Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway
This paper explores environmental variations in time and space, adaptive strategies and possible cultural responses to climatic changes as manifested through archaeological data in terms of lithic tool technology, site density and settlement patterns. The objective is investigated by two case studie...
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ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/2487114 2023-05-15T15:00:50+02:00 Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway Solheim, Steinar Fossum, Guro Breivik, Heidi Mjelva 2017 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2487114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 eng eng Elsevier Quaternary International. 2017, . urn:issn:1040-6182 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2487114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 cristin:1455474 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no CC-BY-NC-ND 18 Quaternary International Journal article Peer reviewed 2017 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 2019-09-17T06:53:44Z This paper explores environmental variations in time and space, adaptive strategies and possible cultural responses to climatic changes as manifested through archaeological data in terms of lithic tool technology, site density and settlement patterns. The objective is investigated by two case studies from Mesolithic Norway. The first case deals with the earliest settlement phase of Norway (c. 11,500–10,000 cal. BP), which climatically encompasses gradual changes from cold, arctic conditions, to a milder sub-arctic climate, as well as the rapid Preboreal Oscillation (PBO) cold event. The second case explores the 8200 cal. BP cold event and its effect on culture and settlement in Southeast Norway. The studies suggest that the coastal settlement, in terms of site density, was not affected by either the PBO or the 8200 cal. BP event. Changes in site location patterns seem to have occurred gradually and on a long-term scale. Shifts in lithic technology are detected within the Mesolithic periods, but a correlation between abrupt climatic alterations and cultural changes are yet to be proved. We argue, therefore, that in these northern, coastal environments, declining temperatures may have had less impact than on the Continental Plains, and may in fact have improved the living conditions for a range of marine species. Also, the Mesolithic populations seemed to have employed a generalized lithic toolkit and a flexible mobility system – adaptive strategies that was able to withstand environmental variations in time and space. acceptedVersion © 2017. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 1.3.2019 due to copyright restrictions. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Arctic Norway Quaternary International 465 258 275 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
This paper explores environmental variations in time and space, adaptive strategies and possible cultural responses to climatic changes as manifested through archaeological data in terms of lithic tool technology, site density and settlement patterns. The objective is investigated by two case studies from Mesolithic Norway. The first case deals with the earliest settlement phase of Norway (c. 11,500–10,000 cal. BP), which climatically encompasses gradual changes from cold, arctic conditions, to a milder sub-arctic climate, as well as the rapid Preboreal Oscillation (PBO) cold event. The second case explores the 8200 cal. BP cold event and its effect on culture and settlement in Southeast Norway. The studies suggest that the coastal settlement, in terms of site density, was not affected by either the PBO or the 8200 cal. BP event. Changes in site location patterns seem to have occurred gradually and on a long-term scale. Shifts in lithic technology are detected within the Mesolithic periods, but a correlation between abrupt climatic alterations and cultural changes are yet to be proved. We argue, therefore, that in these northern, coastal environments, declining temperatures may have had less impact than on the Continental Plains, and may in fact have improved the living conditions for a range of marine species. Also, the Mesolithic populations seemed to have employed a generalized lithic toolkit and a flexible mobility system – adaptive strategies that was able to withstand environmental variations in time and space. acceptedVersion © 2017. This is the authors’ accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 1.3.2019 due to copyright restrictions. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Solheim, Steinar Fossum, Guro Breivik, Heidi Mjelva |
spellingShingle |
Solheim, Steinar Fossum, Guro Breivik, Heidi Mjelva Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
author_facet |
Solheim, Steinar Fossum, Guro Breivik, Heidi Mjelva |
author_sort |
Solheim, Steinar |
title |
Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
title_short |
Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
title_full |
Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
title_fullStr |
Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: Two stories from Mesolithic Norway |
title_sort |
exploring human responses to climatic fluctuations and environmental diversity: two stories from mesolithic norway |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2487114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
18 Quaternary International |
op_relation |
Quaternary International. 2017, . urn:issn:1040-6182 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2487114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 cristin:1455474 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.no |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.019 |
container_title |
Quaternary International |
container_volume |
465 |
container_start_page |
258 |
op_container_end_page |
275 |
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1766332896578109440 |