Deserted farms in Jämtland

The deserted farms in Jämtland
Project coordinator: Stig Welinder, Mitthögskolan

Jämtland is situated in Mid Sweden. The record of ancient monuments in Jämtlands län (the provinces Jämtland and Härjedalen) contains about 450 deserted farms. The main part of them were in use during the Middle Ages and deserted as settled farms during the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

The Department of Humanities at Mid Sweden University in Östersund has specialised in research on these deserted farms. Part of the discussion is on how to understand the farms as buildings, households and the economic use of various resources. Obviously the use of outland resources was of importance.

One deserted farm in a forest district is excavated as the fieldschool of the Department 1997-2001. So far about ten seminar papers have been written on the deserted farms.

References
Welinder, S. 2000. Deserted farms in Jämtland. In: Sandgren, P. (ed.), Environmental changes in Fennoscandia during the Late Quaternary. LUNDQUA Report 37 (p. 143)

Home page (in Swedish): www.mh.se/MHTemplates/MHPage____9720.aspx