Traditionally, the Mesolithic has been regarded a time of cultural
regression in northern Europe, relieved only around 4000 BCE when
the enlightened villagers of the Neolithic arrived on the scene,
bringing with them the beginnings of agriculture. But new evidence
in the last 30 years has led archaeologists to think of the early
postglacial foragers that lived in the Mesolithic as complex,
sedentary coastal dwellers who made the era a time of innovation,
interaction and successful adaptation to a rapidly changing
environment. The excavations at Smakkerup Huse help to flesh out
this revised portrait. Although the settlement area (5000 to 3900
BCE) on land had suffered marine erosion, submerged deposits
adjacent to the settlement included a midden and a fishing and
boat-landing area in excellent condition, with numerous organic
materials surviving intact.;Deposits included fire-cracked rock,
charcoal, oyster shells, amber and teeth pendants, a complete rack
of antlers, pieces of dugout canoes and a bow, pointed wooden
stakes, large pieces of bark and fungus, thousands of hazelnut
shells and fishbones, a fish trap fragment, fishhooks, worked bone
and antler tools, potsherds and more than 350 projectile points.
The most intriguing artefact was a small painted cobble, a type
previously unknown from the Danish Mesolithic. The site also
yielded remains from some of the earliest domestic cattle in
Denmark, raising important questions about foraging adaptations and
the transition to agriculture. Besides specialist reports from
geology, archaeozoology, palaeoethnobotany, archaeological
chemistry and conservation science, there are useful chapters
describing the Mesolithic in southern Scandinavia and situating the
Smakkerup Huse finds within the context of this time of critical
transition.
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