Papers by Bjørnar J . Olsen
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2022
Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and p... more Heritage is commonly understood as denoting sites, objects and traditions that are selected and protected for their uniqueness, monumentality, beauty and/or historical and cultural significance. Heritage, thus, is almost by definition something unquestionably valuable and good, and of outmost importance for our wellbeing and identity. This paper takes a different position and asks what happens if we question heritage’s status as a selected reserve of desired things and traditions. Based on fieldwork conducted in contemporary settlements in the Russian North, it explores how the role and sig- nificance we ascribe heritage may come out radically altered upon facing the unruly legacies of the Soviet past.
Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Second Edition, 2024, 2024
The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. I... more The entry deals with phenomenology and its introduction into archaeology from the 1990s onward. It argues that the phenomenology that initially was enthusiastically embraced represented a very modified version heavily affected by post- processualist thinking. A main reason for this was that the idealist basis of this thinking, and the wider sociopolitical concern with individualism and human agency, made it difficult to fully take on the radical consequences of a philosophical project precisely challenging the modern idealist legacy. The entry further explores some crucial aspects of phenomenological thinking that remained marginal in its archaeological version and how these may enrich archaeological reasoning about things and things’ being. Finally, it provides some reflections on why the attempt to build a genuine phenomenological archaeology failed but also, and paradoxically, why phenomenological thinking regardless of this is more present than ever in archaeological reasoning
Acta Archaeologica, 2023
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have lo... more Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their histori- cal presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical and comparative linguistics data, a notable feature of the studies examined is that they also lean heavily on assumptions about the archaeological record in their reasonings. These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway. The article raises critical questions regarding the notions of cultural areas, ancestral homelands, and migrations that abound in these linguistic studies and challenges the a priori primacy assigned to language as the constituent of cultural identity. In conclusion, we outline a Sámi archaeological past that does not concur well with recent linguistic accounts and which, in the end, begs the question of whether this discrepancy can be reconciled and, if so, how this can happen.
Theory at Sea. Some Reflections from the Gunwale, 2023
Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2022
For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in pre- senting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or a ected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide a ective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.
The case study is a familiar yet generally taken-for-granted element of archaeological theory. Ty... more The case study is a familiar yet generally taken-for-granted element of archaeological theory. Typically, it is viewed as a kind of "proof of concept," an essential way to demonstrate the value of a particular theoretical approach, if not theory in general. In this article, we examine the case study as it has been used in archaeology, exploring its different manifestations and situating them within a wider discussion of the role of cases and examples within the humanities and social sciences. Offering our own "example"-a rereading of Bonnichsen's Millie's Camp experiment from the 1970s-we argue for a different role of the case study in relation to archaeological theory.
In Olsen, B.; M. Burström, C. DeSilvey, and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds) 2021. After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. London and New York: Routledge, 2021
Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene fo... more Academic writing has recently become subject to new criticism and attention. Setting the scene for much of this is the rising current of scholarship performing under legends such as post-humanism, environmental humanism, new materialism, and object-oriented ontology. One specific concern has been the question of how matters of Anthropocene and climate change are approached and articulated within these new discourses. To some critics, the language applied has increasingly been dominated by airy deliberations filled with poetic and ambiguous expressions that prevent a clear analytical grasp of the situation and, in the end, therefore serve reactionary and anti-humanist interests. Anthropologist Alf Hornborg, for example, comments that the 'styles of thinking and writing recently encouraged in the environmental humanities are not conducive to analytical clarity, theoretical rigor, or effective critique of the practices and discourses that generate global inequalities and unsustainability,' and what is even worse, 'that the haziness, inconsistency, and inaccessibility of so-called post-human deliberations on the Anthropocene ultimately serve to promote the destructive economic forces that are responsible for such change' (Hornborg 2017, p. 61, emphasis added). There seem to be at least two assumptions in this criticism that call for attention. Firstly, that there are certain ways of writing that are considered (in themselves) analytical, rigorous, and effective. And secondly, that there is currently a trend in some academic fields to exchange this presumably analytical, rigorous, and effective language for alternative and less transparent genres. In this chapter we will address both these assumptions. The chapter is, however, not aimed at the Anthropocene particularly. It is rather concerned with the modes of thinking and writing that are stimulated in its wake and which more generally may be seen as concerning the articulation of matter and material compounds.
