The Neolithisation of Denmark
Edited by
Anders Fischer [+–]
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
Kristian Kristiansen [+–]
University of Gothenburg
Kristian Kristiansen is Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg.
This book documents the rise of prehistory from its first faltering steps to a sophisticated discipline, bringing together key papers in the debate since 1851.
Prehistory was born in Denmark, and over the last century and a half an outstanding succession of archaeologists has developed revolutionary approaches to the past, pioneering artefactural, economic, environmental and ecological interpretations. Central to this development was a debate centred around the relationship between the Ertebølle hunters and gatherers who left its distinctive megalithic tombs. Were the differences cultural, economic, seasonal or chronological? This is a debate that has continued unabated.
Table of Contents
Figures
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
Preface
Preface [+–] 1
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
This book documents the rise of prehistory from its first faltering steps to a sophisticated discipline, bringing together key papers in the debate since 1851. Prehistory was born in Denmark, and over the last century and a half an outstanding succession of archaeologists has developed revolutionary approaches to the past, pioneering artefactural, economic, environmental and ecological interpretations. Central to this development was a debate centred around the relationship between the Ertebølle hunters and gatherers who left its distinctive megalithic tombs. Were the differences cultural, economic, seasonal or chronological? This is a debate that has continued unabated.
Chapter 1
Editorial Introduction to the Papers [+–] 5-7
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
The Introduction of cattle husbandry in northern Europe has twice given rise to profound debate: among the indigenous population experiencing the innovation, and among individuals of modern times studying this major change in the human way of life.
Chapter 2
The Birth of Ecological Archaeology in Denmark: history and research environments 1850-2000 [+–] 11-31
University of Gothenburg
Kristian Kristiansen is Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg.
The formation of the archaeological, geological and biological sciences during the 19th century was part of the birth of modern times and a new perception of history and science (Toulmin and Goodfield 1966; Grayson 1983). The historical sequence covered by the selected articles in this book begins with this formative period, which was followed by the formation and separation of knowledge into specialist disciplines and the rise of scientific language. It is also characterised by periods of intensive, systematic interdisciplinary research that moved the frontier of knowledge forwards, followed by longer periods of filling in and consolidation, or even standing still.
Chapter 3
J.J.S. Steenstrup,J.G. Forchhammer,J.J.A. Worsaae
The discovery of the Danish kitchen middens was provoked through their destruction. In the middle of the 18th century AD many of these shell deposits were exploited for road materials, marl, etc. In his surveys of such shell deposits from 1837 onwards, Professor in Zoology J.J.S. Steenstrup (1813-1885) repeatedly observed humanly worked flint objects. Steenstrup applied to and received a grant from The Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copehagen to run a geological-antiquarian field campaign on a number of such shell deposits.
Chapter 4
J.J.A. Worsaae
During a brief visit to a small island in Maribo Lake in September 1859 J.J.A. Worsaae (1821-1885) observed neumerous course flint artefacts of types already known from the shell middens along the Danish coasts. This chapter represents extracts from two papers presented to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen.
Chapter 5
J. Japetus,J.J.S. Steenstrup
Chapter 5 represents a prompt comment on Professor Worsaae’s lecture of March 18th, 1859. Professor J.J.S. Steenstrup presented it as a lecture at the meeting of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters on April 15th 1859.
Chapter 6
S. Muller,C. Neergaard,C.G.J. Petersen,E. Rostrup,H. Winge
This chapter represents extracts of the concluding pages in Masden et al. 1900, which was the monumental result of ‘The Second Kitchen Midden Committee’. The formal head of the research team was Sophus Muller (1846-1934), who was a brilliant researcher and the authoritative director of the National Museum from 1892-1921. This research group was characterised by being deliberately multidisciplinary.
Chapter 7
C.G. Johannes Peterson
This paper was written by Carl George Johannes Petersen (1860-1928), who was member of the Royal Academy of Sciences abd Letters in Copenhagen and founder of marine and fishing research in Denmark. He calculated the nutritional importance of oyster and fish to have been very inferior to the yields of hunting. Furthermore he estimated the time of accumulation of the Mejlgård kitchen midden and approximately 1200 years.
Chapter 8
Danish National Museum
During World War II numerous prehistoric artefacts and sites were unearthed during peat extraction in Danish bogs. The staff of the department of Prehistory at the National Museum of Denmark was busy with salvaging such artefacts and assemblages all over Denmark. The Keeper Carl Johan Becker (1915-2001) had responsibility for several of the major settlement excavations. He also undertook much of the cataloguing of finds collected by other staff members – excluding the finds from Store Åmose. This chapter is a republication of part of Becker’s doctoral thesis.
