Once upon a time, all humans in Europe were nomadic
hunter-gatherers. Today, we know little
about those prehistoric wild folks. Over
the centuries, farming, animal husbandry, ceramics, textiles, and other technologies
from the Middle East slithered westward into Europe. Eventually, almost all of the wild folks were
either absorbed into the turbulent new culture or eliminated by it.
In Europe, the far north was one of the last regions to be
colonized. Around 15,000 years ago, it was
buried under a sheet of ice that was a kilometer thick. Then, the climate warmed up, and by 8,000
years ago, the northern interior of Sweden was no longer hidden under an
ancient glacier.
Humans began moving into some parts of Scandinavia about
10,000 years ago, along with the reindeer, moose, wolves, bears, seals, and
other pioneers. The descendants of these
early humans are known as Saami or Lapps (“Lapps” is insulting to some). For thousands of years, they were largely
disconnected from European civilization.
Some forest dwelling Saami remained hunter-gatherers until the end of
the nineteenth century.
There are now maybe 70,000 Saami. They call their ancient homeland Sápmi. Four modern nations claim sections of it: Norway,
Sweden, Finland, and Russia. In the
past, Saami groups spoke nine different languages. These belong to the Uralic family of
languages, which emerged west of the Ural Mountains of Russia. Uralic languages include Hungarian, Finnish,
Estonian, and Samoyed. The Saami in
western Sápmi look Scandinavian; in eastern Sápmi they look more like Inuit. Their language includes 400 words for describing
reindeer.
In the 1980s, archaeologist Noel Broadbent was engaged in
routine research on Iron Age seal hunting in Sweden and Finland, along the northern
coastlines of the Gulf of Bothnia. One
day, in the Västerbotten region of eastern Sweden, he discovered evidence of a ritual
bear burial, which made no sense whatsoever, because it spit in the face of
sacred myths — and myths often trump reality.
Bear
burials could only be Saami business.
The myths said that Swedes were the original settlers of Sweden, and the
scruffy Saami were exotic aliens that wandered in from elsewhere a few hundred
years ago. The myths said that Saami
were reindeer herders who lived in the interior, and Swedes were the ones who
settled the coast and began seal hunting settlements. On, the coast, Broadbent had stumbled across an inconvenient
truth, and a significant one. The bear
burial forced a sharp turn in his research.
He rolled up his sleeves and became a myth buster.
Broadbent reported his Saami findings in Lapps and
Labyrinths. It does an excellent job
of documenting his archaeological research in Västerbotten — lots of charts,
graphs, tables, illustrations, maps, and detailed technical information. It’s not written for general readers, it’s
not a pleasure to read, but it is readable, and it delivers many fascinating
insights on these wild folks of prehistoric Europe.
The Saami were fortunate to inhabit a region that was far
from ideal for farming, or herding cattle, sheep, and goats. Six month winters are not easy for tropical
primates. Unfortunately, Germanic
peoples, who farmed and herded, were being driven by population pressure to
expand northward — folks who are now called Swedes and Norwegians.
What followed was similar to the later conflicts that arose
between European settlers and Native Americans — their language, music, and spirituality
was banned. Kids were sent away to
boarding schools. Much of their land was
privatized by settlers. This put the
squeeze on traditional hunting, so many shifted to reindeer herding. The Saami were forced to perform hard labor
in silver mines and construction projects.
The formerly wild and free became taxpayers, required to give the king furs,
skins, feathers, fish, and so on — this put additional stress on wildlife.
The Saami were nomadic.
In the warm months, reindeer grazed in the mountains; in winter, they
moved to the forest and dined on lichen.
At the coast, the Saami hunted seals on the late winter ice. In the autumn, when the skins, blubber, and
meat were at peak quality, they returned to catch seals in nets. Three months were devoted to seal
hunting. Along the shore, Broadbent’s
research uncovered thousands of bones from seals, reindeer, hares, ducks,
moose, and bears. Ninety-eight percent
of the bones were from seals.
On the coast, they caught salmon, whitefish, cod, herring, and
shellfish. In rivers and lakes they
caught salmon, perch, whitefish, pike, burbot, trout, and char. When the catch diminished, they simply moved
to another lake. When game got scarce,
they packed up their lavvo (teepee) and moved on. In summer, they feasted on raspberries,
bilberries, blueberries, crowberries and bearberries.
The Swedes were sedentary, betting their lives that luck and
cleverness would allow them to survive in one permanent location in the
wilderness. It was a harsh life. Farming was small scale, and very risky, in a
land where late spring frosts, and early autumn frosts could nuke their crops
overnight — and often did. Too much rain
could rot their crop.
