The Ecology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe; Conditions for Subsistence and Survival (Volume 1); Persson; Riede; Skar; Breivik; Jonsson

Edited by

Per Persson [+–]

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

Felix Riede [+–]

University of Aarhus

Felix Riede is Associate Professor of archaeology at Aarhus University’s Department of Archaeology and Director of LaPaDiS – the Laboratory for Past Disaster Science and the Centre for Environmental Humanities at the same university. Working broadly within an evolutionary niche construction perspective, his research interests are pioneer colonisations and human-environment interactions in deep time and their reciprocal impacts on demography and social constellations.

Birgitte Skar [+–]

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Birgitte Skar is associate professor in archaeology at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU University Museum. She is educated at The Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Moesgaard, University of Århus. Her research focusses on Early Stone Age with emphasis on chaine operatoire in stone technology and human-environment relations.

Heidi Mjelva Breivik [+–]

Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Heidi Mjelva Breivik holds a PhD in archaeology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Her research focusses Early Stone Age with emphasis on marine foragers, human–environment relations, technology and settlement patterns.

Leif Jonsson [+–]

The Goteborg Museum of Natural History

Leif Jonsson is an osteologist at The Goteborg Museum of Natural History in Sweden.

The first volume in this three volume series presents new archaeological and ecological data and analyses on the relation between human subsistence and survival, and the natural history of North-Western Europe throughout the period 10000 – 6000 BC. The volume contains contributions from ecological oriented archaeologists and from the natural sciences, throwing new light on the physical and biotic/ecological conditions of relevance to the earliest settlement. The volume explores the themes of human subsistence, subsistence technology, ecology and food availability pertaining to the first humans, and demographic patterns among humans linked to the accessibility of different landscapes.

Series: The Early Settlement of Northern Europe

Preliminaries

List of Tables [+–] x-xi

Per Persson FREE

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

List of Appendices [+–] xii

Per Persson FREE

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

List of Figures [+–] xiii-xviii

Per Persson FREE

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

List of Contributors [+–] xix-xxii

Per Persson FREE

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

General Preface to the Series [+–] xxiii

Håkon Glørstad FREE

University of Oslo

Håkon Glørstad is Professor in archaeology at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. His research covers Stone Age archaeology of Scandinavia, archaeological epistemology and cultural heritage management. Glørstad has been leading or supervising several large scale excavations in Norway and research projects in Stone Age archaeology. He is currently the museum director at the Museum of Cultural History.

The first volume presents new archaeological and ecological data and analyses on the relation between human subsistence and survival, and the natural history of North-Western Europe throughout the period 10000 – 6000 BC. The volume contains contributions from ecological oriented archaeologists and from the natural sciences, throwing new light on the physical and biotic/ecological conditions of relevance to the earliest settlement. Main themes are human subsistence, subsistence technology, ecology and food availability pertaining to the first humans, and demographic patterns among humans linked to the accessibility of different landscapes.

Introduction

1. Environment and Adaptation of Forager Pioneers in the North-western Regions of Europe [+–] 1-16

Birgitte Skar,Heidi Mjelva Breivik £17.50

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Late Glacial Migration into the Skagerrak–Kattegat Region and Establishment of Permanent Post-glacial Settlement

2. Marine and Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna in Skagerak and Southern Norway in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene [+–] 19-37

Leif Jonsson £17.50

The Goteborg Museum of Natural History

Leif Jonsson is an osteologist at The Goteborg Museum of Natural History in Sweden.

The end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Holocene was very dynamic. The climate fluctuated; new land became available due to melting ice and isostatic land uplift. The vegetation changed rapidly. During a single lifetime great changes could be observed. From the Late Glacial / Holocene transition to the middle of the Preboreal, great changes occurred in the climate, vegetation and fauna both on land and in the sea. Different natural resources became accessible. Today, there are no straight analogies to these Early Holocene ecosystems in southern Scandinavia. The earliest bone finds from a coastal settlement site is from Huseby klev, dated from 8300 to 5700 BC. Changes in the species composition there has been interpreted as result of a “marine mammal collapse”. Here it is argued that these differences is due to taphonomy and that the major shift in subsistence strategy did take place before 8300 BC.

