Maglemose Culture Research Articles

MESOLITHIC ART IN STEFAN KAROL KOZŁOWSKI’S PAPERS

In his publications on the Mesolithic in Poland and Europe, S. K. Kozłowski mostly focused on lithic artefacts in terms of their styling, cultural origin, and archaeological context. On the margins of the above pursuits, S. K. Kozłowski examined finds of Mesolithic art from Poland, his main interest here being their cultural classification. Additionally in his works, S. K. Kozłowski mentioned the possibility of dating zoomorphic figurines and some amber pendants to the Mesolithic due to the similarity of their forms to those known from today’s Denmark. In his opinion, Mesolithic art objects found in Poland were linked to the Northern Complex – either through its influence or due to the presence of Maglemose Culture communities in north-western Poland.

How Bone Technology points to Cultural Lineages in Prehistory? New Insights from Danish Late- and PostGlacial Weapons’ Heads

The analysis provides a novel understanding of the technological details of the bone and antler manufacture in the 9th and 10th millennia before present as a proxy to emphasize contemporary Late-Glacial-originated versus Early Mesolithic bone technologies in Denmark. This paper contributes to the knowledge of newly dated bone weapons from Sjælland, Lolland and Bornholm’s islands in the Late Paleolithic (Late Glacial, Federmesser, Ahrensburg cultures) and the Danish Early Mesolithic (Maglemose culture)

An integrated analysis of Maglemose bone points reframes the Early Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia

The extensive peat bogs of Southern Scandinavia have yielded rich Mesolithic archaeological assemblages, with one of the most iconic artefacts being the bone point. Although great in number they remain understudied. Here we present a combined investigation of the typology, protein-based species composition, and absolute chronology of Maglemosian bone points. The majority of the bone points are made from cervids and bovines. However, changes both in species composition and barb morphology can be directly linked to a paucity of finds lasting nearly 600 years in Southern Scandinavia around 10,300 cal BP. We hypothesize that this hiatus was climate-driven and forced hunter-gatherers to abandon the lakes. Furthermore, the marked change in bone points coincides with a change in lithic technology. We, therefore, propose that the Maglemose culture in Southern Scandinavia is fundamentally divided into an Early Complex and a Late Complex.

Reconstructing Maglemose bone fishhooks – a craftsmanship from Zealand

ABSTRACTThe first fishhooks that have been found on the Danish territory date back to the Maglemose period (c. 9600/9500–6700 B.C.), and they are made of bone and antler. Most of them were excavated at the start of the twentieth century in settlements next to inland bogs and lakes and have since then only been studied in a very few cases. The aim of this paper is to analyse the assemblage of at least 30 fishhooks and 23 manufacturing products from that period and produce new knowledge about the Maglemose culture through fishhook typology, technology and comparison with the North European bone production.

Mesolitiske bosættelser ved Gudenåsystemets søer og åer

Mesolitiske bosættelser ved Gudenåsystemets søer og åer

Flint tools for bone and antler adzes production at the Early Mesolithic site Krzyż Wielkopolski 7 (Western Poland)

Abstract In 2003 a rich Early Mesolithic peat bog site was discover in Western Poland and subsequent interdisciplinary project let to recognise the site as one of the richest North European Plain occupation from the point of view of the organic materials it delivered. A set of technological and typological analyses of find material, supplemented by palaeoenvironmental studies and almost 50 AMS radiocarbon datings suggest an affinity of the Mesolithic occupation with the early Duvensee/Komornica culture with probable short episode of the Maglemose culture group presence in the Boreal period. A considerable number of organic artefacts made on the spot accompanied by the Early Mesolithic lithic assemblage allow a direct on-the-spot confrontation of traces recorded on bone and antler tools and on production wastes with lithic assemblage that served for their manufacturing on different stages of the production cycle. In order to verify which tools and in what ways served for elaboration of bone and antler a selected sample of flint artefacts were subjected to micro-wear analysis. As a result a number of typologically different tools were identified, used especially for scraping. Single tools only were used for cutting, reaming, grooving, chiseling and drilling. Not always it goes along with the technological observations made during the analysis of antler and bone tools itself. Picks and flake axes, numerous within the lithic assemblage, were relatively often used for nicking in the process of antler tools' manufacturing. Technological analysis of organic material reveals that bone and antler tool manufacturing was a specialized chain of operations but not all the stages of production are manifested in the analysed material.

