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- Boethius, Adam
(författare)
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Fishing for ways to thrive : Integrating zooarchaeology to understand subsistence strategies and their implications among Early and Middle Mesolithic southern Scandinavian foragers
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and deduce the varied lifeways of Early Holocene foragers in southern Scandinavia. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, zooarchaeological data have been applied to the study of different aspects of Early and Middle Mesolithic subsistence, in order to frame a discussion concerning our current understanding of culture and life in early north European societies. Three different sites/areas are the focus: Norje Sunnansund, Huseby Klev and Gotland/Gisslause. However, all available material from the chosen temporal and spatial frame have been incorporated to enable holistic discussions. The three focus areas combined comprise all available coastal settlements with well-preserved organic material from the Early Mesolithic period, which has led to discussions centred on the use of aquatic resources and the importance of fish.To address the different aspects of Early and Middle Mesolithic subsistence, multiple approaches have been taken, whereby zooarchaeological methods have been combined with statistical, chemical, physical and ethnographical tools for analysis. The focus has varied between fish storage and conservation practice, by presenting evidence for delayed-return subsistence strategies through means of large-scale fish fermentation, and discussions concerning the evidence for a delayed-return lifestyle and sedentism, through the study of zooarchaeological assemblages. Furthermore, taphonomy is highlighted and discussed in order to address the many biases affecting the recovery of freshwater fish bones and the consequences for detecting a freshwater fish-based diet. Pioneer subsistence strategies are studied, and changes through time are highlighted in marine coastal regions. In addition, the reservoir effect in radiocarbon dating (14C) of human bones has been examined to evaluate the consequences of a freshwater reservoir effect stemming from a large dietary input of freshwater fish. Furthermore, stable isotopes values, δ13C and δ15N, in the collagen from all available Early and Middle Mesolithic humans have also been analysed and modelled, in order to evaluate the importance of each individual protein source in the diet.The results from the different approaches taken indicate that humans relied on fish to a higher degree and from an earlier date than previously assumed. This has implications for how Early Holocene societies are interpreted; indicating the use of delayed-return subsistence strategies, diminishing mobility and emerging sedentism already existed during the Early Mesolithic period. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest a growing territoriality, which implies that the emergence of social stratification is conceivable at an early stage of Scandinavian prehistory and offers an insight into the lifestyle of Early Holocene foragers at latitudes around 55–59° N.
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- Tornberg, Anna
(författare)
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Health, cattle and ploughs : Bioarchaeological consequences of the Secondary Products Revolution in southern Sweden, 2300-1100 BCE
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis diet and health of people who lived in southern Sweden 2300-1100 BCE is studied. The study is based on bioarchaeological analyses of human remains from 46 localities in the areas of Uppland, Närke, Östergötland, Västergötland, and Scania. The studies are based on skeletal remains from a minimum number of 310 individuals that have been analysed both osteologically and biochemically. The thesis constitutes five papers and a synthesis, where diet and health, related to agro-pastoral intensification and increased social stratification, is explored and discussed.The author acknowledges a biocultural approach, i.e. human biology and culture are intertwined and affect each other. A variety of cultural expressions and actions form human biology, which can be studied as skeletal adaptation or stress. This relationship makes it possible to study past cultural behaviour through analyses of human skeletal remains. The results of the papers have been discussed in relation to bioarcheological theories and methodologies as well as current regional archaeological understandings.The period around 2300-1100 BCE is considered by archaeologists as a period of agro-pastoral intensification, population increase, and increased social stratification. Agro-pastoral intensification allows for increased access to nutrition, and further, a resource surplus. This development would plausibly also result in population increase and increased socio-economic differences. Through investigations of diet, oral health, stature, paleopathology and care, mobility, and demography insight in the biological consequences of this development have been gained.The results from the papers show that there is a higher reliance on cereals and cattle in the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age than in previous periods, which is visible both in stable isotope results and the frequency of dental caries. The health of the population seems to have been generally good with high stature, low prevalence of pathological lesions related to nutritional stress, possibility of gaining care if injured, many surviving into old ages, and low child mortality, which is indicative of low risk of infections due to low population density. However, an elevated risk of dying as young adults and decreasing female stature in the Early Bronze Age might reflect increased levels of stress in parts of the population.
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- Andersson, Magnus
(författare)
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Skapa plats i landskapet : tidig- och mellanneolitiska samhällen utmed två västskånska dalgångar
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with Early and Middle Neolithic societies in a valley landscape in western Scania, in the southern part of Sweden. Several archaeological excavations conducted by the National Heritage Board have revealed a great number of Neolithic remains in this region. The sites constitute a substantial continuous sequence from the earliest to the latest phase of the Funnel Beaker Culture and from the Battle Axe Culture – including wetland depositions, settlements, graves and central places. The various sites constitute separate elements of a society, but taken together they give us a more complete picture of the social, economic and ideological processes in a community. Through arrangements on different sites and their locations in the landscape I try to understand the character of the social organisation. Any area of landscape will have a long evolution, and many successive episodes or chronological horizons are likely to leave their mark on it. The historical landscape therefore should be read, interpreted and perceived in terms of two dimensions: space and time. Time and space together relate to the third element, social action, and work as underlying structures which are important forces creating the social organisation. Social and economic development during the earliest Neolithic carried on in the same manner as during the late Mesolithic. Several of the settlements dated to EN I in west Scania were located in places that had been occupied during Mesolithic times. A part of the population moved to the inland along the waterways during a later phase of the Early Neolithic. The conception of the landscape changed. When new areas were settled it became necessary to socialise the new and unknown landscape and create landscape spaces. This could been done by moving out different activities which previously were tied to the settlement. Offerings in wetlands outside settlements increased enormously during this phase. It is also during this period that the first megalithic graves were built. The new landscape spaces could been seen as macro-settlements, including dwelling, offering and funeral. There are indications of breakdowns on several levels during late Funnel Beaker Culture. It seems as if the landscape spaces created during EN II dissolved and that the population did not live in a coherent society at the end of MNA. The development towards increasing social differentiation during the Middle Neolithic had led a part of the population to break with the old manner of life and join new groups of people living on the coast. These groups originally belong to the Pitted Ware Culture and probably had a more egalitarian way of life. Another part of the population somewhat later, at the beginning of MNB, totally broke with the old traditions and received continental currents from the Corded Ware Culture. The base for power apparently switched from control of sacred knowledge and ritual practice to control of production, consumption and distribution of goods.