3. Why Walk When You Can Take a Boat? Moving Beyond the North Central European Plain [+–] 39-54

Lou Schmitt £17.50

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Lou Schmitt is a researcher affiliated with the University of Gothenburg in western Sweden. Schmitt has been investigating the relationship between the Ahrensburgian culture in northern Germany and the Hensbacka culture group in western Sweden, and has published numerous international papers and articles on the subject during the past 20 years.

During the past 20 years, the author has been engaged in questions and investigations that address the relationship between the Continental Ahrensburgian – and the Hensbacka group found in Bohuslän on the west coast of Sweden. On the following pages, highlights from these inquiries will be presented in the form of a condensed review of published material in conjunction with current perspectives concerning coastal colonization in western Sweden.

4. Seal-hunting in the Final Paleolithic of Northern Europe [+–] 55-97

Erwin Cziesla £17.50

Martin Wurzel Archäologie und Umwelttechnik GmbH Büro Ost, Stahnsdorf, Germany

Erwin Cziesla, ph.-D. on a dissertation about the reconstruction of stone age settlement by mapping of artefact and refitting. He participated 12 years in a research project of Cologne-University working in northeast Africa. Since 1992 he is the scientific head of a private archaeological-company, settled south of Berlin. During the last 35 years he wrote more than 200 articles and several books about research into the European Late Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and the Neolithisation.

When mapping Ahrensburgian sites in Northern Europe, it becomes apparent that not only the Northern European lowlands but also the margins of the adjacent hilly regions belonged to the total distribution area of this reindeer-hunting culture. Whilst different models are debated, one can assume an annual migration of the key prey species, reindeer, from the more southerly hilly regions into the northern lowlands during the Winter-months where they were protected against increasing temperatures and insect plagues. In the lowlands biserial large-barbed harpoons and reindeer antler axes are found and may relate to a special wintertime toolkit, one missing in the hilly landscapes. In this article the question is raised: Which animal or animals were hunted with these harpoons during winter months? Examples from Scandinavia give important hints for seal hunting during the Final Palaeolithic. In extension of this evidence, arguments for intensive seal hunting in the inner-European, river systems is presented, for instance from Palaeolithic art, from osteological material, and from more contemporary evidence that suggests are previous presence of marine mammals in these inland waterways. It is further argued that seal hunting was of key importance for survival during the Younger Dryas: as food supply, for the production of efficient clothing and – most of all – as fuel for cooking and for lighting in dwellings.

5. Huseby Klev and the Quest for Pioneer Subsistence Strategies: Diversification of a Maritime Lifestyle [+–] 99-128

Adam Boethius £17.50

University of Lund

Adam Boethius is a PhD student in historical osteology at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, Sweden. His research covers zooarchaeology in general but has lately focused on the Mesolithic period where he mainly deals with the study of subsistence strategies and the use of aquatic resources. The articles presented in this volume are part of his PhD project.

The bone material from three archaeological occupation phases at Huseby klev provide the best source of evidence currently available about the subsistence strategies of pioneer settlers in northern Europe. The results from Huseby klev indicate that the pioneer settlers initially relied heavily on marine mammals for their sustenance. This subsistence strategy changed during the second and third occupation phases of the site, during which fishing became the most important part of the diet. These changes in subsistence strategy are interpreted as arising from different factors. A highly nutritious ocean on the west coast of Scandinavia at the end of the last Ice Age resulted in a large amount of available marine mammals in the ocean, which supported a large human population able to base its economy on them. As the ocean became less nutritious, when the freshwater mixing ceased, the marine mammals suffered a natural population decline at the same time as humans still relied upon them heavily, resulting in a marine mammal collapse. This forced the human populations to change their subsistence strategy, and fish became dominant in the diet. The bone material from Huseby klev implies a good knowledge of fishing methods and seafaring as well as highlighting the ocean as the main source of sustenance during the Preboreal–Boreal transition to the mid-Atlantic chronozone. The use of the terrestrial mammals, also found on the site, is interpreted as mainly being hunted to supply raw material. Finds of reindeer imply the presence of reindeers in Mesolithic western Scandinavia but they were not prioritized in the diet, possibly only being exploited during yearly migrations. Birds are common in the bone material and a large number of bird species with a low number of identified fragments from each species implies opportunistic hunting of all but auks, the latter having been hunted in large numbers. The bone material from Huseby klev is the oldest and best preserved Atlantic coastal material in Europe and the results indicate an advanced knowledge of utilizing aquatic resources and suggest a boom in aquatic reliance that is earlier and more widespread than previously known.

