renowned and younger scholars from Finland and Norway take on the topic of research on the Sámi, from the era of “Lappology” to the era of “Sámi research”. The focus in the articles varies between research history, historiography and history of science. Thematically, the articles range from longer overviews of the historical ...

The onset of bird migration may be under partial endogenous control whereas the timing of movement is flexible with weather and conditions faced by the moving birds being the ultimate cause of variability of arrival dates. This study shows that the early arrival dates of two of three long-distance passerine spring migrants (Willow Warblers Phylloscopus trochilus and Chiffchaffs P. collybita) in North ...

The article charts a previously lesser-known aspect of research on the Skolt Sami by Väinö Tanner — his ideas on the Skolt Sami as a race. Tanner’s place in the scholarly field of racial theorizing and the discursive resources on which he relied are examined. One inspiring contemporaneous discourse was the Finnish hygienic discourse and the improvement of the nation’s health, towards which Tanner ...

Archaeological research on the extraction, distribution and utilization of soapstone artifacts in northern Norway has been limited, but systematic geological documentation of soapstone exposures that includes quarry activity provides an opportunity to expand archaeological insights into soapstone provenance and extraction. This article brings together ...

The extinct ‘New World stilt-legged’, or NWSL, equids constitute a perplexing group of Pleistocene horses endemic to North America. Their slender distal limb bones resemble those of Asiatic asses, such as the Persian onager. Previous palaeogenetic studies, however, have suggested a closer relationship to caballine horses than to Asiatic asses. Here, we report complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear ...

During its population recovery in the North Atlantic in the early 1900s, the northern gannet (Morus bassanus) established its first colony in Norway at Runde in 1946. Since the 1960s, gannets have established (and later abandoned) several small colonies in the north of the country. These colonies have been regularly monitored, and in 2015–16 ca. 3300 apparently occupied nests (AON) were counted ...

THE SÁMI NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN 1917 AND THE SÁMI MOVEMENT IN THE NORTH <br> The Sámi national assembly held in Trondhjem in 1917 is considered to be the very first organized political opposition from the Norwegian Sámi. However, among the 150 persons attending, only three Sámi were from Northern Norway – an area where 90% of the Sámi population lived. The participants were Sámi from the southern parts ...

The impact of invasion on diversity varies widely and remains elusive. Despite the con- siderable attempts to understand mechanisms of biological invasion, it is largely un- known whether some communities’ characteristics promote biological invasion, or whether some inherent characteristics of invaders enable them to ...

The indigenous religion of the Sámi population came under strong pressure through the Pietist mission effort, which occurred during the first decades of the 18th century in Denmark-Norway. This study focuses on the complex religious situation in the areas of the Northern Norwegian counties of Nordland and Troms. The study uses a spatial approach to map the positions of the different institutions ...