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- Botwid, Katarina
(författare)
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The Artisanal Perspective in Action : An Archaeology in Practice
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In what way can an artisanal perspective and artisanal knowledge contribute to current archaeology? How can theories about skill and expertise explain and affect research on artisanal issues? These are the questions that are in focus and have been explored in the four collected papers and in the concluding article in this thesis. The author proposes an artisanal perspective from an interdisciplinary viewpoint. The departure of this proposal is the author’s own position as an educated ceramist and an archaeologist. The first paper outlines how levels of skill can be explored and used to interpret ceramic assemblages with the method ”artisanal interpretation”. The results of the artisanal interpretation show that new information and interpretations of ceramic skill in manufacturing vessels for grave contexts indicated that the ceramics in graves were made with less skill than those in settlements. The graves were dated to 300–400 AD and originated from Västergötland in Sweden. The paper that follows focuses on one particular find from the Roman Iron Age. The exploration reveals how new ways of surveys can create knowledge about anomalies and through this reveal new find categories. Artisanal knowledge, science and archaeology worked well together in this interdisciplinary exploration. The first ancient oxide crayon found in a Swedish Roman Iron Age context was observed and identified by the method artisanal interpretation. The third paper revisits Käringsjön tarn, first excavated in 1917 and later extensively in 1945. Several archaeologists have interpreted the site from different perspectives. The author’s strictly defined artisanal interpretations included, beside ceramic artisanal knowledge, artisanal knowledge from one professional woodworker, one textile artisan and one farmer. This was the first attempt to employ knowledge from experience-based expertise (practitioners) in the author’s own archaeological interpretation. These artisans were interviewed and presented with artefacts so that they could perform their own artisanal interpretations and were asked to evaluate the levels of skill used in manufacturing the objects. Here the author put herself in the position of the archaeologist that needs expertise to interpret ancient artisanal knowledge. The experience of this exploration was invaluable for understanding in what way conclusions can be drawn from observations from contemporary artisans and how to evaluate and work with artisanal interviews. The fourth and final paper in the thesis takes a long-term perspective on the extensive finds from Pryssgården. The site was excavated in 1993–94 and revealed one of the largest assemblages of Bronze Age artefacts, containing c. 7 700 ceramic finds. In the traces of artisans explored through artisanal interpretations new ways of understanding artisanal matters were extracted. This paper is produced as a monograph to be able to give in-depth evaluations and interpretations of artefacts and artisanal skill in order to understand Bronze Age life (LBA) in Sweden. In conclusion a new way of inviting expertise built on theories of knowledge, i.e. the “Third Wave of Science Studies – Studies of Experience based Expertise” (SEE) in archaeology is proposed. Explorations of how tacit knowledge, silent witnesses, visual studies of crafting and interviews can be used to widen the knowledge of ancient crafts, artisanship and technologies are presented.
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| 8. |
- Carlsson, Tom
(författare)
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Mesolitiska möten : Strandvägen, en senmesolitisk boplats vid Motala ström
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on the Strandvägen site located in the town of Motala, Östergötland, Sweden. The problem concerns what shaped the material expressions on the site during 5500?5000 B.C. For reasons of text structure the space outside the settlement site (the home) is divided into the world, the district, and the neighbourhood. These spatial concepts are finally brought together in the synthesis: the world in the home ? the home in the world. The inhabitants at home were involved in social relations which extended far beyond the geography of their settlement site and far beyond economic calculations. To search for these relations I have conducted several empirical studies of the material culture in order to compare their various spatial connections. Even though it cannot be proved that Central European Neolithic communities (LBK) played any crucial role in the shaping of individual groups of artefacts, the changes in the Mesolithic cultures of southern Scandinavia nevertheless illustrate that these were part of a well-functioning network of long-distance contacts in which several important stimuli for change were transmitted. The exchange of objects means, above all, changes and reinterpretations of the ideas contained in the objects. Chapman (2000) describes this in terms of translations, showing how content and meanings get lost in connection with this. In the dissertation I use the concept of reinterpretations. The community at Strandvägen and the archaeological traces that remain of it are not primarily interpreted to have been shaped according to economic pragmatism/functionalism but to have functioned as components in interpersonal relationships and in social constructions, i.e. cosmologies. My suggestion is a frame of local communities open to communication, with similar reinterpretations of a cosmological world order. Certain ingredients and phenomena in the cosmology were more important than others and therefore more alike. An important common denominator is water, fish and fishing, and the animals that live in water, e.g. seal. The conclusion is that the home was reflexively linked to the neighbourhood, the district, and the world through social relations. The home was in the world and the world was in the home.
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