Abstract
Intentionally deposited groups of artefacts, here classified as hoards, form a relatively understudied aspect of the southern Scandinavian Mesolithic. Here analysis of 124 southern Scandinavian Mesolithic hoards is used to further the concept of ritualization, applying a holistic approach to the observed variability and patterning in their biographies. Contrary to the common assertion that hoarding began in the Neolithic, the results indicate that hoarding practices can be traced back to at least the Early Maglemose and extend throughout the Mesolithic. A catalogue of studied hoards is included in the supplementary online material, as well as a separate catalogue of usewear analysis findings from a subset of the hoards.
Highlights
The hoarding practices of the southern Scandinavian Mesolithic have re ceived little archaeology attention (Karsten & Knarrström 2003:127; Lars son 1978:163–164)
The focus has rather been on the identifica tion of waste disposal areas, which along with scatters and activity areas, are largely seen as the detritus from everyday life. This stands in contrast to research into the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, in which depositional practices, especially those deemed as ritual hoarding, have been the focus of intense discussions (Karsten 1994; Levy 1982; Müller 1886; Nielsen 1977; Rech 1979; Worsaae 1866)
These diverging research trajectories, both within Mesolithic depositional research and between Mesolithic and Neo lithic hoarding research, have limited our understanding of the scale and na ture of Mesolithic hoarding practices. This has likely contributed to a wide spread acceptance amongst many archaeologists that such hoarding prac tices are a phenomenon first witnessed in the Neolithic (Solberg 1989:284; Sørensen, L. 2014:129)
Summary
The hoarding practices of the southern Scandinavian Mesolithic have re ceived little archaeology attention (Karsten & Knarrström 2003:127; Lars son 1978:163–164). The biographical approach, practice theory and the con cept of ritualization and its prior archaeological uses (Nilsson Stutz 2003; Berggren 2010), are used to guide the analysis and interpretation on all ob servable life-stages of the objects and the assembled Mesolithic hoards In this way the application of these approaches is pushed further back in time (both chronologically and in an object biographical sense) and is applied to a largely overlooked prehistoric practice. The variability suggests that hoarding practices did occur throughout the southern Scandinavian Mesolithic, they were not static but varied temporally and spatially Such variability is to be expected given the long duration and the relatively large study area, and it likely reflects changes in for example population structure, mobility or subsistence, econ omy, material culture or even ideological differences. The production, use, curation, treatment, accumulation and subsequent deposition of these hoards are seen to have enchained the objects, people, and moments in time and places together with these hoards, acting as mnemonic devices, placemaking entities and mechanisms for increasing social cohesion
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