6. Waterworld: Environment, Animal Exploitation, and Fishhook Technology in the North-Eastern Skagerrak Area During the Early And Middle Mesolithic (9500–6300 cal BC) [+–] 129-166

Anja Mansrud,Per Persson £17.50

Oslo University

Anja Mansrud is employed as a field archaeologist at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She is currently finishing her PhD on the Middle Mesolithic of North Eastern Skagerak.

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

In this paper, faunal remains and bone artefacts are used as a point of departure in order to discuss the subsistence strategies of the Early Mesolithic (EM, 9500-8300 BC) and Middle Mesolithic (MM, 8300-6300 BC) foragers in the Oslo fjord region of Eastern Norway and the Swedish west coast. This region is a key area in discussions about the settling of present day Norway. Due to the combination of isostatic rebound and global sea-level rise, the North Eastern Skagerrak area is one of the few regions in the world where coastlines dating to the Preboreal and Boreal climatic phases are situated above present day sea-level. This unique contextual situation makes these locales the oldest coastal sites in Europe. Throughout the period, coastal settlements are situated close to the contemporary shoreline, and the location of the sites demonstrates the fundamental importance of the maritime environment. Closeness to fresh water, as well as the possibility of transport and travel along the watercourses may have been equally important. From the coastal areas, different ecological habitats with a variety of maritime and lacustrine resources were within reach. These ancient “waterworlds” offers a possibility to explore the settlement pattern and animal utilization. Organic remains are not preserved at any coastal EM-site, thus the mode of subsistence must be inferred from non-anthropogenic bone collections and paleoecological data. The only EM site with faunal remains is the inland site Almeö in west Sweden, exhibiting a varied economy. In the oldest phase at coastal site Huseby Klev, dated to the beginning of the Boreal chronozone c. 8000 BC, the abundance of marine mammals suggests that hunting of marine mammal was an important part of the diet. The occurrence of cod and ling as well as fishhooks confirms that fishing was also practiced. The importance of fishing seems to increase in the later MM. The MM faunal assemblages exhibit remarkable species diversity with terrestrial mammals, sea-mammals, birds and fish. This is suggestive of a broad-spectrum economy. Due to taphonomic factors, fish bones are most likely considerably under-represented. Nevertheless, there is a large variety of marine fish, in particular different species of the cod-family (Gadidae). The most common fishing equipment from the NE Skagerrak MM is small fishhooks without barb. This could imply that the fisheries were oriented towards cod fishing with long-line, where several hooks were attached to the line. The fishhook and other bone implements were made by antler and ungulate metapodials, thus, these animals provided important raw material in addition to calories.

7. Hunting Elk at the Foot of the Mountains: Remains from 8,000 Years of Foraging at the Edge of the Hardangervidda Plateau in Southern Norway [+–] 167-195

Axel Mjaerum £17.50

Oslo University

Axel Mjærum is a field archeologist and former researcher at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. His research covers Stone Age archaeology, especially chronological subjects, and hunting and fishing traditions in southeastern Norway.

Parallel with a massive deglaciation in the Early Mesolithic of Norway, the open landscape with an ice age fauna was replaced by forest and less cold-tolerant species. Elk (Alces alces) soon established routs of seasonal migration, and from early on strategic places along these paths became important hunting grounds. The Røytjønna area (c. 740 m above sea level) forms a bottleneck through which a elk migration route runs. A high number of elk passes this bottleneck formation every spring and autumn. Excavation of 21 Stone Age sites, combined with surface surveys, has resulted in the recovery of large quantities of cremated bone, lithic artefacts, a house pit and hearths. This gives a detailed insight into the past hunting activity. Artifacts and radiocarbon dating of bones dates the beginning of this hunting tradition to the Middle Mesolithic (c. 6500 BC). In addition, sites from Late Mesolithic and younger periods have been studied. This paper will discuss the beginning and developments in this extremely long-lasting hunting tradition, within a local and regional perspective.

