Of people and animals Trajectories of land and animal use at the transition to the producing economy in Southern Scandinavia

Hinz, Martin (17 June 2022). Of people and animals Trajectories of land and animal use at the transition to the producing economy in Southern Scandinavia (Unpublished). In: LOST 2022 – Changing Identity in a changing World. Maribo, Dänemark. 16.-17. Juni 2022.

The definition of the Neolithic as a phase of changed economic activity shapes the picture we have of early agricultural and stock-breeding societies. Due to this background, the perception is imposed that the daily routines and the way of life of these people would have been fundamentally different from the previous Mesolithic period. However, over long periods of the early Funnel Beaker Culture of southern Scandinavia, little seems to have happened in terms of fundamental change. Only from about 3700 BCE, i.e. 400 years after the canonical beginning of the Neolithic in the region, indicators for human presence in the number of settlements and human impact in pollen diagrams, as well as the use of domesticated animals, change significantly. Also in the distribution of settlements in the landscape, as far as verifiable, clear differences to the Mesolithic can only be discerned from this period onwards. But even after this turning point, there are still clear continuities. This suggests that hunting and gathering played a more important role in the organisation of daily life for the people of the 4th millennium than generally imagined.

In this contribution, I would like to present the results of the SPP 1400 project concerning the character of the Early Neolithic in Southern Scandinavia. In doing so, I will rely mainly on my own investigations, which, however, would not have been possible without the extensive work of the many colleagues within the project. Considering this transition in a perhaps realistic and differentiated way, it becomes clear that the lifestyle of past people cannot simply be classified as Mesolithic or Neolithic, but that we have to assume a long-lasting transition process with an internal dynamic of its own.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

0 since deposited on 29 Mar 2023
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item