Description
Book SynopsisOver the last 20 years a vast number of new and important Swedish Mesolithic sites have been excavated and published in different ways as articles, books and site reports. As yet there has been no study that tries to bring the loose ends together and so the main task of this important new work by one of Sweden’s leading prehistorians is to provide an extensive overview of some of the main sites and results. The timespan is long: c. 10 000-4000 BC and the amount and choice of data very large so rather than attempt to describe everything in detail Mats Larsson focuses on a series of fundamental research perspectives concerning Mesolithic lifeways and settlement patterns and chooses key sites to illustrate them. The emphasis is on southern and middle Sweden, though the country’s northern regions are in no way forgotten. This companion piece to the author’s recent successful volume Paths Towards a New World: Neolithic in Sweden, written for a general audience is also a must for all those archaeologists interested in the Mesolithic of Northern Europe and would be students of prehistory.
Trade ReviewDistilling the scattered field notes and site reports of the entire Swedish Mesolithic (9700-4000 BC) into a slim volume is an impressive task never previously accomplished. Yet with his simple and salient writing style, Larsson – one of the country’s premier prehistorians – manages just that, employing a chronological and thematic approach to make sense of the diverse stone tools, bone-filled pits, and rogue post-holes peppered through Sweden's dense forests and Baltic shoals. * Current World Archaeology *
Overall, this is a very interesting book which provides a very thorough overview of Mesolithic sites in Sweden, and especially highlighting a lot of the important new discoveries made within the last couple of decades… a really important source for students of the Mesolithic * Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society *
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. The Mesolithic in Sweden: an introduction Mesolithic on the move 2. Hunters in the Forest Agerödmosse (bog) Settlement patterns and hunting/collecting strategies Life and death The end of the Mesolithic in Scania Segebro-an Early Atlantic Settlement at the coast Ageröd V-An Atlantic bog site Tågerup- Settlement and Burials Yngsjö and Årup The Last Hunters- The Ertebølle Culture Soldattorpet, Limhamn Löddesborg Tågerup Bredasten Yngsjö 3. BLEKINGE: NEW DISCOVERIES Bro 597 Damm 6 Norrje Sunnansund: Tons of fish 4. HUNTERS ALONG THE KALMAR STRAIT AND ON ÖLAND Tingby, a much discussed house New excavations at Tingby Concluding remarks Öland 5. SEALHUNTERS ON GOTLAND Taking care of the dead 6. INTO THE FOREST: EARLY HUNTERS IN THE SOUTH SWEDISH INLAND 7. PIONEERS: HUNTERS IN EASTERN MIDDLE SWEDEN Östergötland. New discoveries The Mjölby sites
Mörby Sand covered houses
Högby Storlyckan: Another site with a dwelling structure The hut Spatial distribution Western Östergötland, Lake Tåkern Sites around Linköping Life and death around Motala Death in the Lake The Late Mesolithic in Östergötland Pioneering hunters: some remarks 8. PIONEERS IN THE EARLY ARCHIPELAGOS OF EASTERN MIDDLE SWEDEN Early sites Late sites 9. MOVING INLAND 10. THE WESTERN PART OF SWEDEN The earliest sites Hensbacka Culture Inland sites Sandarna Culture The dead The Late Mesolithic Lihult
Lihult inland sites Transverse arrowheads 11. MOVING NORTH Leksand Along the coast-further north 12. PIONEERS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTHERN SWEDEN The earliest sites Later Mesolithic Epilogue References
