Round or square? Ethnic processes and Saami dwelling practices in Hallingdal, southern Norway

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Hallingdal, southern Norway, a number of round dwelling structures have been documented. A contemporary parallel to these constructions is the stállo foundations in the mountains along the Norwegian-Swedish border, which are recognized as a Saami type of dwelling from the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages AD (800-1300). Based on analyses of the round structures in Hallingdal and stállo foundations further north, the paper suggests that the dwellings in Hallingdal may represent similar ethnic processes that initiated a homogenization and standardization of Saami material culture and consolidation of Saami identity all over Sápmi in the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages, and that Saami identity was manifested and materialized through practices of dwelling in the mountains of Hallingdal.