Chapter 9
The Influence of Prehistoric Man of Vegetation [+–] 105-116
Johannes Iversen
Johannes Iversen (1904-1971) focussed on vegetation history throughout his career. He placed pollen analysis as a central method for understanding the neolithisation of Northern Europe. This chapter was presented as a lecture given at the University of Cambridge.
Chapter 10
Ertebølle Culture – Farmer Culture: results of the past ten years’ excavations in the Åmose, West Zealand [+–] 119-142
J. Troels-Smith
Aiming at precise stratigraphical control for each artefact Jørgen Troels-Smith (1916-1991) developed an excavation system radically different from the one which had been applied to Danish excavations of cultural layers since the days of ‘The Second Kitchen Midden Commission’. This paper identifies the interdisciplinary approach which characterised Troels-Smith’s research into the Neolithisation of Denmark and Switzerland.
Chapter 11
Danish National Museum
This chapter is a re-publication of the major part of the English summary of ‘The Stone Age settlement at Store Valby: problems concerning the first and last phases of the TRB culture.’
Chapter 12
J. Troels-Smith
In the following paper Jørgen Troels-Smith (1916-1991) argues, on the basis of pollen analyses from Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden, that the practice of feeding cattle with leaves was introduced in these countries with the earliest agriculture.
Chapter 13
Johannes Iversen
The practice of ringing deciduous trees id described in the following chapter by Johannes Iversen (1904-1971). This chapter also presents the results of the instructive ‘Draved experiment’ replicating early Neolithic slash-and-burn agriculture as interpreted from pollen analytical studies of the early neolithic transformation of the north European deciduous forest.
Chapter 14
The Relationship between the South Scandinavian Funnel Beaker Culture and the Ertebølle Culture [+–] 213-217
Jørgen Skaarup
Skaarup’s demonstration of the early Funnel Beaker Culture succeeding the Ertebølle Culture, and his interpretation of this fact within the framework of the traditional invasion model.
Chapter 15
The Transition from the Early to the Late Stone Age in Southern Scandinavia, seen from a Mesolithic Point of View [+–] 221-230
Søren H Andersen
This chapter was a provisional presentation of a research programme concentrating on large-scale excavation of late Mesolithic settlements in Jutland.
Chapter 16
The Introduction of Cereals and Cattle into Southern Scandinavia: a population-pressure model [+–] 233-240
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
An ecological approach to neolithisation.
Chapter 17
High Atlantic Food Gathering in Northwestern Zealand: ecological conditions and spatial representation [+–] 243-270
Carsten Paludan-Müller
In this Chapter the High Atlantic food gatherers are being analysed. The purpose is to define the tolerance of that particular subsystem and hence eventually to highlight initial conditions of the local neolithic transition.
Chapter 18
The Laziness of the Short-Distance Hunter: the origins of agriculture in western Denmark [+–] 273-287
Peter Rowley-Conwy
In the following chapter oyster consumption plays an essential role in explaining the introduction of farming in Denmark. The author focused on economy and subsistence with special reference to late Mesolithic and early Neolithic sites in Denmark.
Chapter 19
Population Plasticity in Stone Age Denmark [+–] 291-301
Pia Bennike,Verner Alexandersen
Laboratory of Biological Anthropology
University of Copenhagen
Blegdamsvej 3
DK-2200 Copenhagen
Denmark
University of Copenhagen
Blegdamsvej 3
DK-2200 Copenhagen
Denmark
Denmark is one of the richest regions in Europe as concerns skeletal remains from the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Temporal changes in size, shape and health status are interpreted as adaptations of the indigenous population to a new subsistence.
Chapter 20
The Ertebølle Culture and Neolithic continental Europe: traces of contact and interaction [+–] 305-317
Moesgård Museum
DK-8270 Højbjerg
Denmark
DK-8270 Højbjerg
Denmark
This chapter presents an overview of all imported artefacts of neolithic origin in the late mesolithic Ertebølle Culture in the western Baltic (Denmark, southern Sweden and northern Germany).
Chapter 21
Archäologisches Landesamt Schleswig-Holstein
Institut für Haustierkunde
der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel
der Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel
Archäologisches Landesmuseum und Landesmat für Bodendenkmalpflege
An investigation into the neolithisation process by scholars of the Archäologiches Landesmuseum Schleswig-Holstein.
Chapter 22
Food for Feasting? An evaluation of explanations of the neolithisation of Denmark and southern Sweden [+–] 343-393
National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark
Anders Fischer is Antiquary at the National Forest and Nature Agency in Denmark.
Thanks to new archaeological, archaeometrical, botanical and zoological evidence some of the central questions in the classical debate on the neolithisation of Denmark and Scania can now be answered and others be reformulated into testable hypotheses.
