DOI Artikel:
Tvengsberg, Per Martin: Rye and swidden cultivation: tillage without tools
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49004#0148
132
PER MARTIN TVENGSBERG
stead, the Slavs moved from their first home-
land in the Vistula basin into the zones of
forest steppe and mixed forest. By the 9th
century the tribes had settled as far north as
Lake Ladoga and eastwards to the Volga-Oka
confluence. From then on, until the 17th cen-
tury when colonization began to spread
southwards into the steppe, the home envi-
ronment of the Russians was the forest. Its
importance to the Russian is reflected to this
day in his language, which distinguishes for-
est ecosystems with a subtlety that perhaps
only the Finnish tongue can match (French
1983, 15). If one had to select a single topic in
historical geography as the most fundamental
in the context of Russia, the longest in oper-
ation and most extensive in effect, it might be
the destruction of the forest.
The decline in numbers of oak, elm and
lime trees in the Neolithic Period is attributed
to the climate break or to the husbandry of
man (Lamb 1977, 414). When Neolithic peo-
ple appeared in Denmark {tammimaa, the
Oakland, in Finnish), heath and grassland be-
gan to replace forest. The generalization that
all primitive hoe and dibble planters used fire
as a tool in cultivation seems justified (Stew-
art 1956, 121-122). This burning indicates
swidden cultivation (Iversen 1949).
Due to shortage of sufficient forests, or to a
flooded river clearing and manuring the land,
or for various other edaphic reasons, culti-
vation on cleared land in fields has taken the
lead at particular times in different places and
at different stages of the cultures of the
world. In southern Europe such a change
took place more than two thousand years
ago, and so ploughing, hoeing and weeding
became necessary. But in the more densely
populated Mediterranean area the change
from swidden to permanent field cultivation
occurred much earlier. In Middle Europe
field cultivation was common from about 500
AD. But in the northern areas the colder cli-
mate during the 8th century and again be-
tween about 850 and 1000 AD (Lamb 1977,
426) led to the Viking explorations. The effect
of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian pioneering
upon the landscape of England were summed
up in the Domesday Inquest of 1086 AD
(Darby 1950, 22). One of the questions put
by the Domesday Commissioners was,
“How much wood?” The Viking coloniza-
tions were caused by necessary expansion of
the swidden cultivators.
There is no doubt that swidden cultivation
has been practised since prehistoric times
(Montehus 1953, 41-54), and medieval evi-
dence indicates the cultivation of rye and tur-
nips in forest clearings over large parts of
Scandinavia, greatly stimulated by the last
immigration of Finns during the 16th and
17th centuries AD.
In other parts of the world swidden culti-
vation continued until the European coloni-
sation in the 16th century AD. From now on
the colonists applied restrictions and limited
native fire-clearance to the territory that
could not be of any benefit for the Europe-
ans.
Migration
Migration was habitual for a swidden culti-
vating population.
This kind of extensive cultivation con-
sumed so much forest, that people had to be
continuously on the move into new parts of
the forests, even though they comprised small
populations. The main reason for human ex-
pansion has consequently been due to the
tribal wanderings by the swidden cultivators.
Migrations in the classical European tradition
of history writing were often described as due
to warfare and occupation, but my suggestion
is that the basic reason was traditional tribal
migratory subsistence. The circumstance
which is frequently mentioned in written
sources is often misleading; concerning the
PER MARTIN TVENGSBERG
stead, the Slavs moved from their first home-
land in the Vistula basin into the zones of
forest steppe and mixed forest. By the 9th
century the tribes had settled as far north as
Lake Ladoga and eastwards to the Volga-Oka
confluence. From then on, until the 17th cen-
tury when colonization began to spread
southwards into the steppe, the home envi-
ronment of the Russians was the forest. Its
importance to the Russian is reflected to this
day in his language, which distinguishes for-
est ecosystems with a subtlety that perhaps
only the Finnish tongue can match (French
1983, 15). If one had to select a single topic in
historical geography as the most fundamental
in the context of Russia, the longest in oper-
ation and most extensive in effect, it might be
the destruction of the forest.
The decline in numbers of oak, elm and
lime trees in the Neolithic Period is attributed
to the climate break or to the husbandry of
man (Lamb 1977, 414). When Neolithic peo-
ple appeared in Denmark {tammimaa, the
Oakland, in Finnish), heath and grassland be-
gan to replace forest. The generalization that
all primitive hoe and dibble planters used fire
as a tool in cultivation seems justified (Stew-
art 1956, 121-122). This burning indicates
swidden cultivation (Iversen 1949).
Due to shortage of sufficient forests, or to a
flooded river clearing and manuring the land,
or for various other edaphic reasons, culti-
vation on cleared land in fields has taken the
lead at particular times in different places and
at different stages of the cultures of the
world. In southern Europe such a change
took place more than two thousand years
ago, and so ploughing, hoeing and weeding
became necessary. But in the more densely
populated Mediterranean area the change
from swidden to permanent field cultivation
occurred much earlier. In Middle Europe
field cultivation was common from about 500
AD. But in the northern areas the colder cli-
mate during the 8th century and again be-
tween about 850 and 1000 AD (Lamb 1977,
426) led to the Viking explorations. The effect
of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian pioneering
upon the landscape of England were summed
up in the Domesday Inquest of 1086 AD
(Darby 1950, 22). One of the questions put
by the Domesday Commissioners was,
“How much wood?” The Viking coloniza-
tions were caused by necessary expansion of
the swidden cultivators.
There is no doubt that swidden cultivation
has been practised since prehistoric times
(Montehus 1953, 41-54), and medieval evi-
dence indicates the cultivation of rye and tur-
nips in forest clearings over large parts of
Scandinavia, greatly stimulated by the last
immigration of Finns during the 16th and
17th centuries AD.
In other parts of the world swidden culti-
vation continued until the European coloni-
sation in the 16th century AD. From now on
the colonists applied restrictions and limited
native fire-clearance to the territory that
could not be of any benefit for the Europe-
ans.
Migration
Migration was habitual for a swidden culti-
vating population.
This kind of extensive cultivation con-
sumed so much forest, that people had to be
continuously on the move into new parts of
the forests, even though they comprised small
populations. The main reason for human ex-
pansion has consequently been due to the
tribal wanderings by the swidden cultivators.
Migrations in the classical European tradition
of history writing were often described as due
to warfare and occupation, but my suggestion
is that the basic reason was traditional tribal
migratory subsistence. The circumstance
which is frequently mentioned in written
sources is often misleading; concerning the