Borealny Bolków. Nowe badania obozowisk mezolitycznych nad jeziorem Świdwie

New research of the Mesolithic camps in Bolkow on Świdwie lake provided rich archaeological evidence, including that related to the oldest settlement of the Maglemose culture. The assemblages appeared in Świdwie lake area around 8800/8700 BP and they suggest connection with western Jutland.

Early Maglemosian culture in the Preboreal landscape: Archaeology and vegetation from the earliest Mesolithic site in Denmark at Lundby Mose, Sjælland

The transition from Late Palaeolithic to early Mesolithic cultures is strongly associated with the major environmental and climatic changes occurring with the shift from the Younger Dryas to the Holocene in northern Europe. In this paper, we present an interdisciplinary study combining archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research in an attempt to examine the relationship between environment and culture during this transition. Lundby Mose is a former kettle hole lake in southern Denmark where the earliest Danish human traces of the Holocene were excavated. Two types of bone deposits were found, 1) ritual offerings of worked, marrow-split elk bones and antler and 2) settlement waste with multiple species. These date to the early Holocene and are affiliated to the early Maglemose culture. The modelled 14C ages suggest that the bones were deposited in four phases. A pollen based palaeoenvironmental reconstruction suggests that the ritual offerings were deposited in an environment of limited, underdeveloped forest with unstable soils and areas of open grassland. The settlement waste deposit is associated with a more developed Preboreal forest type. This forest type was not fully established until c. 11,250 cal BP and if substantiated by further evidence, may be one of the reasons why there are no known early Maglemose/Preboreal settlement sites in southern Scandinavia.

A specialized Early Maglemosian site at Lundby Mose (Zealand, Denmark): a contribution to the understanding of Maglemosian patterns of animal resource exploitation

Several well-delimited animal bone deposits were excavated in Lundby Mose, an early Maglemosian site (9600–6500 cal BC) located in South Zealand, Denmark. The hunting strategies, the butchering activities and the discarding processes involved in their formation were assessed by the means of a detailed archaeozoological analysis of the material. Each deposit was exclusively composed of elk (Alces alces) bones originating from one to three adult individuals, whose carcasses had been butchered directly on-site following standardized chaînes opératoires in order to supply the community with meat, bone marrow, hides and raw material for tool manufacture. This exploitation relies on the specific management of these resources between an immediate and a postponed consumption, as our study shows part of these were consumed on-site whereas others were likely to have been transported to a connected settlement site. Such patterns are well known from other Early Maglemosian sites (Skottemarke and Favrbo) and indicate that strong common cultural factors were involved in the exploitation of large ungulates from the very beginning of the Maglemose culture. The comparison with later classical Maglemosian data, despite the chronological gap, suggests that some of these features could apply to the whole length of the Maglemosian period and allows us to discuss mobility patterns.

Ungulates exploitation for subsistence and raw material, during the Maglemose culture in Denmark: the example of Mullerup site (Sarauw’s Island) in Sjælland

This article presents results from recent re-analysis of the faunal remains from Mullerup (Zealand), the first excavated site attributed to the Maglemose Culture (9600–6550 cal BC) in Denmark. All faunal remains and fragments related to the bone tool industry (pieces and waste) were studied together, in order to reconstruct the total exploitation of animal resources for dietary as well as ‘technical’ (non-dietary) purposes by Maglemosian groups. The detailed quantification of species, individuals, skeletal elements, as well as marks on the bone surfaces provides relevant data to reconstruct the relative contributions of the five main hunted species (ungulates) to subsistence and technical activities, such as bone tool production. The ungulates were exploited in different ways, depending on species, transport strategies, and raw material needs. This article particularly focuses on the acquisition of raw material for making bone tools and its influence on the whole carcass treatment. The reconstruction of t...