Forum Kritische Archäologie 10, 2021
This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.
International Journal of Heritage Studies (IJHS) , 2020
Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth res... more Though the presence of the past rightly may be argued to be conditional everywhere, its truth rests heavier on some places. Teriberka is such a place, a small coastal settlement on the Kola peninsula. Once a prosperous Soviet fishing harbour it now epitomizes the depression and despair on the post-Soviet Russian periphery. Though post-Soviet seems quite misplaced here, because Soviet is still conspicuously present in Teriberka. Omnipresent, in fact, through its tenacious albeit ruining material legacy. Thus, for those who live here Soviet is not an optional past, a voluntary ‘something’ you may or may not be attentive to; it is Teriberka - the very world you are being in. How does this condition inflict upon understandings of heritage and significance? Is significance necessarily a voluntary attribute of humanly assigned value or may it be differently conceived, as something enacted and experienced rather than ascribed? Exploring these issues in relation to Teriberka’s ruining socialist past, the paper more generally is a commentary on the experience of living with a past considered far too insignificant to be assigned value as heritage but which still is so immensely significant that it impacts on nearly every aspect of life.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports volume 19, 2018
The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific ... more The question of how reindeer pastoralism came about has been the subject of recurrent scientific inquiry from many different disciplines. In order to investigate the genetic traces within a Fennoscandian transition from a predominantly hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism, we obtained sequences from the mitochondrial control region from 193 reindeer samples from several archaeological sites dated between 1000 and 1700 CE in Finnmark County, northern Norway. A comparison with similar data from more recent archaeological sites, including extant domestic reindeer, demonstrates that the mitochondrial genome in Finnmark reindeer has gone through massive genetic replacement since medieval times characterized by a significant loss of native mtDNA haplotypes, together with a significant introduction of new haplotypes. Out of a total number of 62 haplotypes identified in both the modern and archaeological samples, only 14 were detected among samples known to represent domestic reindeer, while nine of these haplotypes were completely absent from the more ancient sites. Our documentation of a major genetic shift during the 16th and 17th centuries suggests that non-native animals were introduced during this period, at the same time as the transition to reindeer pastoralism took place.
Journal of Social Archaeology 18 (1), 2018
At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have s... more At a possible transition towards a 'flat', post-human or new-materialist environment, many have suggested that archaeological theory and theorizing is changing course; turning to metaphysics; leaning towards the sciences; or, even is declared dead. Resonating with these concerns, and drawing on our fieldwork on a northern driftwood beach, this article suggests the need to rethink fundamental notions of what theory is-its morphological being-and how it behaves and takes form. Like drift matter on an Arctic shore, theories are adrift. They are not natives of any particular territory, but nomads in a mixed world. While they are themselves of certain weight and figure, it matters what things they bump into, become entangled with, and moved by. Based on this, we argue that theories come unfinished and fragile. Much like things stranding on a beach they don't simply 'add up' but can become detached, fragmented, turned and transfigured. Rather than seeing this drift as rendering them redundant and out of place, it is this nomadism and 'weakness' that sustains them and keeps them alive.
Nordisk Museologi 2018-1, 2018
During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museum... more During the last decades debates and concerns over deaccessioning and disposal have a ected museums worldwide. At the root of the debate lies the ever more pressing problem with overstocked collection; the consequence of decades and even centuries of allegedly far too liberal and eclectic collecting and acquisition practices. is paper presents some alternative views and argues in favor of such liberal collecting. Taking as its starting point a list of desired museum objects compiled by Swedish curator Ernst Manker, it emphasizes the immense value and unruly power of large and heterogeneous museum collections. By constantly being added to, these assemblages have developed into new and unforeseen becomings that may radically a ect and disrupt existing knowledge. e paper also addresses museums as caretakers, o ering spaces where things, including those once soiled and broken, can be treated with care and dignity.
