Contrasting strategies: Social organization and interaction in the Early Bronze Age of northwestern Scandinavia

Abstract

The transition to the Nordic Bronze Age included new technological innovations, social institutions and sociopolitical structures pushed by extensive long-distance exchange of metals and other exotica. However, traditional views often oversimplify this as a simple two-way trade system, failing to adequately explain the complex interactions in and between the regions like Scandinavia in which the societies organised themselves based on varied strategies tied to local resource potentials. Recent research, involving methods such as isotopic analysis and genomic sequencing, has provided solid evidence of movement and interaction. Despite this progress, the evidence at hand often lacks well-founded interpretations grounded in thorough theoretical frameworks. This study addresses interpretive challenges by employing an innovative framework grounded in collective action theory, integrating other aspects of social complexity and supported by regional datasets to achieve a more nuanced understanding of social dynamics. This approach informs us about the complex and contrasting organizational strategies and trade networks across northwestern Scandinavia (i.e. modern-day Norway up to the borders of Troms), illustrating further how local societies contributed to broader European networks. The study aims to offer a nuanced understanding of the region’s social dynamics, highlighting the interplay between coercive and cooperative strategies within the overarching Nordic Bronze Age system.