Hunter-Gatherer Variability: Developing Models for the Northern Coasts

Rowley‐Conwy, Peter; Piper, Stephanie

doi:10.14430/arctic4623

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…With increasing sedentism, if supported by predictable and sustainable amounts of food, human foraging societies tend to experience increasing populations [ 9 ]. When these societies are located in temperate zones where resources are abundant only in particular areas and during limited periods of the year, claims of resource ownership often increase along with a territorialization of the landscape [ 11 ]. Indeed, the territorialization of the Early Holocene landscape has already been suggested for Mesolithic Scandinavian communities (cf.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Holocene Scandinavian foragers on a journey to affluence: Mesolithic fish exploitation, seasonal abundance and storage investigated through strontium isotope ratios by laser ablation (LA‐MC-ICP‐MS)

et al. 2021

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At Norje Sunnansund, an Early Holocene settlement in southern Sweden, the world’s earliest evidence of fermentation has been interpreted as a method of managing long-term and large-scale food surplus. While an advanced fishery is suggested by the number of recovered fish bones, until now it has not been possible to identify the origin of the fish, or whether and how their seasonal migration was exploited. We analysed strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in 16 cyprinid and 8 pike teeth, which were recovered at the site, both from within the fermentation pit and from different areas outside of it, by using laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our investigation indicates three different regions of origin for the fish at the site. We find that the most commonly fermented fish, cyprinids (roach), were caught in the autumn during their seasonal migration from the Baltic Sea to the sheltered stream and lake next to the site. This is in contrast to the cyprinids from other areas of the site, which were caught when migrating from nearby estuaries and the Baltic Sea coast during late spring. The pikes from the fermentation pit were caught in the autumn as by-catch to the mainly targeted roach while moving from the nearby Baltic Sea coast. Lastly, the pikes from outside the fermentation pit were likely caught as they migrated from nearby waters in sedimentary bedrock areas to the south of the site, to spawn in early spring. Combined, these data suggest an advanced fishery with the ability to combine optimal use of seasonal fish abundance at different times of the year. Our results offer insights into the practice of delayed-return consumption patterns, provide a more complete view of the storage system used, and increase our understanding of Early Holocene sedentism among northern hunter-fisher-gatherers. By applying advanced strontium isotope analyses to archaeological material integrated into an ecological setting, we present a methodology that can be used elsewhere to enhance our understanding of the otherwise elusive indications of storage practices and fish exploitation patterns among ancient foraging societies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…e.g. [ 11 , 124 , 125 ]. Given the observations presented here, it is worth considering that Early Holocene human societies along the coastline might have been relying on fish migrations/congregations on a much larger scale than has hitherto been considered.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Holocene Scandinavian foragers on a journey to affluence: Mesolithic fish exploitation, seasonal abundance and storage investigated through strontium isotope ratios by laser ablation (LA‐MC-ICP‐MS)

et al. 2021

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“…Continued voyaging along the coasts and inland followed the immigration. Uniformity was created by high human mobility, which decreased in later periods (Bergsvik 2001;Bjerck 2007;Rowley-Conwy and Piper 2016).…”

Section: Discussion Of the Relationships Between Hunter-gatherers Mamentioning

confidence: 99%

Main Territories in South Norway in the Mesolithic

Selsing

2020

Environmental Archaeology

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The focus of this paper is on regionality, the use of main territories and how they are interlinked in the Mesolithic in south Norway during the culmination of the settlement of the mountain area, 8500-7600 cal BP. The main territories and their boundaries are identified by the distribution of specific lithic raw materials and one artefact type, distribution of ungulates and drainage systems. In the Mesolithic, south Norway corresponds to a language family with four dialectic tribes, each one corresponding to a main territory. Based on ethnographic analogies, the inegalitarian higher latitude boreal hunter-gatherer societies had delayed return. The subsistence strategy may have included the defence of resources which were plentiful, concentrated and predictable, with ownership of resource-rich locations such as salmon runs and quarries, while unreliable resources such as unpredictable ungulates may not have been defended. Storing may have resulted in a sedentary period during the yearly round close to resource-rich areas along rivers and coasts. The presence of a cemetery by the seashore at Hummervikholmen, indicates lineal descent groups, linking territories to funerary behaviour. Territorial lineages may have existed, with formal areas for disposal of the dead at least along resource-rich riversides and seashores. However, these may have been destroyed by erosion and other destruction processes. Lithic markers indicate that foragers from the four main territories maintained a network of links following the drainage systems and crossing the mountain area in the Central Main Territory, which was temporarily settled by people from the other main territories. Here, people from different directions could meet during the warm season hunting reindeer. In the river sources around the water divide areas, people may have had meeting places, exchanging information over large areas of south Norway. The activities at the meeting places were connected to a reindeer culture with long diasporic traditions reaching back to their origin at the lateglacial Continent. Reindeer are proposed to have had a central role in the grouping of the main territories.

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“…We also built on prior classifications of hunting and gathering and pastoralism [ 59 – 61 ] but in a way that is adapted to the possibilities and limitations of archaeological evidence and accommodates a database structure that includes numerous additional variables. Khasanov’s [ 62 ] categorization of pastoralism, for example, is a useful framework to break down livestock management practices according to levels of mobility; spatial and temporal patterns of movement between resource zones are clearly a significant factor in the potential land cover impact of pastoralism.…”

Section: Classifying Past Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization

et al. 2021

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In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.

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Hunter-Gatherer Variability: Developing Models for the Northern Coasts

Cited by 11 publications

References 30 publications

Early Holocene Scandinavian foragers on a journey to affluence: Mesolithic fish exploitation, seasonal abundance and storage investigated through strontium isotope ratios by laser ablation (LA‐MC-ICP‐MS)

Early Holocene Scandinavian foragers on a journey to affluence: Mesolithic fish exploitation, seasonal abundance and storage investigated through strontium isotope ratios by laser ablation (LA‐MC-ICP‐MS)

Main Territories in South Norway in the Mesolithic

Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization

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