Ground Slates in the Scandinavian Younger Stone Age with Reference to Circumpolar Maritime Adaptations

• Published in: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
• Main Author: Fitzhugh, William
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1974
• Subjects: General Medicine; Arctic; Nordland; taiga
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0079497x00011300; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0079497X00011300

Circumpolar culture theory has been a persistent unifying theme in northern anthropology, playing a formative role in the development of general anthropological theory and stimulating numerous archaeological and ethnological studies of high latitude regions. One of the most important contributions to this field was Gutorm Gjessing's Circumpolar Stone Age (1944). Today this work is known as a timely synthesis in which ethnological and archaeological data were marshalled in support of an hypothesis of northern diffusion through the Arctic and Taiga zones from Scandinavia to northeastern North America. The principal elements in this proposed diffusion chain included toggling harpoons, large skin boats, oil lamps, ulu-type knives, ground slate tools, the curved-back adze or gouge, and cord-marked pottery. Later additions to this circumpolar adaptive complex included parallels in social structure, religion, and mythology (Gjessing 1953; Nordland 1968).