The newly mown hay on the farms at Vangdalsberget tell of the landscape of the scythe
The newly mown hay on the farms at Vangdalsberget tell of the landscape of the scythe, it takes us a couple of thousand years backward in time, to the prehistoric farmer. But the rock inscriptions on the rocks in the background bear witness to an even older agricultural landscape. (Svein Nord).
Farmers and Settlements
From 4,500 to 5,000 years ago most of Hordaland was a landscape of forest, right out to the coast and the islands. With our inner eye we can see old oak trees putting their stamp on the heat-loving deciduous forest. Here red deer, elk and wild boar dominated, but there was also bear and other predators. Here and there, especially in outer districts were clearings and open areas of grass on the beaches. Here there are herds of cattle and sheep and goats. Inside simple enclosures and frail fences of branches and poles are small patches of tilled ground. Lean spikes of barley flash yellow between stones and stubble. The large fields, cleared of stones still belong to the future, but people have begun to transform nature and take command over the land. A new style of living and a new culture is in preparation.
The grave mound at Vikingnes bears witness to the ancient power of the chieftain in outer Hardanger (Svein Nord).
Figures of ships are a common motif for rock inscriptions from the Bronze Age farming cultures. From Hammarhaug, Kvinnherad (Svein Nord).
The long boathouse sites tell of the building style in the older Iron Age. This is how an artist sees the long ships boathouse at Bjelland on Stord (drawing: Frithjof Sælen, owner: University Museum in Bergen).
The leaf knife (sickle) is an old tool for harvesting which has not changed from the Viking times until today (Egil Korsnes, owner: Osterøy Museum).
Cattle and sheep and goats have shaped the landscape from the younger Stone Age until today (rekonstruction: Stella East, 1993).
Burning the heaths to provide green fodder in winter for browsing for sheep which go outdoors in winter has been a part of farming patterns in coastal agriculture for several thousand years (Peter Emil Kaland, 1971).
A memento from a Viking raid? An Anglo-Saxon piece of jewellery, found in Hardanger (Ann-Mari Olsen,owner: University Museum in Bergen (B 2017)).
During the Viking times many farmers from Hordaland sought out new settlements on the North Sea islands. This is how the artist sees an expedition to the west from a Norwegian fjord towards the end of the 9th century. ; an attempt at a reconstruction based on archaeological finds and contemporary chronicles. A family takes their animals and tools on to the ship which in three week’ s time will bring them to a new home in Iceland, an island out in the great ocean (drawing (section): Åke Gustavsson, from: Almgren, B. et al. (1975) Vikingene. Oslo, Cappelen, s. 103.)
The ancient cultural landscape at Hellaug in Etne with thousand year old house sites and piles of cleared stones (Svein Nord).