Stone-age subsistence strategies at Lake Burtnieks, Latvia

Holocene fire activity during low-natural flammability periods reveals scale-dependent cultural human-fire relationships in Europe

“…However, the presence of local Mesolithic groups and social interactions between them are well known across the CEL (Latałowa, 1992;Wacnik et al, 2011;Zvelebil, 2006Zvelebil, , 2008. Increasing knowledge of Mesolithic (and early Neolithic) cultures around the Baltic Sea indicates that their subsistence mainly relied on marine or freshwater fishing, but always included forest-based resources (Meadows et al, 2016;Rimantienė, 1992;Zvelebil, 2008) that required maintaining open space in forests (Bishop et al, 2015). Fire is regarded as an important tool, for example, to selectively support food production, especially hazel (Corylus avellana) (Holst, 2010;Wacnik et al, 2011;Zvelebil, 2008), or to keep clearings open to attract game (Bishop et al, 2015).…”

“…The degree of intentional forest disturbance and use of forest resources probably varied in space and time (Meadows et al, 2016;Poska and Saarse, 2002;Wacnik et al, 2011;Zvelebil, 2008) and in relation to access to other resources from, e.g., rivers, the sea, or early contacts with sedentary cultures (Krause-Kyora et al, 2013;Silva and Vander Linden, 2017). For example, new analytical approaches in archaeology suggest that Mesolithic forest-based diets were reduced in favor of waterbased diets in the Baltic hinterland (Meadows et al, 2016). Accordingly, Baltic CHAR anomalies (Fig.…”

“…Eastern CEL fire activity might therefore be influenced by a climatic shift. Although the first traces of cereals and pastoralism appear in the region during that time (Madeja et al, 2010;Poska et al, 2004;Trondman et al, 2015) as a result of the appearance of, e.g., the Funnel Beaker and Corded Ware cultures (Table S3), archeological and land cover data suggest that Baltic cultures still relied primarily on forest-and water-based resources (Meadows et al, 2016;Poska et al, 2004;Rimantienė, 1992;Wacnik, 2009). Only after the onset of the Bronze Age (4,000 cal.…”

The transition from foraging to farming (7000–500 cal BC) in the SE Baltic: A re-evaluation of chronological and palaeodietary evidence from human remains

“…These estimations, however, do not consider the contribution of low protein wild plant foods to diet, which was likely to have been significant. For example, based on the isotope analysis undertaken at Zvejnieki, it is estimated using a Bayesian model that plant foods provided 25-50% of the calorific intake during the Subneolithic Narva phase (Meadows et al, 2016).…”

“…The data for expected inland fish consumers' area, Latvian stable isotope data from the Subneolithic Ri ukalns site, was adapted from Schmölcke et al (2015), while the other animal data was taken from Lithuanian Subneolithic-Bronze Age sites (see Table 4). (Fischer et al, 2007;Eriksson, 2004;Piličiauskas et al, 2017b;Tõrv and Meadows, 2015;Antanaitis-Jacobs et al, 2009;Eriksson et al, 2003;Meadows et al, 2016;Reitsema, 2012;Pospieszny et al, 2015;Eriksson and Howcroft, 2014;Laneman, 2012;Laneman and Lang, 2013;Fornander, 2013;Reitsema et al, 2010). 1-4 year old children are excluded in order to avoid data distortion due to breastfeeding.…”