The wild Saami didn’t soil their britches when a wolf killed
a reindeer, because they didn’t own the reindeer, and wolves needed to eat. What could possibly be more normal, natural,
and healthy? Duh! Saami wisdom understood that everything was
spiritually alive: humans, animals, trees, winds, streams, blizzards, northern
lights, and so on. Their entire reality
was magnificently sacred. They were
always careful to remain quiet and respectful, because shouting and loud
disturbances profaned the holiness of their home.
Saami people had great respect for bears, highly intelligent magical
beings who slept all winter without eating, and then returned to life when warm
breezes blew. Every spring a bear was killed
and eaten in a holy ceremony, and then its bones were lovingly buried. It was a celebration of rebirth, renewal, and
profound admiration for the bear people.
Swedish settlers depended primarily on their cattle, goats,
and sheep. These provided milk, meat,
hides, wool, and fertilizer. For six
months animals could graze outdoors, and for six months it snowed and snowed. In places, it could get up to 3 meters (10
ft.) deep. Animals were jammed together
in shelters, eating stored hay. In warm
months, pastures sometimes got baked by droughts, eliminating the forage. Sometimes rain preceded haymaking, damp hay
rotted in the barns, and animals sickened and died. In remote settlements, dry hay could not be
hauled in from elsewhere. Sometimes
epidemics of animal diseases wiped out the herds in a region.
Sometimes predators dropped by to have lunch with the herd,
which always resulted in settlers violently soiling their britches, jumping up
and down, and shouting impolite comments.
Settlers were law abiding royal subjects, and they were obligated to
regularly make generous contributions to the friendly bailiffs who collected
taxes for the king. The animals were
private property, living wealth, and status symbols. The more you owned, the better.
The primitive devil-worshipping Saami hung out with the
reindeer people, herbivores who were perfectly adapted to the chilly climate of
Sápmi, needed no barns, ate lichen all winter, and took care of themselves. The Saami did not suffer from tax collectors
and tithe collectors. They were free. They inhabited their Sápmi homeland for
thousands of years without causing permanent injuries to the ecosystem.
Beginning in A.D. 829, a mob of radicalized black robed terrorists
began to stomp in from down under, and build churches on holy sites. The Saami were perfectly happy with their own
spiritual beliefs, so converting the small population took 300 years. They learned to act like faithful believers,
whilst privately preserving their ancient culture.
A bit later, the Saami were shocked to discover that they had
mistakenly converted to a fake religion, according to the new Lutheran black
robes, who hated both Catholics and the Saami.
In the 1600s, the Lutherans and the state began a brutal crusade of
compulsory conversion. Resisters were
beaten, some were killed, especially shamans.
Sacred drums were confiscated, smashed, and burned.
Swedes were encouraged to move into the “vacant” wilderness
and settle. Population grew. Women lost status. Saami were driven away from the coast and
other prime locations. By and by, Sápmi country was savagely molested
by money hungry road builders, miners, loggers, trappers, sealers, and fishers.
Oh, before I go, here’s an interesting fact. By 8,000 years ago, the glaciers had melted
away, raising the sea level. At the same
time, because there was no longer immense weight on the land, the land rose in
elevation (called isostatic uplift).
“Stone Age sites in northern Sweden are found on old beaches that have
been uplifted 120 m or more (393 feet).”
The Bronze Age coastline is now 20.5 km (12.7 miles) inland from today’s
coastline. Land uplift has greatly
altered the waterways, lakes, and fjords over time. Many old water networks and harbors dried up.
Finally, what are labyrinths?
Broadbent discovered some of these along the coast. They were spiraling stone constructions made
up of single lines of stones forming walkways toward a center point. More than 300 have been found in Sweden. Labyrinths were built by Christian settlers,
mostly in the sixteenth century. They
were symbols of protection, indicating that the land was no longer corrupted by
dangerous heathen devil worshippers.
Labyrinths are found in many regions of Europe. Ironically, they were originally invented by
pagans.
Broadbent, Noel, Lapps
and Labyrinths: Saami Prehistory, Colonization, and Cultural Resilience,
Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C., 2010.
A print version of Lapps
and Labyrinths can be purchased from Amazon. A free PDF version of the entire book can be
downloaded free [HERE].
The Sami is an easy to
read, colorfully illustrated, 86-page PDF produced by the Sami Parliament in
Sweden. It contains info on the modern
Sami, their history, traditional spirituality, and struggles as an oppressed
minority.
Other peepholes into Sápmi:
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