Arkaeologisk Forum Nr. 35, 2016
According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today,... more According to UNESCO’s definition, heritage is “our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations”. While exemplary inclusive, this hardly reflects concern for the fact that our legacy is becoming increasingly mixed and messy: landfills, archipelagos of sea-borne debris, ruining metropolises, industrial wastelands, sunken nuclear submarines and toxic residues in seals and polar bears. Our legacy has become so conspicuously manifest that it has become diagnostic of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. While this
palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Fennoscandia Archaeologica XXXIII, 2016
In: Smith C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham., 2020
Znak 724, 2015
Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal... more Interview Zuzanne Dziuban had with me for the Polish magasin Snak
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology vol 1, no. 1, 2014
Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also... more Photographs of abandoned homes, decaying towns and industrial ruins swarm the Internet. They also fill the glossy pages of art books and popular magazine issues, and are increasingly appropriating more prominent spaces in scholarly publication on modern decay and abandonment. While its popularity speaks to its attractiveness, this proliferating ruin imagery has also become the target of harsh criticism from both concerned scholars and people affected by ruination. To them much of this is little but "ruin porn": a superficial and one-eyed portrayal of urban decay that turns social and material misery into something seductive and aesthetically pleasing. This article takes a different position. Speaking from an archaeological perspective, and especially the archaeology of the contemporary past, it argues that the new engagement with ruin photography rather calls for a reconsideration and appreciation of the role of photography; not merely as a means of documentation but also as an interactive and attentive way to approach things themselves. By scrutinizing what the critics have claimed to be the fallacies of the image (its selectivity, timelessness, superficiality and tendency to aestheticize), and by emphasizing ruin photography as an engagement with things, the article aims to show that it is precisely the alleged shortcomings that make photography a valuable method in a new approach to things and ruins.
Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2014
If you travel the E69 highway to North Cape, one of Norway's most famous tourist attractions, you... more If you travel the E69 highway to North Cape, one of Norway's most famous tourist attractions, you will a short hour before you reach your high north destination pass by the quiet and picturesque fishing village of Sarnes. And despite the affluence of stunning views your eyes will almost certainly be drawn towards a large concrete building resting in a conspicuous state of decay at the roadside. With the roof partly blown off, fading yellow paint, withering concrete, and curtains fluttering through gaping windows, the derelict building seems utterly misplaced in this remote northern landscape. The building originally housed a boarding school-internat school-and is still today only known as Sarnes Internat. When inaugurated in 1958 the official name given to it, however, was Solvang Internatskole. Solvang means something like "sunny meadow," a common national-romantic toponym in Norway, which alludes to other and faraway southern places. And thus also to the less explicitly expressed "mission" of the state boarding schools in this ethnically mixed northern region: To strengthen Norwegian national identity and to integrate or assimilate the Sámi and Kven minorities not sharing it. For twenty-three years Sarnes Internat served as school and home for children arriving from small farms and hamlets scattered throughout a vast coastal district. Without any road connection to the outside world, the children were transported by boat to the boarding school, where they shared dormitories, classrooms, refectories, bathrooms and playgrounds. Many of their superiors-the housemother, teachers and assistants-also
Fennoscandia Archaeologica
This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World W... more This article presents the results of fieldwork undertaken over the last four summers at a World War II prisoner of war camp at Sværholt in northernmost Norway. The labour camp for Soviet prisoners was established in 1942 as part of the construction of the German coastal battery at Sværholt, a fortification within the Atlantic Wall. In late fall 1944 the camp, the coastal fort, and the local Norwegian hamlet were abandoned and destroyed in step with the massive and abrupt German retreat from this northern region. This paper describes the remains of the camp and the coastal fort, as still manifest in the barren landscape, and presents in detail the findings of excavations and associated investigations conducted in the camp area. Analysing these findings, particular emphasis is placed on the question of what an archaeological approach can divulge concerning the camp, its construction and conditions, and the ‘trivial’ details of everyday life often passed over by historical accounts. Ultimately, we suggest that the things found challenge our common assumptions about the relationship between prisoners, guards, and locals, and further discuss to what extent the forced encounter at Sværholt also may have included some measures of sympathy within the yet hostile context of war and occupation.
