From Foragers to Fisher-Farmers: How the Neolithisation Process Affected Coastal Fisheries in Scandinavia

Abstract

The Neolithisation process altered human dependence on wild food sources, and dominant models of the Neolithic transition in Scandinavia still focus on cultural divisions. This study emphasises the evidence of creolization processes, in particular the exploitation of Atlantic Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) among Neolithic fisher-farmers north and east of the Skagerrak Sea in Scandinavia (4000–2350 cal BCE). The site Jortveit in Southern Norway, where Bluefin tuna was caught with toggling harpoons, is used as a point of departure. In order to understand this phenomenon, the first empirical review of prehistoric toggling harpoons in Central and Eastern Europe is presented. Toggling harpoons first appeared in the late Vinĉa Culture, then in the Gumelniţa, Cucuteni-Trypillia, and Sredny Stog cultural complexes further east, and finally in Central Europe and Scandinavia during the time of the Funnel Beaker Culture. Considering the accumulated evidence of long distance contact from Eastern to Central Europe and Scandinavia in the early fourth millennium BCE, it is argued that toggling harpoon technology was distributed through trade networks. Its appearance around the Skagerrak Sea in the Neolithic reflects fisher-farmers using a creolized fishing technology, inspired by Eneolithic societies.