Hunter-gatherer adaptions during the Early Holocene in Northern Sweden ...

• Main Author: Ekholm, Therese
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: SAGE Journals 2020
• Subjects: Geography; History; Ice Sheet; Northern Sweden; taiga
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.5171674.v1; https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Hunter-gatherer_adaptions_during_the_Early_Holocene_in_Northern_Sweden/5171674/1

This paper deals with the study of the ecology of early Holocene, 9000-4000 cal BC, specifically human and faunal dispersal into the Norrland and Dalarna areas of northern Sweden. It has been hypothesised that this region of Sweden was settled by hunter-gatherer groups of Butovo/Veretye ancestry moving in from the eastern taiga zone and at the same time groups from the West Scandinavian coast were moving north following the melting Weichselian ice sheet. Due to the speed of the melting ice these two groups must have encountered each other in the central part of northern Sweden. This article discusses the environment of these two separate groups and the possible consequences of their encounter, informed by results from the zooarchaeological analysis of burnt, radiocarbon dated bones from sites spanning much of Norrland and Dalarna. A compilation of previously dated sites are presented, and also new 14 C dates from excavated sites. The northern population preferred to hunt forest game and held on to it for a ...