Rangifer 35 (1), 2015
The transition from hunting to reindeer herding has been a central topic in a number of archaeolo... more 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 settlement pattern, reindeer economies, and the organization of domestic space.
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Papers by Bjørnar J . Olsen
palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
palpable legacy has triggered debate within the heritage field, it has yet not led to any profound rethinking of heritage itself. This paper introduces a new research project, Unruly Heritage: An Archaeology of the Anthropocene, which aims at undertaking such rethinking. The project was recently granted funding for the period 2017-2021 through the Norwegian Research Council’s FRIPRO Toppforsk programme. Based on extensive case studies of modern ruin landscapes and sea-borne coastal debris, the aim is to develop alternative, less anthropocentric and more ecologically adept heritage understandings.
Pamięć przypisywano niemal wyłącznie ludziom. A rzeczy także pamiętają! Ich trwanie pozwala nam dostrzec przeszłość, odmienną od tej, którą piszemy dla siebie-przeszłość pełną porażek, bezużyteczną, która jednak nie przeminęła, ale ciągle nam towarzyszy.
The new millennium brought about serious changes to the intellectual landscape. Favoured approaches associated with the linguistic and the textual turn lost some of their currency, and were followed by a new curiosity and concern for things and their natures. Gathering contributions from archaeology, heritage studies, history, geography, literature and philosophy, After Discourse offers a range of reflections on what things are, how we become affected by them, and the ethical concerns they give rise to. Through a varied constellation of case studies, it explores ways of dealing with matters which fall outside, become othered from, or simply cannot be grasped through perspectives derived solely from language and discourse.
After Discourse provides challenging new perspectives for scholars and students interested in other-than-textual encounters between people and the objects with which we share the world.
The archaeology of the recent or contemporary past has grown fast during the last decade. This development has been concurrent with a broader popular, artistic and scholarly interest in modern ruins in general. Ruin Memories explores how the ruins of modernity are conceived and assigned cultural value in contemporary academic and public discourses, reassesses the cultural and historical value of modern ruins and suggests possible means for reaffirming their cultural and historic significance. Crucial for this reassessment is a concern with decay and ruination, and with the role things play in expressing the neglected, unsuccessful and ineffable. Abandonment and ruination is usually understood negatively through the tropes of loss and deprivation; things are degraded and humiliated while the information, knowledge and memory embedded in them become lost along the way. Without even ignoring its many negative and traumatizing aspects, a main question addressed in this book is whether ruination also can be seen as an act of disclosure. If ruination disturbs the routinized and ready-to-hand, to what extent can it also be seen as a recovery of memory as exposing meanings and presences that perhaps are only possible to grasp at second hand when no longer immersed in their withdrawn and useful reality?
Paramount in this respect are the so-called multi-room houses, a complex and enigmatic settlement structure confined to these northern shores. Although for centuries attracting the curiosity of scholars and laymen, the recently completed research project presented in this book is the first attempt at a more thorough and inter-disciplinary approach to understanding these sites. Challenging the mono-cultural interpretations that hitherto have dominated their interpretations, our main conclusion is that the multi-room houses were used by rivaling groups and for different purposes. Despite being introduced as dwellings for distant peoples, they soon came to host both natives and newcomers. Their very design moreover was the result of a mixture of faraway traditions, borrowings, and local adaptations, thus making the multi-room houses truly hybrid spaces.