En glittestok fra Dogger Banke i Nordsøen

A flaker from the Dogger Bank in the North Sea By the end of the Ice Age, the present North Sea was dry land stretching from Denmark to the British Isles. Here, life conditions for hunter tribes must have been good and similar to those in the adjoining areas – Southern Scandinavia, Eastern England, and the Netherlands. Due to the rise of the world seas, this large land area was gradually flooded after the Ice Age, and recent geological investigations have made it possible to gain a relatively good picture of the development history of the North Sea during the last c.14000 years. These investigations show that the highest land areas – primarily the Brown Bank towards the south and the Dogger Bank towards the north – must have been large land areas far into the early Stone Age. As opposed to our geological knowledge, the archaeological finds fail to provide information about the settlement structure of the early Stone Age in this area. However, they are important because they can provide information about important issues such as when and to which extent the different land areas were flooded by the sea, and the nature of the cultural affiliations of the hunter groups living there.So far, the Stone Age finds have almost all been made in the southern part of the North Sea (Brown Bank), whereas there are just a few finds from the rest of the large sea territory. A few of these artefacts are connected to the Maglemose Culture, whereas the rest can either not be dated or are subject to the discussion whether they are actually artefacts or just products of nature.However, a new find now helps throwing light on some of these questions. It is a pressure flaker fished out of the sea at Dogger Bank, at a depth of 30 to 40 metres. The tool was made from a tine of red deer (Cervus elaphus) antler, the point of which was truncated at an angle and shows clear marks of pressure and wear (Fig. 1). In North Europe, this type of artefact is known only from the late Maglemose Culture settlements on Sea land, and it has been interpreted as a special type of pressure or percussion flaker used in connection with the production of micro-flakes (Fig. 2). Consequently, this is not a fishing tool, but an artefact type used in a settlement. In Denmark, this type of tool is dated using typology to the time between c.6700 and 6400 BC (cal.), which has later been confirmed by an AMS C14 dating giving the result of 7010 BC, or 7040-6700 BC, with one standard deviation.The find of a flaker of the late Maglemose type on Dogger Bank is important, as it shows that this part of the North Sea was still dry land about 9000 years ago. At that time, Dogger Bank was a large peninsula, situated about 100 km from both the east coast of England and the Jutland peninsula (Fig. 3). When the sea finally flooded this last piece of the original North Sea continent is more uncertain. However, geological results indicate that it happened shortly after, i.e. around 6000-5000 BC.The new find of a flaker on the Dogger Bank shows that this part of the North Sea was still dry land about 7000 BC, and that hunters and fishing groups connected to the late Maglemose Culture lived there at the time.Søren H. AndersenNationalmuseetTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

Arkæologen Erik Westerby – Frontforsker på fritidsbasis

Arkæologen Erik Westerby – Frontforsker på fritidsbasis

Udział komponentu maglemoskiego w rozwoju kulturowym późnomezolitycznych społeczeństw Pomorza w świetle badań na stanowisku Jastrzębia Góra 4, woj. Gdańsk

The results of the investigations of Jastrzębia Góra, site 4, Gdańsk province, recapitulated in this paper, cast a new light on the problem of cultural changes in Pomerania in the Late Mesolithic. Flint inventories from Pomerania, notably its coastal zone, show distinct links with the Maglemose flint industry. This is pariticularly apparent in the technique of blade production and in the presence of characteristic microliths, notably those with retouched base, of triangles with the retouch of the third side and of narrow rectangle triangles. Moreover, these links are confirmed by characteristic macrolithic and bone tools recorded in certain parts of Pomerania. On this ground, the assemblages of the Jastrzębia Góra type can be assigned to the Maglemose culture and regarded as coeval with its latest phase.