8. The Earliest Settlement in the Middle Scandinavian Inland: A Discussion about Joel Boaz’s Pioneers in the Mesolithic [+–] 197-217

Per Persson £17.50

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

A new set of 101 radiocarbon dates made on burned bones from inland sites in Central Scandinavia, is used here. These shows a similar pattern as the previously used 261 dates made on charcoal. The two cures thereby confirm each other. They also show a great resemblance of a model proposed by Joel Boaz in 1999, based on excavation results from two inland areas. In Boaz’ model has two main periods of Mesolithic inland settlement, separated by low inland use after 6000 BC; also known as the “classical hiatus”. This hiatus marks the end of what is here considered as the pioneer phase. There is also an Early Mesolithic phase of inland settlement, not known in eastern Norway, but in western Norway and in West Sweden. After the Early Mesolithic there was a change from the use of both inland and coast to a concentration of the settlement to the coast. This period of low inland use last for more than 1000 years. At 6900 BC the inland settlement takes off and shows an exponential increase until 6200 BC. Here it is argued that this is not the result of an expansion from the coast, but rather a separate inland population that trace its origins from north and east. The explanation could be the contemporary increase in woodland and elk population. This leads to the highest density of inland settlement during the entire Stone Age at c. 6200 BC.

The Early Mesolithic in the Baltic Region: Aquatic Resources and Regionalization

9. A Small Preboreal Settlement Site at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden [+–] 221-244

Fredrik Hallgren £17.50

Stiftelsen Kulturmiljövård, Västerås, Sweden

Fredrik Hallgren is project-leader of the archaeological excavations at Kanaljorden, Motala. His research covers the hunter-gatherers and early farmers of Stone Age Scandinavia, with a focus on wetland sites, ritual contexts, technological choice and cultural practice. Hallgren has conducted post-doctoral research on long distance contact between foragers and farmers in Oslo and Stockholm.

Recent archaeological excavations at the site Kanaljorden, Motala, in the province of Östergötland, Sweden have unearthed a settlement site dated to a time just a couple of hundred years after deglaciation. A small assemblage of knapped stone have been found on the edge and bottom of a wetland, in layers dated to c. 9200 BC (dates on terrestrial macro fossils). The region around Motala was released from the grip of the glaciers c. 11,800 years ago (corrected clay-varve years). At the time of the first human habitation c. 9200 BC, the ice margin had retreated 100 km further, and was situated just north of the Närke Strait that connected the Yoldia Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Vättern was then a bay of the Yoldia Sea. The small wetland at Kanaljorden was first part of this a bay, then a small lake. Östergötland along with the rest of southern Sweden was still connected to the continent in the south. The land bridge was utilised by the first terrestrial fauna to colonize the region: reindeer, aurochs and European bison as evidenced by subfossils from Östergötland. The first human may have used the same route, although travelling by boat along coasts and ice margin is also a possibility. The small Preboreal assemblage from Kanaljorden include flakes and blades of flint, quartz and mylonite. The find bearing strata are sealed by layers deposited during a transgression of Ancient Lake Vättern during the early Boreal period.

10. Way Out East: Evidence of Early Maritime Technologies from the East Coast of Sweden [+–] 245-275

Mattias Petterson,Roger Wikell £17.50

Independent Scholar

Mattias Pettersson is an archaeologist and illustrator resident in Stockholm. His main field of research is prehistoric coastal settlements. Pettersson has conducted several surveys and excavations of coastal sites from different periods, and in connection with this also quaternary studies.

Independent researcher

Roger Wikell has a fil mag in archaeology and runs his own company Wikell Archaeology. Wikell has been engaged in contract archaeology in eastern middle Sweden for 30 years. He has been working with almost all archaeological companies in the region and has been excavating sites from the early Mesolithic to late Viking Age.

This article presents new data from a multidisciplinary project about the earliest Mesolithic settlement in Eastern Middle Sweden. The pioneer sites in the Stockholm area, at 80 masl, can now be dated to 8000–7800 BC. Most interestingly, the project has revealed a number of archipelagic seal hunting stations, which in terms of the occupied islands’ small size and relative isolation are among the most extreme maritime settlements in Scandinavia. Excavations revealed dwelling structures and black lumps of “blubber concrete”, a slag-like material, which is the result of heating with blubber oil. A concentration of burned seal bones indicates that hunting of Grey Seal was the main objective. The finds indicate a seal hunting culture capable of rather lengthy sea voyages and all the logistics of hunting and camping on small and remote islands. They give us rare insight to maritime technology during the early post-glacial colonization of Scandinavia.