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgement 5
List of illustrations 9
Notes on contributors 19
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction – Bjørnar Olsen 25
Chapter 2: A Brief Outline of the Historical Setting – Bjørnar Olsen 29
Chapter 3: Scholars and Multi-Room Houses: A Historiography – Jørn E. Henriksen 33
Chapter 4: Coastal Finnmark and the Environment of
the Multi-Room Houses – Colin P. Amundsen 39
Part II: Fieldwork
Chapter 5: The Multi-Room House Sites: Surveys and Test Excavations –
Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen and Elin Rose Myrvoll 49
Chapter 6: Excavation of Iron Age Sites – Elin Rose Myrvoll 83
Chapter 7: The Skonsvika Site – Katarzyna Skrzynska-Jankowska and Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 93
Chapter 8: Boathouse Excavation at Skonsvika – Gørill Nilsen and Stephen Wickler 121
Chapter 9: The Kongshavn Site – Jørn E. Henriksen and Bjørnar Olsen 131
Chapter 10: Minor Excavations: The Løkvik and Nordmannset Sites –
Elin Rose Myrvoll, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk and Colin Amundsen 149
Chapter 11: Geophysical Surveys in Skonsvika, Løkvik and Nordmannset – Krzysztof Misiewicz 159
Chapter 12: Skonsvika and Experiments with Digitalised Recording System –
Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 169
Part III: Artifacts, Architecture and Chronology
Chapter 13: Artifacts: The Finds Retrieved – Jørn E. Henriksen, Camilla Nordby and Cora Oschman 181
Chapter 14: Multi-Room Houses: Site Organization and Architecture –
Bjørnar Olsen and Jørn E. Henriksen 207
Chapter 15: Comparative Approach to Architecture and
Formation Processes at Skonsvika – Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 221
Chapter 16: The Chronology of Multi-Room Houses - Jørn E. Henriksen 229
Part IV: Beyond Artifacts: Bones, Grains and Sediments
Chapter 17: The Zoo-Archaeology of Multi-Room Houses. – Colin Amundsen 241
Chapter 18: Vegetation History and Anthropogenic Impact on Vegetation at
Localities with Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway – Christin Jensen 265
Chapter 19: Activities and Accumulations: Micromorphology Analyses of
Archaeological Sediments from Multi-Room Houses in Finnmark, Norway –
Ian A. Simpson and W. Paul Adderley 285
Chapter 20: The Archaeo-Botany of Multi-Room House Sites – Roger Engelmark 307
Part V: The Medieval Context: Ethnicity, Settlement and Borders
Chapter 21: Finnmark, Bjarkøy and the Norwegian Kingdom –
Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 315
Chapter 22: Finnmark between the East and the West –
Reidun Laura Andreassen and Håvard Dahl Bratrein 329
Chapter 23: The Russian-Norwegian Border in Medieval and Early Modern Times. -
Lars Ivar Hansen 355
Part VI: Conclusion
Chapter 24: Interpreting Multi-Room Houses: Origin, Function and
Cultural Networks – Bjørnar Olsen, Jørn E. Henriksen And Przemyslaw Urbanzcyk 371
References 389
Today the well-equipped Pyramiden survives as a conspicuous Soviet-era ghost town in pristine Arctic nature. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2006, this book explores what things left behind can tell us about how people lived and coped in this marginal town. It is also concerned with Pyramiden's post-human biography and the way the site provokes more general reflections on things, heritage and memory.
Challenging the traditional scholarly hierarchy of text over images, this book stands out by using art photography as a means to address these issues and to mediate the contemporary archaeology of Pyramiden.
Forfatterne bygger på og problematiserer eldre og nyere forskning innenfor arkeologi, historie, religionsvitenskap, etnografi og lingvistikk, og presenterer den til nå mest omfattende oversikten over eldre samisk historie.
Forfatterne diskuterer inngående aktuelle spørsmål som tilkomst av samisk etnisitet, eksistensen av samiske rettigheter til områder og ressurser, tamreindriftens oppkomst og prosessen rundt kristningen av samene. Sentralt i framstillingen står samenes forhold til andre samfunn.
Boka er skrevet av to av Nordens fremste kjennere av samisk historie. Lars Ivar Hansen er professor i eldre historie ved Universitetet i Tromsø; Bjørnar Olsen professor i arkeologi ved samme universitet.