Luebke 2009 - Hunter and Fisher in a changing world. Investigations on submerged Stone Age sites off the Baltic Coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany (original) (raw)

Postglacial pioneer settlement in the Lake Sarvinki area, eastern Finland. In Riede, F. & Tallavaara, M. (eds.) BAR S2599 2014: Lateglacial and Postglacial Pioneers in Northern Europe.

BAR S2599 2014: Lateglacial and Postglacial Pioneers in Northern Europe edited by Miikka Tallaavaara and Felix Riede. ISBN 9781407312316., 2014

"In this contribution, we focus on the Lake Sarvinki area in eastern Finland and its position in the postglacial colonisation of Fennoscandia. Two sites (Rahakangas 1 and Jokivarsi 1) with radiocarbon dates reaching as far as c. 11,100–10,600 cal BP, contemporary to the late part of Yoldia Sea phase in the Baltic Sea basin, have been studied on a former lake shore. The excavations at Rahakangas 1 in 2009–10 concentrated in and around a house-pit. The main finds consist of a red ochre grave, burnt bones and chipped lithics. Radiocarbon determinations show three periods of site use, one in the Early Mesolithic, one in the Late Mesolithic and one in the Early Metal Period. The refuse fauna from Rahakangas 1 indicates a versatile use of animal resources. The collection of chipped lithics shows a similar pattern, and includes some exotic flints together with local quartz, quartzite and slate. Preserved tooth enamel of a child or a juvenile was found in the grave. Charcoal from the sand filling was dated to the Late Mesolithic, 8600–8408 cal BP. This makes it the oldest dated grave with preserved organic material in Finland and alsothe earliest piece of evidence that connects eastern Finland with the widespread tradition of using red ochre in burials. AMS-dates, artefacts and structures indicate a complex history of site use, and suggest shifts in foraging strategies, mobility, the length of site occupation, and the size and composition of the occupying group."

Hartz, Jöns, Lübke, Schmölcke, Carnap-Bornheim, Heinrich, Klooss, Lüth, Wolters 2014 - Prehistoric Settlements in the south-western Baltic Sea area and Development of the Regional Stone Age Economy. Final report of the SINCOS-II-subproject 4.

Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 92 - 2011, 2014

The article presents the results of the SINCOS research group and the SINCOS II project bundle concerning the changes of the socio-economic system of the communities and societies living on the shore of the southwestern Baltic rim from the mid-Holocene Mesolithic and Neolithic period to the Early Medieval Age. The main focus is laid on the stage of the Littorina Transgression from 6000 to 2000 cal. BC, when the people living in the maritime zone between the Oder estuary and the Oldenburg Rift were facing a continuous shore displacement and a coastal decline, forcing them to move their settlements successively to pretect them from inundation. Because of the regionally differing intensity of the isostatic rebound to the isostatic uplift of northern Scandinavia, the coasts of the Bay of Mecklenburg were affected by this phenomenon to a much larger scale than those of the Arkona Basin and the Pomeranian Bay. Both areas were separated by the Darss Sill, which acted as a threshold between them. To be able to compare the environmental developments and human strategies employed in these regions, both of them were chosen as research Areas and investigated with the same methods. In both research areas all available Information about settlement remains originally positioned on the shore and indicating the relative sea level at their particular period of utilisation – and which thus can be used as sea level index points – were systematically recorded in the SINCOS database and formed the foundation for further research. A systematic survey based on geophysical measurements led to the discovery of numerous submerges sites in both research areas. Some of them offer exceptionalconditions for the preservation of organic material, so that artefacts as well as tools and multifaceted settlement refuse in large quantities could be recovered during surveys and excavations. Field work was restricted to sites from the Late Mesolithic until late Neolithic period between 6000 and 2000 cal. BC, because their remains should reflect the human reaction to the Littorina Transgression in a particular manner. Especially for Wismar Bay – forming one of the most important regional nuclei of research in the Bay of Mecklenburg – a large number of well preserved coastal sites was located, surveyed, and in some cases partly excavated. The material from these sites forms not only the basis for a detailed reconstruction of the chronological development from the Late Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic and the Settlement history for the period from 6000 until 4000 cal. BC, but also for the reconstruction of the intrusion of marine waters into Wismar Bay during the Littorina Transgression. Animal remains in combination with sediment conditions such as transgression contacts provide evidence of the appearance of the transgressing Baltic Sea at some distance from the present Island of Poel at about 6000 cal. BC. Some centuries later, both the fish species community and the frequency of the recorded species prove that the Littorina Transgression had reached this area. In the eastern research area – well investigated especially for the shores of the Bodden waters on Rügen Island – less dramatic changes of the environment meant that specialised sites with favourable general conditions related to their topographic setting were not abandoned as fast as in the western area. In fact, these sites stayed in occupation for centuries, so consequently a chrono-stratigraphic division of the archaeological material is only possible in a limited way. Definitely from the middle of the 5th millennium cal. BC, east as well as west of the Darss Sill the exploitation of the Baltic Sea – the hunting of seals and coastal fishery – became the economic basis of the human communities, and an important feature of the late Terminal Mesolithic Ertebølle Culture. Apparently this stayed true for a period of time, although around 4000 cal. BC the first livestock has been established in the entire southwestern Baltic Sea area. Investigations of aDNA samples have proved that the first cattle had Near Eastern ancestors, so that they must have been imported and did not result from the local domestication of autochthonous specimens. The same must be true for the contemporaneous first sheep and goats, whose ancestors are in any case of Near Eastern origin. During the last 4,000 years shoreline displacement and transgression east of the Darss Sill only affected the coastal settlements to a low degree, even though the sea level also rose here moderately during the Middle Ages as a consequence of the Late Subatlantic Transgression. This contrasts with the Bay of Mecklenburg, where the isostatic rebound together with the Late Subatlantic Transgression led during the Middle Ages to shoreline displacements and considerable erosions of settled and waterfront areas. Within the SINCOS research unit and the SINCOS II project bundle, methods and standards on interdisciplinary research on maritime and submerged prehistoric landscapes and sites could be developed and established for the southwestern Baltic area that may be transferred to other coastal areas affected by sea level changes and shoreline displacement.

Lateglacial and Postglacial Pioneers in Northern Europe

In this article a new set of data on the earliest postglacial settlement in eastern middle Sweden is being presented. The focus is on Mesolithic seal-hunting sites, which at the time of occupation were located on very small and remote is- lands off the Swedish coast. The sites are, in terms of the islands’ small size and relative isolation, among the most ext- reme maritime settlements in northern Europe. Recent excavations of these sites revealed dwelling structures and black lumps of ‘blubber concrete’, which is the result of heating with blubber oil. The find-material gives us rare insight to maritime technology and logistics during the early post-glacial colonization of Scandinavia. Key words: Stockholm area, land upheaval, seal hunting, colonization, small and remote islands, shel- tered harbours, blubber concrete with marine lipids, dwelling structures, Södertörn archipelago, Tyresta archipelago, round rocks, Grey Seal.