Seeking the First Farmers in Western Sjælland, Denmark: The Archaeology of the Transition to Agriculture in Northern Europe

By T. Douglas Price

This volume summarizes 30 years of fieldwork in Denmark, some of the evidence for the spread of agriculture and the Neolithic into Scandinavia and some opinions about the origins of agriculture. It is intended to be both academic and personal and to describe the actual process of research, because most projects involve elements of both. There is an introduction to each chapter that relates some of the more personal aspects of the research and the bulk of each chapter will be a more technical scientific report on our investigations. Each chapter will deal with one of the components of the project - survey, testing and excavations. We excavated eight sites from the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic that are discussed in this volume. The concluding chapter summarizes our research in the area and proffers opinions on a variety of archaeological subjects, with visits to climate change, seasonality and sedentism, hunter-gatherer complexity, aDNA, inequality and the origins and spread of agriculture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Jun 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781789257663

T. Douglas Price

T. Douglas is Weinstein Professor of European Prehistory Emeritus and Retired Founder and Director of the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 6th Century Chair in Archaeological Science Emeritus at the University of Aberdeen and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

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Chapter 1

Setting the table – an introduction

This chapter is intended to provide some background and context for the archaeological fieldwork that we did in northwestern Sjælland between 1989 and 2010. Initially there is a summary of Danish prehistory to place the Mesolithic and Neolithic in a larger context and also to emphasize the importance of myriad changes that came with the arrival of the Neolithic. Hopefully, this volume also conveys some sense of the exceptional archaeology that exists in the small country of Denmark. Denmark is about one-half the size of the U.S. state of South Carolina. If you want more information on the archaeology of the larger region of northern Europe, I wrote a detailed, illustrated volume called Ancient Scandinavia a few years ago (2015).

In this chapter, I also discuss the history of archaeological research in northwestern Sjælland to provide some background to our project. Monumental tombs get their own introduction as the most visible and powerful reminders of the past on the Danish landscape today. Many of these are Neolithic in age. A description of the landscape is essential to understanding that past as well, and a short geographic tour is offered. Finally, there is a brief introduction to the organization of this volume.

A final note. Dates are given in both BP (before present) and BC (before Christ) formats, always cal (calibrated). I try to provide BC dates in most instances. It is also the case that present convention in radiocarbon dating involves presentation of a range of dates and probabilities that are complicated to explain, and I avoid those where possible by giving an approximate date within the range. For those who prefer the probability distributions and range reports of radiocarbon dates, most of the determinations we obtained are published in this volume or in the original reports and can be evaluated there.

The Danish past

The prehistoric archaeology of Denmark extends from the Late Paleolithic period through the Viking Age. These periods are shown in a chronological chart in Figure 1.1. In the following pages, I describe the Paleolithic, the Mesolithic, and the Neolithic, the periods of interest in this volume. Readers interested in later periods of Danish prehistory are referred to my 2015 volume, Ancient Scandinavia.

Fig. 1.1. A chronological chart of the Danish past.

Late Paleolithic

We begin at the bottom of the chart with the Late Paleolithic. The first inhabitants of Denmark entered northernmost Germany and southern Scandinavia from the south around 12,500 BC, shortly after sheets of glacial ice disappeared from the continent and the Danish Isles. There is no definitive evidence for any earlier human presence in Scandinavia. These early groups were primarily reindeer hunters and left small scatters of flint tools, rock, and charcoal at the places where they stopped. Only rarely are the remains of the animals they killed or the outlines of the tents they erected found. A series of named archaeological cultures filled this time period until around the end of the Pleistocene at 9700 BC. The Hamburgian, the Bromme, and the Ahrensburgian cultures are known for their shouldered and tanged spear and arrow points used to hunt reindeer (Fig. 1.2). A fourth culture, the Federmesser, appeared during a slightly warmer episode; these people hunted large game such as elk, red deer, and aurochs (wild cattle); reindeer were largely absent at the time. Human settlement very gradually moved further and further north during the Late Paleolithic as climate improved and the landscape became more hospitable. The Ahrensburgian people appear to have had a marine component to their diet and eventually expanded along the coast of Scandinavia to the Arctic Circle.

There were also connections to the east as genes and a distinct lithic technology appear to have come into this northern corner of Scandinavia. Geneticists have examined aDNA in human remains from that region and concluded that Scandinavia was originally colonized from two different directions, one from the south and the other from the northeast (Günther et al. 2018). Studies of lithic artifacts suggest that an eastern influence was responsible for the stone tools seen in the Mesolithic of northeastern Scandinavia (Sørensen et al. 2013).

Fig. 1.2. Paleolithic points from southern Scandinavia (Vang Petersen 2008).

Early Mesolithic: Maglemose

As the last Paleolithic hunters were entering the far north of Scandinavia at the beginning of the Holocene Epoch, 9700 BC, the Mesolithic period was getting underway in southern Scandinavia. The same basic chronology of Mesolithic cultures is seen across the entire southern region – Maglemose, Kongemose, and Ertebølle are the names given to Early, Middle, and Late Mesolithic. During the Holocene, the fresh, barren landscape exposed at the end of the Pleistocene grew heavily forested and was inhabited by a litany of wild game and vegetation. Red deer, roe deer, and wild boar were the primary prey of hunters in the later Mesolithic. Hazelnuts and acorns were available in mast in the forests. Fish, shellfish, and marine mammals filled the seas. Freshwater fish were an important resource beginning in the Early Mesolithic (Boethius 2018).

The first period of the Mesolithic, the Maglemosian, was primarily a coastal adaptation along the North Sea and western Baltic shores. Most of the known sites, however, were inland summer occupations, as the coastal areas from the early Holocene are now submerged. Maglemosian assemblages date from the early part of the Holocene in northern Europe, approximately 8900–6400 BC. This Early Mesolithic culture is known primarily from finds of distinctive small blades and microliths, used for arrowheads and cutting edges. Subtle changes in axes, microliths, and blade production techniques mark different phases of Maglemose culture. Both core and flake axes are known from the period. Flake axes appear early and core axes were added slightly later. Early flake axes have symmetrical surface retouch and are flaked on the sides as well; later flake axes show no surface retouch and have asymmetrical edge retouch. Lancette microliths and rather irregular blades mark the older half of the period; triangular microliths and thinner, more regular blades made with a soft hammer technique are found in the second half.

Maglemosian materials in the Saltbæk Vig are known only from stray finds of projectile points that have been collected, primarily in the higher, sandy spots in the research area. These places may have held more open forest, and hence more game, in the early Holocene. The coastline in Denmark until the end of the Maglemosian period was tens of kilometers to the north and is now beneath the waters of the North Sea (Astrup 2019).

Middle Mesolithic: Kongemose

Kongemose lithic assemblages are recognized primarily by distinctive projectile points and cores. A few microliths continue to appear in the earliest part (Blak phase) of the Kongemose (Sørensen 1996), but most projectile points are trapezoidal or rhombic forms made from segments of broad blades, sometimes using the microburin technique. The younger Kongemose has some very large points with an oblique edge, a form seen also in the Early Neolithic. Burins and blade knives with curved backing retouch are common in Kongemose assemblages; scrapers and borers are rare. Microblades were made from distinctive handle cores which are shaped from a heavy core early and from a heavy flake later in the Kongemose.

Both core and flake axes are known from the Kongemose but are difficult to distinguish. A flake axe retains its original bulbar surface as one side and the leading edge includes this original flake surface. Kongemose flake axes show no surface retouch and have asymmetric edge retouch. Core axes often are narrow and have a rhombic or irregular cross-section; one-third are pointed and chisel forms are also known. There is also an unusual long, pointed tool known as a spidsvåpen (‘pointed weapon’) from this period.

Given current knowledge of sea level changes in the Saltbæk Vig area during the early Holocene, it is clear that some coastal Kongemose settlements today lie underwater not far from the modern coastline (Astrup 2019). Only a few sites from the younger part of this period have been found at elevations between 0 and –1.2 m below sea level on reclaimed land in the study area of the Saltbæk Vig. The flint artifacts at these younger Kongemose sites are heavily marine and bog patinated and the sites have usually been extensively eroded by the rising seas.

Late Mesolithic: Ertebølle

The biggest challenge in the lives of these hunter-gatherers in southern Scandinavia came from rising sea levels. Early Holocene human groups in this area were primarily focused on terrestrial resources, as the sea was lower and quite distant from much of southern Scandinavia. Continued melting of glacial ice refilled the seas and flooded large areas of dry land on the floor of what became the North Sea. By around 4000 BC the present shorelines of the region had been reached by the sea. Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers focused on marine resources. Residence was concentrated on the coasts and more than half of the diet came from fish, shellfish, and marine mammals. Huge piles of oyster shells – the famous køkkenmøddinger (kitchen middens) – document the presence of Mesolithic groups in certain coastal regions of southern Scandinavia (Andersen 2004).

The Ertebølle period (EBK), the last part of the Mesolithic, extends from 5400 BC to approximately 4000 BC. Several distinct phases are recognized within the Ertebølle period (Hartz and Lübke 2006). Settlements often appear to have been permanently occupied, predominantly in coastal locations, often for hundreds of years; so that several phases may be represented at the same location. A variety of more specialized camps and activity areas are also known in southern Scandinavia. These successful groups of fisher-hunter-gatherers constructed an effective technology of wood, stone, and eventually ceramics (Fig. 1.3) to best utilize their environment both on land and sea; boats and paddles, bows and arrows, and a variety of other fishing and hunting equipment were in use.

Projectile points were transverse in form and became smaller and more symmetrical through time (Fischer 1989). Early points are oblique, made on soft hammer blades. Soft hammer technique was not used as frequently in the Middle Ertebølle but re-emerges in the last phase. Cores in Middle Ertebølle were globular with large round platforms; blades were rather straight and flat with rounded distal ends. Conical cores with prepared edges were more common in Late Ertebølle.

Both core and flake axes were present; flake axes increased from approximately 10% initially to being numerically dominant in the Middle and Late Ertebølle. Early Ertebølle flake axes were side retouched from the bulbar face; later examples were symmetrically surface retouched. Flake axes in the latest Ertebølle were side trimmed, usually in two directions, and smaller, with a wide bit. Core axes in the early part of the Ertebølle were diamond shaped in cross-section, becoming rectangular or trapezoidal through time. ‘Specialized’ core axes (exhibiting a bit fashioned with perpendicular laminar flake scars) were present only in the Late  Ertebølle. A few examples in Sjælland also showed some edge polishing (Stafford 1999).

Blade knives with transverse retouch are common as settlement and grave finds. Blade knives with a concave retouch on the distal end are typical of the later stages of the Ertebølle. Blade knives with curved backing along one edge and partial retouch at one end of the cutting edge are present in the Late Ertebølle and Early Neolithic. Scrapers and borers vary in number in different phases but are more common later. Early Ertebølle borers were large and made on flakes or cores; late examples were smaller, made on blades. Drills made on blades in the Ertebølle were characterized by parallel-sided, narrow bits. Fine denticulated pieces are known from western Denmark in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic but were absent on Sjælland until the beginning of the Neolithic (Juel Jensen 1994). These denticulated tools were made on blades in the Mesolithic and on the edges, often concave, of small flakes in the Early Neolithic.

There are also several types of groundstone artifacts from the Mesolithic period. The trindøkse typically is a cylinder of hard, heavy diabase or greenstone that is shaped by pecking (Fig. 6.12). The butt end is tapered and nicely rounded; the bit end is typically rounded on one side and polished to a flat or concave edge on the other. These axes are found throughout the Mesolithic period beginning in the younger Maglemosian. Limhamn axes are made from a large flake of greenstone and have a polished cutting edge. These axes are known exclusively from Sweden in earlier periods and also on Sjælland during the Ertebølle, more commonly in the later part of the period. The distinctive and formidable amphibolite shoe-last adze, perhaps a kind of battle axe, was imported from Central or Eastern Europe during the later part of the Ertebølle period (Fischer 1982). This adze is also considered to be a wood-working tool.

Pottery appears in Middle EBK in the form of pointed base cooking pots; slightly later in time shallow, oval lamp bowls are also found. This pottery is usually thick-walled, coarsely tempered, and poorly fired (Koch 1998). It seems certain today that the Ertebølle pottery had its origins to the east, rather than the south (Hallgren 2004; Hartz et al. 2011, 465–484; 2012).

Ertebølle people carved animal effigies and pendants in amber (Fig. 1.4). Exchange operated on a small scale and certain products of the Neolithic farmers to the south found their way to Mesolithic groups in southern Scandinavia. There was also some exchange among groups of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. But, for whatever reason, these people resisted the introduction of agriculture for more than 1000 years. Farmers appeared to the south in northern Germany by 5500 BC, only 100 km or so distant, but farming did not arrive in Scandinavia until around 4000 BC.

Fig. 1.3. An Ertebølle pot (National Museum, Copenhagen).

Early Neolithic: Older Funnel Beaker (TRB): ENI and ENII

The introduction of agriculture was remarkably rapid when it finally took place. There appears to be a chronological and stratigraphic break between the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic (Hartz and Lübke 2006). Within a few hundred years, farming practices and evidence of domesticates had spread from northern Germany to the limits of cultivation in Middle Sweden and the Oslo Fjord in Norway. The Michelsberg Culture, a Neolithic group in France and Germany, may have been the source of many of the immigrant farmers who found their way to southern Scandinavia (Fig. 1.5). At the same time stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen indicates that a full farming economy was not established before the 3rd millennium BC on a general scale (Terberger et al. 2018).

Fig. 1.4. Amber figurines (National Museum, Copenhagen).

Domesticated plants and especially animals defined these early agricultural groups, along with their distinctive Funnel Beaker pottery and the new polished stone axes. People typically lived on individual farms and may have moved when their land had been cultivated for some years. However substantial cultural layers suggest that some settlements were inhabited more permanently from around 3800 BC, e.g., Lisbjerg Skole in Jutland (Skousen 2008, 126–51) and Smedegade on Bornholm (Nielsen and Nielsen 2020, 79–92). During the late part of the Early Neolithic, small hamlets with several contemporary houses appear (e.g., Ullerødgård on Zealand; Rosenberg 2006). In contrast to the earlier hunters-fishers and gatherers, the early farmers invested large amounts of time and resources in constructing tombs for their ancestors as well as enclosures that may have served as meeting places for large gatherings. More long-distance exchange is evidenced, particularly in axes, but in other objects as well. The first clear evidence for metal – copper – began to appear by the Early Neolithic, probably coming from central Europe (Klassen 2004; Budd et al. 2020; Gebauer et al. 2020).

Fig 1.5. Major Early Neolithic cultures in Central and Northern Europe (courtesy of RGZM, Gronenborn 2010).

The beginning of the Neolithic in southern Scandinavia, around 4000 BC, is associated with Funnel Beaker pottery, monumental earthen graves, flint mines, and bog sacrifices (Price 1995; Koch 1998; Sørensen 2015). The Early Neolithic can be separated into two main phases, based on changes in Funnel Beaker pottery. The earliest Funnel Beaker ceramics seem to be a combination of Late Ertebølle and TRB forms found in a transitional phase that lasts perhaps 100 years (Koch 1998; Müller 2011b). Body sherds of utilitarian wares in the early Funnel Beaker period are not noticeably different from Late Ertebølle pottery (Koch 1998). However, rim sherds and decorated pieces provide distinct chronological markers. Pottery is occasionally found on the surface at Early Neolithic sites, but it is rare because of its friable