ABSTRACT
The Comb Ware pottery is a long-known, much discussed, yet poorly researched element of the archaeological record of Finnmark. The reluctance within archaeology to engage with this ceramic material can probably be partly understood in the light of the culture-historical othernesses in the region, particularly the inland areas, which form part of the native Saami settlement area. As a result, the Saami past' was long regarded as topic for ethnographic rather than archaeological study, with the excavation of the first Early Northern Comb Ware (ENCW) material in the upper Pasvik River Valley, Finnmark, carried out by an ethnologist. A further, and possibly related reason, is that ENCW materialsthat is hunter-fisher-gatherer potteryfits awkwardly within broader schemes of social evolution which assert a direct link between ceramics and early farming. In contrast, ceramic technology has a very deep, though discontinuous, history in Finnmark while farmingin practice cattle and sheep husbandryonly arrived in large areas in the 20th century.