11. The Pioneer Settlements of Gotland: A behavioural ecology approach [+–] 277-309

Jan Apel,Jan Storå £17.50

University of Lund

Jan Apel is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Deparment of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University (Sweden). His research covers stone tool technology and human evolution, stone age archaeology of Scandinavia and social complexity in prehistory. He has lead or supervised several large-scale excavations in Sweden and is currently involved in the research project “The Pioneer Settlements of Gotland”.

University of Stockholm

Jan Storå is professor of Osteoarchaeology at Stockholm University. His research topics have focused on man-animal relations in the Stone Age, the exploitation of seals in the Baltic area, and most recently the pioneer settlements on Gotland. He is currently one of the PI:s of the large archaeogenetic research projects “The Atlas of Ancient Human Genomes in Sweden” and “1000 Ancient Genomes”.

The earliest traces of human settlements on Gotland date to around 7200 BC. When the first pioneers reached Gotland they had to adjust to an unfamiliar environment and could rely on traditional knowledge only to a limited degree. The common terrestrial prey of the Boreal hunters around the Ancylus Lake during the early Mesolithic (roe and red deer, aurochs, wild boar and elk) were not present on the island, and the pioneers adopted seal hunting. To better understand this adaption and its subsequent changes we apply a behavioural ecological approach that generates predictions about subsistence strategies in the form of cost-benefit outcomes. These outcomes are compared with the patterns observed in the archaeological record. It is argued that this approach may be used to benchmark cultural variation. We consider not only the external impact of the environment on the human population on Gotland, but also discuss the degree to which cultural and economic practices of the pioneers reciprocally affected their environment.

12. The Use of Aquatic Resources by Early Mesolithic Foragers in Southern Scandinavia [+–] 311-334

Adam Boethius £17.50

University of Lund

A long tradition in the research of prehistoric southern Scandinavia recognizes a full use of aquatic resources in the Late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture (5500-4000 BC): coastal sites are frequently found containing well-preserved fish bones, and isotope values from human collagen indicate a high dietary intake of marine resources. However, recent finds and new methodologies suggest that the view of a terrestrially focused diet in the Early Mesolithic period (9500-6800 BC) can be reinterpreted and the use of freshwater resources is found to be more important than previously known. Aquatic resources can thereby be seen to be a major source of sustenance for foraging societies in Scandinavia much earlier than has been realized previously. In Norje Sunnansund, an Early Mesolithic site located in Blekinge, south-eastern Sweden, large amounts of fish bones were found that have been used to estimate the amount of fish being caught at the site, by analyzing different rates of taphonomic loss. The results from the excavated part of the settlement suggest that at least 48 tons of fish were caught. The large amount of caught fish and the evidence of the means of preparing and storing them form the earliest example of a large-scale fishing society, and the knowledge required to catch and prepare this volume of fish has further implications on a more structural societal level. A structured society is a prerequisite for the development of sedentism and enables large groups of people to gather together over an extended time period. Conservative dietary estimations from the recovered fish bone material suggest that enough fish were caught to sustain 100 adults, living solely on fish, for over 3 years.

13. Seascapes of Stability and Change: The Archaeological and Ecological Potential of Early Mesolithic Seascapes, with Examples from Haväng in the South-Eastern Baltic, Sweden [+–] 335-352

Bjorn Nilsson,Arne Sjöström,Per Persson £17.50

University of Lund

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

The sea level low stand period during the Early Mesolithic in SE Baltic (c. 9,500-6,500 BC) has resulted in vast inundated areas. Some of the sites have yielded extensive remains of lagoonal and riverine sediments, as well as areas with trees preserved in situ. Investigations at one of the sites – Haväng in eastern Scania – have resulted in archaeological findings from the entire period. The preservation of organic materials are very good, and gives new insights in material culture and fishing technologies. Extensive surveying and hydro-acoustic mapping gives possibilities to draw some conclusion of the possible timing of the introduction of stationary fishing and how this relates to cultural and natural changes. The paper proposes that riverine stationary fisheries in the southern Baltic were introduced during the Boreal period (7000 BC or earlier). The Maglemose fisheries are proposed as indirect evidence of early seascape territorialisation, which must be understood in a cultural and ecological context.

The North Sea/Norwegian Sea: Environmental preconditions and use of new landscapes

14. Seal and Reindeer: Immediate and Continuous Utilization of Coast and Mountain in the Early Mesolithic of North-Western Norway [+–] 355-379

Frode Svendsen £17.50

Telemark County Council, Skien, Norway

Frode Svendsen is an archaeologist at the Telemark County council, Skien, Norway. His research covers the Mesolithic of Norway and Scandinavia. Svendsen has lead or participated in several large- and small-scale excavation- and archaeological surveying projects in Norway.

