scholarly journals Meeting for Transformation: A Locality for Ritual Activities During the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture in Central Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-201
Author(s):  
Lars Larsson ◽  
Sven-Gunnar Broström
Keyword(s):  
Northern Sweden ◽  
Natural Boundary ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Innermost Part ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture

The former island of Södertörn, just south of Stock- holm, was intensively settled during the Early Neo- lithic. For more than twenty years a field at Stensborg, Grödinge parish, was surveyed for surface finds. Most numerous among the various artefact categories were axes, with stone axes of different shapes showing that they had been intentionally fragmented. Fragments of pointed-butted and thin-butted flint axes were also found, all of them changed by intensive heat. Just as the flint axes indicate contact with southern Scandi- navia, slate objects demonstrate the existence of net- works extending to northern Sweden. During the Early Neolithic the site was a slope situ- ated in the innermost part of a bay, delimited by the shoreline on one side and a ridge on the opposite side. Two small but pronounced ravines of streams also form part of the natural boundary of the site. During excavation of the field several small pits were found that were filled with fragments of axes, pottery and other objects, along with a considerable amount of carbonized seed. Most of the finds have in- dications of destruction, either directly or by the use of fire. The field seems to have been used as a place for assemblies, where rituals were an important part of the activities. The Stensborg site seems to represent yet another kind of natural enclosure involving ritual activities during the Early Neolithic. This presenta- tion is part of a project in progress.

scholarly journals Herbivore diets and the anthropogenic environment of early farming in southern Scandinavia

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt J Gron ◽  
Peter Rowley-Conwy
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Human Influence ◽  
Domestic Species ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Dietary Variation ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture ◽  
Feeding Environments

Farming practice in the first period of the southern Scandinavian Neolithic (Early Neolithic I, Funnel Beaker Culture, 3950–3500 cal. BC) is not well understood. Despite the presence of the first farmers and their domesticated plants and animals, little evidence of profound changes to the landscape such as widespread deforestation has emerged from this crucial early period. Bone collagen dietary stable isotope ratios of wild herbivores from southern Scandinavia are here analysed in order to determine the expected range of dietary variation across the landscape. Coupled with previously published isotope data, differences in dietary variation between wild and domestic species indicate strong human influence on the choice and creation of feeding environments for cattle. In context with palynological and zooarchaeological data, we demonstrate that a human-built agricultural environment was present from the outset of farming in the region, and such a pattern is consistent with the process by which expansion agriculture moves into previously unfarmed regions.

scholarly journals The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizon

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1912) ◽  
pp. 20191528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Malmström ◽  
Torsten Günther ◽  
Emma M. Svensson ◽  
Anna Juras ◽  
Magdalena Fraser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Published Data ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Sea Area ◽  
Common Era

The Neolithic period is characterized by major cultural transformations and human migrations, with lasting effects across Europe. To understand the population dynamics in Neolithic Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea area, we investigate the genomes of individuals associated with the Battle Axe Culture (BAC), a Middle Neolithic complex in Scandinavia resembling the continental Corded Ware Culture (CWC). We sequenced 11 individuals (dated to 3330–1665 calibrated before common era (cal BCE)) from modern-day Sweden, Estonia, and Poland to 0.26–3.24× coverage. Three of the individuals were from CWC contexts and two from the central-Swedish BAC burial ‘Bergsgraven’. By analysing these genomes together with the previously published data, we show that the BAC represents a group different from other Neolithic populations in Scandinavia, revealing stratification among cultural groups. Similar to continental CWC, the BAC-associated individuals display ancestry from the Pontic–Caspian steppe herders, as well as smaller components originating from hunter–gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers. Thus, the steppe ancestry seen in these Scandinavian BAC individuals can be explained only by migration into Scandinavia. Furthermore, we highlight the reuse of megalithic tombs of the earlier Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) by people related to BAC. The BAC groups likely mixed with resident middle Neolithic farmers (e.g. FBC) without substantial contributions from Neolithic foragers.

scholarly journals Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 575-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt J. Gron ◽  
Darren R. Gröcke ◽  
Mikael Larsson ◽  
Lasse Sørensen ◽  
Lars Larsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Isotope Evidence ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture

Social Dimensions of Early Neolithic Denmark

1975 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klavs Randsborg
Keyword(s):  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Geographical Differences ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The North ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture ◽  
Cultural Features

In 1947 C. J. Becker, in his fundamental classifying work on the Early Neolithic phase of the socalled ‘Funnel-Beaker Culture’, described this set of phenomena within a frame of reference which can at best be termed ‘tribal’ (Becker 1947). For instance, in the late period of the Early Neolithic, Period C of the sequence, he observes certain differences, primarily of the type of decoration, in the pottery of respectively Northern Jutland and Southern Denmark. This result is connected with the differential patterns of distribution for other cultural features including forms of burial. Accordingly, the southern complex is baptized ‘The South Danish Megalithic Group’, the northern one ‘The North Jutland Non-Megalithic Group’. In Southern Denmark simple—‘earth’—graves are very few, while a much higher number of dolmens with Early Neolithic C pottery is known. In North Jutland the number of earth graves is considerable, but the picture is blurred by a relatively high number of dolmens too.Each of these assemblages, and a few minor ones not to be mentioned here, is seen as referring to a ‘tribe’ or ‘a group of tribes’ sharing the said types of graves, decorations on pottery, and, for instance, specific types of weapons. No clear-cut borderlines can, however, be drawn between the complexes as the geographical differences of the distributions consist of statistical concentrations of one or another trait in one area rather than of mutual exclusions. Only the type of decoration on the North Jutland pottery does not seem to occur outside this zone, while the reverse is not the case.

Structural phenomena in the growth of carbon nanotubes

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 750-751
Author(s):  
Jun Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Nanotubes ◽  
Growth Mechanism ◽  
Carbonaceous Material ◽  
Cluster Growth ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Different Shapes ◽  
Point To Point

HREM studies of the carbonaceous material deposited on the cathode of a Huffman-Krätschmer arc reactor have shown a rich variety of multiple-walled nano-clusters of different shapes and forms. The preparation of the samples, as well as the variety of cluster shapes, including triangular, rhombohedral and pentagonal projections, are described elsewhere.The close registry imposed on the nanotubes, focuses attention on the cluster growth mechanism. The strict parallelism in the graphitic separation of the tube walls is maintained through changes of form and size, often leading to 180° turns, and accommodating neighboring clusters and defects. Iijima et. al. have proposed a growth scheme in terms of pentagonal and heptagonal defects and their combinations in a hexagonal graphitic matrix, the first bending the surface inward, and the second outward. We report here HREM observations that support Iijima’s suggestions, and add some new features that refine the interpretation of the growth mechanism. The structural elements of our observations are briefly summarized in the following four micrographs, taken in a Hitachi H-8100 TEM operating at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV and with a point-to-point resolution of 0.20 nm.

Social organization in the Orcadian Neolithic: identification of elite domestic structures and settlements through analysis of excavation data

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
David MacInnes
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Methods Of Analysis ◽  
The Subject

The nature of social organization during the Orcadian Neolithic has been the subject of discussion for several decades with much of the debate focused on answering an insightful question posed by Colin Renfrew in 1979. He asked, how was society organised to construct the larger, innovative monuments of the Orcadian Late Neolithic that were centralised in the western Mainland? There are many possible answers to the question but little evidence pointing to a probable solution, so the discussion has continued for many years. This paper takes a new approach by asking a different question: what can be learned about Orcadian Neolithic social organization from the quantitative and qualitative evidence accumulating from excavated domestic structures and settlements?In an attempt to answer this question, quantitative and qualitative data about domestic structures and about settlements was collected from published reports on 15 Orcadian Neolithic excavated sites. The published data is less extensive than hoped but is sufficient to support a provisional answer: a social hierarchy probably did not develop in the Early Neolithic but almost certainly did in the Late Neolithic, for which the data is more comprehensive.While this is only one approach of several possible ways to consider the question, it is by exploring different methods of analysis and comparing them that an understanding of the Orcadian Neolithic can move forward.

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