Maritime Hunter-Gatherers Adopt Cultivation at the Farming Extreme of Northern Europe 5000 Years Ago

Santeri Vanhanen,Volker Heyd,Stefan Gustafsson,Håkan Ranheden,Marianna Kemell,Niclas Björck

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41293-z

Santeri Vanhanen, Volker Heyd + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41293-z

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Abstract

The dynamics of the origins and spread of farming are globally debated in anthropology and archaeology. Lately, numerous aDNA studies have turned the tide in favour of migrations, leaving only a few cases in Neolithic Europe where hunter-gatherers might have adopted agriculture. It is thus widely accepted that agriculture was expanding to its northern extreme in Sweden c. 4000 BC by migrating Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) farmers. This was followed by intense contacts with local hunter-gatherers, leading to the development of the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC), who nonetheless relied on maritime prey. Here, we present archaeobotanical remains from Sweden and the Åland archipelago (Finland) showing that PWC used free-threshing barley and hulled and free-threshing wheat from c. 3300 BC. We suggest that these hunter-gatherers adopted cultivation from FBC farmers and brought it to islands beyond the 60th parallel north. Based on directly dated grains, land areas suitable for cultivation, and absence of signs of exchange with FBC in Sweden, we argue that PWC cultivated crops in Åland. While we have isotopic and lipid-biomarker proof that their main subsistence was still hunting/fishing/gathering, we argue small-scale cereal use was intended for ritual feasts, when cereal products could have been consumed with pork.

Highlights

The first Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) farmers reached the northernmost extreme of farming in east-central Sweden c. 4000 BC, when terrestrial pollen records show high summer temperatures for northeast Europe and Finland (Fig. 1)[1,2]
This dialectic has been demonstrated in recent ancient DNA studies, which conclude that Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) hunter-gatherers and FBC farmers had different genetic origins[16,17], albeit with minor gene exchange[18]
To study which plants PWC people collected, or whether they even cultivated plants in this pelagic environment, situated at the northern margins of farming, we have studied archaeobotanical plant remains and AMS radiocarbon dated remains from the Åland Islands and east-central Sweden and compared them with earlier and later finds from the region

Summary

Introduction

The first FBC farmers reached the northernmost extreme of farming in east-central Sweden c. 4000 BC, when terrestrial pollen records show high summer temperatures for northeast Europe and Finland (Fig. 1)[1,2]. In contrast to the more geometric motifs of contemporary FBC farmers, the PWC had an animistic cosmography similar to the Mesolithic and Comb Ceramic hunter-gatherers of the Baltic[13,14]. Both FBC and PWC buried their dead in flat inhumation graves with occasional cremations[13,14]. Osteological measurements have shown that the PWC physiologically adapted to the cold climate, as opposed to other contemporaneous groups[15] This dialectic has been demonstrated in recent ancient DNA studies, which conclude that PWC hunter-gatherers and FBC farmers had different genetic origins[16,17], albeit with minor gene exchange[18]. Structures such as huts, hearths, cooking pits, and graves have been discovered (Supplementary Fig. 7)

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