A recent study covering Early Mesolithic sites in a coast-to-mountain section of northwestern Norway documents that a predominantly marine settlement- and subsistence pattern was practiced along with maintenance of certain continental traditions; explicitly evident in the appearance of seasonal reindeer hunting sites in the mountains. This link is particularly evident considering the exploration and utilization of both the outer coast and the mountains seem to have begun virtually instantly during colonization.The study shows how the combined knowledge of site distribution, geographical data and natural history data; indirectly can generate a significant wealth of knowledge about subsistence and how people have lived in the Early Mesolithic. It is argued that the settlement pattern alone is a very strong indicator that specialized hunting for sea mammals, preferably seal, were the key strategy. A combination of a series of favourable circumstances seems to have made the outer archipelagos particularly attractive for people during the Early Mesolithic. However, in contrast to this very obvious marine lifestyle, the mountain sites indicate that hunting for reindeer (still) had a very special importance.

15. An Early Holocene Bearded Seal from the Trondheim Fjord: Environmental and Archaeological Implications [+–] 381-391

Jorgen Rosvold,Heidi Mjelva Breivik £17.50

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Jørgen Rosvold is a biologist with training in archaeology and anthropology, and is currently working at NTNU University Museum. His research focus is on the long-term effects of climate change and human development on wildlife through the Holocene, using a wide range of cross-disciplinary approaches.

Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Direct evidence of faunal resources available to the human colonizers of Norway following the last glacial period is highly limited, and the faunal history of the Early Holocene is usually inferred from other sources. Here we report the find of a well-preserved Early Holocene skeleton of a large, adult, male bearded seal from central Norway in the context of climate, geography and contemporary archaeological sites. The find of this sea ice obligate species coincides in time with the colder Preboreal oscillation period and some of the oldest traces of human activity in central Norway. Bone finds of bearded seals are generally rare worldwide; the find is thus important evidence of the history of the species as well as an indication of the resources available to early human settlers.

16. The Changing Landscape of Prehistoric Orkney [+–] 393-413

Caroline Wickham-Jones,Richard Bates,Sue Dawson,Alastair Dawson,Martin Bates £17.50

University of Aberdeen

Caroline Wickham-Jones is a consultant archaeologist living in Orkney. She is an Honorary Research Assistant at the University of Aberdeen. Her research focusses on the early prehistoric settlement of Scotland and the impact of landscape change, particularly that driven by changing relative sea-levels. She is the author of several books and many academic papers.

University of St Andrews

Dr C. Richard Bates is an applied geophysicist at the University of St Andrews. His research focus is on applying geoscientific techniques to a range of both terrestrial and marine areas in particular with relevance to climate change studies and the reconstruction of past environments and landscapes.

University of Dundee

Sue Dawson is a Reader in Physical Geography at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Her research covers Holocene relative sea level change in Scotland and the sedimentology of extreme events (tsunamis and storms) in the UK, Indian Ocean, Greenland. She is currently working on a mult-institutional project to assess the threat to the UK from potential tsunamis caused by submarine landslides in the northern North Atlantic with future climate change.

University of Dundee

Alastair Dawson is Honorary Professor of Geography at the University of Dundee, Scotland. His expertise is principally in the areas of climate change, Quaternary environmental changes and coastal processes. His particular specialisms include palaeoclimatology of North Atlantic region, sea level changes across northern Europe and tsunami geoscience. He has published over 100 internationally refereed academic papers and is the author of several books.

University of Wales Trinity St Davids

Martin Bates is a lecturer in geoarchaeology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Lampeter. His research has focused on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic landscape change in N W Europe. He has also worked extensively in the Middle East and Africa. He is undertakes contract geoarchaeological work for development control projects and has designed the geoarchaeological investigation program for major engineering works such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in southern England.

