landnam
The occupation of land, especially if previously uncultivated.
uncountable
Iversen holds that these changes indicate the arrival of farmers, the phase of Landnam or land occupation, that the charcoal comes from clearance fires; that herbaceous pollen suggests the opening-up of the land; cereals, fields; the plantains, weeds; and birch and hazel, regeneration of the forests after the exhaustion of the plot.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Danish landnam, from Old Norse landnám. Compare Dutch landname and German Landnahme.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry landnam (CC BY-SA 4.0).