Mesolithic in South‐Eastern Norway

This article discusses the reliability of shore‐line displacement curves based on pollen analysis in the Oslo Fjord area. The conclusion is that only small parts of the curves ‐ in the late Atlantic period ‐ are fairly reliable for the purpose of dating Mesolithic coastal sites. Twelve Mesolithic settlement sites from Østfold, south‐eastern Norway are classified morphologically. The author suggests a chronological lineal model with four succeeding phases: 1. The Fosna culture, 2. Late Boreal/early Atlantic group, 3. The N⊘stvet culture, 4. Late flint‐point using group. A connection between the Fosna culture and early Maglemose culture is claimed. A study of the ecological adaptation in the four phases is based on topographical conditions, on the distribution and situation of settlement sites, and on animal bones from three Mesolithic sites in south‐eastern Norway. Hypotheses on seasonal migrations are suggested.

Gudenåkulturen ved Varde Å

Gudenaa Settlements in South JutlandIn the years 1958-62 the authors systematically investigated the area around the middle course of the Varde River and its main tributaries. The investigation discovered 75 settlement sites, represented by a total of 1936 implements and a large quantity of blades, cores and swarf. Most sites, including the largest, lie immediately at the confluence of the tributaries and the main river (fig. 1). These have been preferred sites, and the implement inventory frequently proves to represent several periods of occupation. On many of the larger sites the inventory includes Neolithic polished axes. The smaller sites along the main river, to the contrary, give the impression of representing single short-term occupations, and are therefore of importance to a study of the Gudenaa Culture in its various phases. Site 6 at Hodde East seems thus, with its definitely microlithic character and its many lanceolate microliths, to belong to the earliest group, related to the Maglemose Culture (figs. 2-3). Site 40 (fig. 4), on the other hand, with its technique of massive blades is a typical representative of the later phase of the Gudenaa Culture, the time of its widest extension in the Atlantic Period. The majority of the sites by the Varde River belong to this late period.Clara Håhr Christiansen og Kaj Skelmose

Kongemosen

Kongemosen

The ‘Eastern’ Facies of the Maglemose Culture

The ‘Eastern’ Facies of the Maglemose Culture

Research Items

THE MAGLEMOSE CULTURE.—Some interesting observations on the genesis of the Maglemose culture were made by the Abbé Breuil in a communication to the Institut Francais d'Anthropologie, and are now published in I.'Anthropologie, T. 36, Nos. 3-4, à propos of a characteristic harpoon from Béthune, dated 1849, now in the British Museum. Similar harpoons from the Bethune marshes and from Isbergues near by are recorded. Deer's antlers, pierced and ornamented, from the Somme and Paris described by Acy afford further incontestable evidence of Maglemose influence. Several examples of Maglemosian harpoons have come from Belgium; but in the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle of Brussels are a number of unpublished harpoons found by M. Lequeux in mixed Tardenoisian - Maglemosian sites, and quite recently investigations still going on have brought to light harpoons in which the barbs are made of Tardenoisian triangular implements. A harpoon ornamented in Maglemosian style has also been found at the proto-Tardenoisian level of the Remonchamps site. The opinion already expressed, though not accepted by Scandinavian archaeologists, that while Maglemose is related to the Magdalenian, but not directly descended from it, being rather a result of a combination of Magdalenian and eastern elements coming from the direction of the Urals, has received support from the discovery at Wercholensk, near Irkutsk, of an Upper Palaeolithic site with harpoons. While the harpoon is a link between Magdalenian and Maglemose, the difference in the decorative art precludes close connexion. Even the style of the harpoons found on the peripheral Magdalenian sites of Central and Eastern Europe, like the decorative art, have distinctive characters indicating important ethnic differences. A composite origin for Maglemose is therefore suggested, including provincial Magdalenian of Central Europe, oriental (decorative motives and Campignian forms), a Southern or Mediterranean influence (Tardenoisian), and possibly a late Palaeolithic from Scandinavia when Norway was free from ice during the latest oscillations.