"Every sod of land provides new knowledge about Norrbotten"

It is said that Norrbotten is a forgotten part of Sweden's oldest history. That is why the archaeologists at Norrbotten Museum are invaluable. Their work teaches us more about our great county every day. "I liken it to building a puzzle, each piece – or ancient relic – is important for understanding our prehistory," says archaeologist Frida Palmbo.

We meet at the Norrbotten Museum, at Björkskatan in Luleå. The field season is long over and this time of year it is indoor work that matters for the region's six archaeologists.

– Archaeology is like two different worlds. You can work extremely physically in the summer, but sit pretty still in the winter. That's when you take care of everything you've dug up, says Sebastian Lundkvist, who has worked as an archaeologist in the region for two years.

Exploitation archaeology

Across from him sits his colleague Frida Palmbo. She has worked here since 2006.

“From May to October we have our field season. Then we are mostly out in the field and work predominantly with something called exploitation archaeology,” she says.

What is it?

– When someone is going to build a road or railway, establish a mine or a wind farm, the County Administrative Board first makes a decision about an archaeological intervention before exploitation. This means that we walk through the exploitation area on foot and look for ancient and cultural remains.

Frida Palmbo.

Frida tells about a recent example from last summer. At that time, they were assigned to go through the current rail corridors for the Norrbothnia Line in Luleå Municipality. 126 new remains were found and 28 previously known remains were documented. These include ancient remains such as prehistoric settlements, cooking pits and huts.

Findings are registered

But does that mean there will be no Norrbothniabana? Not exactly.

– It is not yet entirely clear where the railway will go, but in these cases where the cultural environment is pitted against the public benefit, the cultural environment never wins, as far as I know, she says.

Does that mean that all the ancient relics you find are lost?

– They are saved in the form of documentation, but not in the place where they were found. For example, if we excavate a settlement, we remove it completely. An archaeological investigation involves removal. Then we collect all the finds and make a find registration. We write reports, take photos and make drawings, says Frida.

Sebastian explains how so-called find registration works.

“All the finds we collect from excavations should be packaged properly so that they are searchable in our system. That's what we're working on this time of year,” he says.

– Then we also have a lot of material from the 60s, 70s and 80s that needs to be updated and repackaged according to today's standards. Everything has to be search-friendly and researcher-friendly.

Both are really passionate about their jobs, it shows.

– Our ancient remains are our only source of knowledge about our oldest prehistory. This is the best job in the world, says Frida.

Sebastian Lundkvist shows a North Bothnian greenstone tool.

It's not just exploitation archaeology that they work with. It's also about so-called rescue investigations. A current example, which they are both involved in, concerns one of Norrbotten's most famous Stone Age graves: the Rödockra grave at Ligga power station in Jokkmokk municipality, which is 7000 years old.

– Due to the expansion of the hydroelectric power plant, erosion has increased in the area and red ochre has begun to erode from the grave into the river. The grave cannot be saved, so the County Administrative Board has decided that the most sustainable thing for the ancient site is to excavate it and utilize the scientific information that exists before it is too late, says Frida.

"Every sod brings new knowledge"

Even though it is not possible to save ancient remains like this, all documentation is of utmost importance.

– Every step we take provides new knowledge so that we can constantly revise our history, says Frida and is supported by Sebastian:

– This work is very important, because it tells the story of a place. It can be the ecological history, the climate history, how the people lived and so on.

Sebastian shows off a find.

Frida says, a little frustrated, that large parts of Norrbotten's prehistory are overlooked and forgotten.

– Approximately 50 percent of Norrbotten's area has not been inventoried for ancient monuments. If you look at southern Sweden, some counties have been inventoried once, twice, and three times.

Which parts of Norrbotten have not been inventoried?

– Large parts of the inland and mountain regions have not been inventoried. It is primarily the coastal area that has been inventoried.

Half of Norrbotten uninvented

When the systematic inventory of ancient remains began in Norrbotten in the 1980s, prior to the publication of the National Land Survey's economic map, map sheets were often randomly distributed. However, before the entire area of ​​the country was inventoried, the National Heritage Board stopped the work. With large parts of Norrbotten's area still uninvented.

– Every ancient relic in itself is important for understanding our prehistory here. I usually liken it to a puzzle, where every piece is important, says Frida.

"No runes"

She also points out that the ancient remains in southern Sweden are perhaps a little more visual than those found here in the north.

– We don't have runes up here, and many of our settlement remains are not visible above ground but are hidden directly under the peat. Simply not as visible.

There are many exciting things in the boxes.

Why then do people choose to become archaeologists? For both Frida and Sebastian, it was their interest in history that made the decision.

– I have always been interested in history and culture. I like working with the body, it's fun to dig and document. So for me it was obvious to go in this direction, says Sebastian.

Frida agrees:

“I have a hard time seeing myself working with anything else,” she says.

Asbestos ceramics

They see a lot of exciting things in their jobs, both in the field and in the documentation work. For Sebastian, the repackaging of asbestos ceramics is one of the coolest things he has ever experienced in his work.

– It was very exciting. Many of these asbestos fragments haven't been securely packaged since the 60s and have been lying around in their boxes, so getting to repackage them now and see everything for the first time in a long time has been a blast.

Asbestos is dangerous. Hasn't it been scary to handle?

– No, we have safety protocols so it's as safe as it can be. But to see them again, look at the decorations and the different thicknesses of the shards that are about a thousand years old… Yes, then you start to wonder why they look the way they do, how they were used… It's incredibly exciting.

Frida Palmbo loves working as an archaeologist.

For Frida, the discovery of Norrbotten's oldest settlement, Aareavaara, was the coolest thing she had ever experienced at work.

– It was in connection with the establishment of the mine in Pajala in 2009 that we found temporary small settlements located on small hills, the traces we found were remains from stone tool making and burnt bones from food scraps. What is cool is that the people who lived here could see the ice sheet from their settlements.

How old remains are we talking about?

– We were given permission to collect burnt bones to do a carbon-14 dating, but it showed a fairly high margin of error of 11 years, plus or minus 400 years. At that time, we were quite strongly questioned by Quaternary geologists at Lund University, who said that it was impossible for people to have been there at that time, since the area was covered by the ice sheet.

Found the oldest settlement in Norrbotten

But the last word had not been said. Frida Palmbo and her colleagues began a collaboration with their critics from Lund.

– In 2010, we did a small research study of these settlements and the Quaternary geologists came up and took sediment samples from nearby lakes. They also made a landscape construction that showed that the ice sheet retreated about 10 years ago.

So you were vindicated?

– Yes, even though we had to push back the dating slightly, to 10 years. But being involved in finding those settlements is the coolest thing I've ever been involved in. It's groundbreaking and we're rewriting history.

In other words, it's a pretty important job you're doing.

– Yes, and you can see that archaeology touches many people. They say that you can feel a bit rootless if you don't have a connection to your history.

Text and photo: Moa Höjer