The existence of a submerged landscape that may preserve Holocene material around the UK has long been postulated. In recent years, major advances in techniques of sea-floor and subsea-floor survey together with advances in GIS modeling have provided the foundation for the refinement of regional topography, different patterns of inundation and archaeological survival. Research has necessarily focused on the broadscale and relied on generalised modelled data in order to provide overall interpretation, but the challenge for archaeology is to approach human experience at a variety of scales down to the local level. The Orkney archipelago in the north of Scotland provides an ideal location to investigate the changing landscape of the early Holocene because of active relative sea-level rise, locations of sediment preservation and the nature of the archaeological remains. This paper presents the results of research at different scales from the general to the local. In this way we hope to generate discussion regarding analysis of the interplay between natural landscape change and human activity associated with the changing patterns of relative sea level that occurred throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic. The results show that an interdisciplinary approach can provide valuable information to investigate human behavior in response to natural changes.

17. Economy and Environment During the Early Mesolithic of Western Scotland: Repeated Visits to a Fishing Locality on a Small Island in the Inner Hebrides [+–] 415-455

Karen Wicks,Steven Mithen £17.50

University of Reading

Karen Wicks is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Reading, UK. Her research interests include climate change impacts on people and the environment in northwest Europe during the Late Glacial/Early Holocene transition. She specialises in the use of Bayesian chronological approaches to examine the timing and tempo of colonisation and pioneer settlement of prehistoric hunter-gatherers and the onset of the Neolithic, with research projects in northwest Scotland, north China and the Southern Levant.

University of Reading

Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading, UK, where he is also Pro Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation and Deputy Vice Chancellor. His research is focussed on the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, with long term field projects in southern Jordan and the west of Scotland. He also has interests in human evolution, with particular regard to the evolution of human intelligence, music, language and art.

When and from where was Scotland first colonised are key debates in studies of the Mesolithic in northwest Europe. The earliest radiocarbon-dated evidence indicates an in-filling of Scotland by people after c. 8300 BC though much speculation exists concerning the routes taken by the first people reaching its west coast. Models for this process of colonisation often factor in a heavy emphasis on the role of marine resources in the procurement strategies of pioneering communities, these largely being based on studies of Mesolithic middens distributed across the west coast mainland and the islands of the Hebridean archipelago. With deep sounds and large stretches of open water, access to these islands had to have been by boats, the direct evidence for which is currently lacking. In this contribution we describe one of the earliest Mesolithic sites in western Scotland, located at Fiskary Bay on the small island of Coll. Excavation has yielded Mesolithic chipped stone artefacts in association with fish bone, a piece of worked antler and charred plant remains. The site is interpreted primarily as a short-term fishing camp, visited on multiple occasions between c. 7200 and 6200 BC. The cessation of visits to Fiskary appears to relate to a significant population decline in western Scotland that has been causally linked to the abrupt cooling of the so-called 8.2ka event. We compare the charred plant remains and an off-site pollen-stratigraphic record to explore vegetation resource availability and woodland exploitation. The palaeoecological records obtained from the wood charcoal and fish bone assemblages indicate that foragers were camping and fishing for near-shore dwelling marine fish, perhaps using fish traps at the shoreline. As such, Fiskary provides one further element of the Early Mesolithic settlement-subsistence system that suggests that adaptations suited to coastal and marine oriented economic strategies were established within foraging groups in western Scotland by the latter quarter of the 8th millennium BC.

End Matter

Index [+–] 457-466

Per Persson FREE

University of Oslo

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo.

Reviews

Volume 1 is extremely well written and should be a much sought after publication for anyone studying Early Mesolithic subsistence strategies, both for the new research presented and the thought-provoking debates. The inclusion of radiocarbon measurements in several contributions is extremely beneficial for anyone wanting to re-analyse the data in the future. The volume makes a lot of literature accessible for the wider community through translation, particularly Norwegian and Swedish, which is extremely useful.
Antiquity

A new, solid platform for further knowledge development about this fascinating period in our common prehistory.
Viking: Norsk arkeologisk årbok

An important contribution to the settlement of Northern Europe.
Represents an incredible collection of articles focused on the time just after the Weichselian Ice Age. The three books contain a plethora of information regarding flora, fauna, geology and technology, stemming from decades of excavation and of research on the vast body of material unearthed, especially in Norway.
European Journal of Archaeology

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Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

Ecology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe

Conditions for Subsistence and Survival

The Early Settlement of Northern Europe, Volume 1

Per Persson [+–]

University of Oslo

Felix Riede [+–]

University of Aarhus

Birgitte Skar [+–]

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Heidi Mjelva Breivik [+–]

Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Leif Jonsson [+–]

The Goteborg Museum of Natural History

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