The main issue concerns relationships between social and economic changes and different forms of landscape acquisition in sub-arctic environments. Internal and external factors in the transition from a hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism in the period 1 to 1600 A.D. are related to the evolution of alpine cultural landscapes. Settlements with stalo dwellings, i.e. ancient remains of hut foundations, are believed to represent an initial and organized utilization of tree-line ecotones. A systematic exploitation of marginal forest stands resulted in successive ecosystem degradations. The project aims at elucidating the specific ecological conditions that existed in areas subjected to stalo settlement sites and the processes involved in causing reduced forest cover and ecosystem productivity.
The course and cause of changing landscape acquisition in 700-1600 A.D. are in focus, with the emphasis on economic factors catalysing settlement expansion into alpine areas and leading to the intensive reindeer herding of the 17th century. A primary concern is the question of problems occurring when settlements are initially established in previously unexploited environments, due to insufficient knowledge of the long-term productivity potential and stress tolerance of marginal ecosystems. The research project is carried out by archaeologists at the Silver Museum in Arjeplog and ecologists at the Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå.