The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers: a result of changes in climate, sea-level, terrestrial environment, food ressource, social structure or cultural influence?

  • Noe-Nyegaard, Nanne (Bevillingshaver)
  • Heinemeier, Jan (Samarbejdspartner)
  • Christensen, Charlie (Samarbejdspartner)
  • Richter, Jane (Projektdeltager)
  • Price, Douglas (Samarbejdspartner)
  • Aaris-Sørensen, Kim (Samarbejdspartner)
  • Gravlund, Peter (Samarbejdspartner)

    Projektdetaljer

    Beskrivelse

    To establish a palaeoenvironmental and cultural transect in time and space of the transition from late Mesolithic hunters to early Neolithic farmers in Denmark around 6000 yr B.P.



    The spread of agriculture between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago is one of the most important events in human prehistory. A variety of explanations of this event have been proposed including changes in climate, sea level, terrestrial environment, food resources, social reorganization and population growth. Denmark offers an unusual opportunity to study this transition from hunting to farming ca. 6000 years ago. A combination of exceptionally well preserved geological sediment successions, archaeological material and new instrumental techniques will allow us to evaluate the role of climate and environmental change in the context of the transition to agriculture. This proposal outlines both the geological, palaeoecological, palaeoclimatical and archaeological context as well as the methods we will bring to bear on these questions.



    The purpose of the project is to apply a powerful set of new techniques to an old question, the transition from Mesolithic hunting to Neolithic farming in prehistoric Denmark, including analyses of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen isotopes, DNA and shallow seismic profiling. Additional archaeological excavation for new materials in a known context may provide a series of answers to questions about the transition, and constitute the basis for a dynamic high-resolution model, based on palaeoclimatological-geological-biological and cultural development through the Postglacial period in Denmark. Did changes in weather or resources force Denmark's last hunters to switch to farming? Or was this transition solely a cultural decision?



    The project will thus bridge the frontiers between natural science and a cultural history. The interval studies are outlined below.



    The origin of the earliest cattle in Denmark will be highlighted. Were the early cows introduced into Denmark as domesticated animals or did domestication take place in Denmark from the local stock of aurochs? Did the wild and the domestic interbreed? Did the late Mesolithic highly specialized food and pelt hunter-gatherers and skilled fishermen introduce or tame the earliest domestic cows or did the cattle accompany the immigrant early Neolithic funnel breaker culture? By using domestic cattle as the marker of the onset of the Neolithic period, focus on dating, diet and genetics is a prerequisite.



    We intend for the first time in Denmark to use DNA analyses on ancient, subfossil cattle material to unravel the origin of the early cattle in Denmark. Precise dating and C and N-isotope analyses of aurochs, early cow may reveal changes in the environmental parameters and the time at which they occurred.



    The Mesolithic population was already familiar with the domestic dog trained to assist in hunting. At the Late Mesolithic site Agernæs on the Fyn Island dog also supplied fur to the pelt hunters (Richter & Noe-Nygaard accepted for publishing 2003).



    Why was agriculture introduced almost 1,000 years later in Denmark (4100 BC cal years) than in north Germany (56 BC cal years)?



    Were the natural changes ultimately driven by socal forces? Contemporaneous changes in 10BE may be used as an indicator for solar forcing. Aroung 5500 14C BP a marked decrease in methane in the Greenland ice cores and a simultaneous decrease in 14C in the atmosphere occurred, whereas no decrease in temperature is recorded. A rapid increase in the earth magnetic field also occurred around 5500 14C years BP.



    A high-resolution lake sediment chronology will be established including levels with the marked mid and late Holocene climatic changes, registered in the ice core data at 7400 and 5500-5000 and 4500 14C years BP. All three events are clearly recorded in the sedimentary of the Store Åmose, Lille Åmose, Tissø and Tøvelde basins. Micro-ash layer correlation will be applied where appropriate.
    StatusAfsluttet
    Effektiv start/slut dato01/01/200201/01/2005