Job description

My research focuses on the history of reindeer domesticaiton in Fennoscandia. 

The overarching goal of my project is to refine the timing and the details of the events leading to reindeer domestication in Fennoscandia. The transition from hunter-gathering to farming will be portrayed in a multidisciplinary approach including archaeology, history, genetics and geochemistry. Namely, the occurrence of plants and animals over the centuries will be studies via amplification of genetic markers from ancient DNA trapped in bones and sediments. The geographic origin of the semi-domestic reindeer subspeciese in the archaeological record will be elucidated by detecting mitochondrial and nuclear genotypes. The resulting genetic method may serve for the conservation of the wild reindeer. ​

An equally important aim of this research is to uncover the change in the plant-herbivore-human interactions during the reindeer domestication. The relative importance of reindeer and other domesticates (including food crops and wild plants) as well as fishing and hunting in the Sami diets of the past will be investigated by targeting genetic markers specific for plants, fungi and mammals. This will result in a reconstruction of a trophic network, which is a precious tool to inform about the state of the Arctic ecosystem in the present and in the past.​

All in all, this research poses a unique chance to study the evolution of the Sámi and reindeer communities in northern Fennoscandia, with the intent of providing relevant governance solutions for sustainable reindeer husbandry and resilient tundra ecosystem management.