Early Mesolithic activities at ancient Lake Duvensee, northern Germany

Abstract

The ancient lake Duvensee in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is one of the prime locations in northern Europe for early Holocene research. Archaeological sites on the former lakeshore provide vivid illustrations of early Mesolithic life, with bark mats and other organic finds preserved, including evidence for the extensive use of hazelnuts. Although the area has been the subject of research for almost 100 years, a coherent summary of these discoveries has not yet been written. Here we review past research at Duvensee, and give some prospects for further research. We show that the Duvensee sites varied in their structure and chronology. While only a limited number of sites can be connected to hazelnut exploitation, some of them show signs of hafting and retooling and other domestic activities. At a few sites, specific hearths were excavated which can be connected with hazelnut roasting and other subsistence activities. Finally, we show that while most earlier studies focused almost exclusively on archaeological research questions, Duvensee has the potential to reveal not only transformations in human behaviour, but also environmental changes at a detailed scale; we therefore argue for a more holistic perspective and multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing prehistoric landscapes and cultural transformations.

Human encroachment, climate change and the loss of our archaeological organic cultural heritage: Accelerated bone deterioration at Ageröd, a revisited Scandinavian Mesolithic key-site in despair

“…By a standard zooarchaeological analysis on both the material from the old excavations and the new, it is possible to detect certain trends. Lately, several Mesolithic sites from Northern Europe have been revisited both physically and by going through old documentation and remains [ 10 , 50 – 53 ]. While old excavations are often fraught with different types of problems, which makes certain aspects of the recovered remains difficult to compare, much information can still be obtained.…”

Reconstructing the palaeoenvironment at the early Mesolithic site of Lake Duvensee: Ground-penetrating radar and geoarchaeology for 3D facies mapping

“…In this paper, we present a geophysical investigation of the Duvensee palaeolake in south-eastern Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, which is one of the most relevant micro-regions for early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer archaeology on the Northern European Plain (Groß et al, 2018). The former lake occupies a depressed area within late Pleistocene sandy moraines that was formed by melting dead-ice after the retreat of the last Weichselian glaciation.…”

Geochemistry of a sedimentary section at the Wąwelnica archaeological site, Szczecin Hills (Western Pomerania)

“…Mesolithic camps were usually being set up in dry, sandy areas with direct access to water, such as Wąwelnica, Dobra and Dołuje (Galiński 1992;Kobusiewicz 1999). The close association between the Mesolithic settlement network and the shores of water bodies and the riverine network was demonstrated also by studies in, inter alia, the Myślibórz Lakeland (Kotrys 2015), the Łagów Lakeland (Sobkowiak-Tabaka et al 2018), Charzykowy Plain (Bagniewski 1983(Bagniewski , 1987 and northern Germany (Groß et al 2018).…”