Mobility, contact, and exchange in the Baltic Sea basin 6000–2000 BC

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Abstract

My intention in this paper is to outline the main features and principal aspects of contact and exchange among the later prehistoric hunter–gatherers (late Mesolithic and post-Mesolithic) in the Baltic Sea basin, which covers the southern and eastern reaches of Northern Europe, and to summarise the main advances in current research. The area broadly covered includes the Baltic Sea basin that has provided effective routes for communication between the coastal regions surrounding the Baltic Sea, central Baltic islands, and regions further away in the north European Plain, inland regions of Fennoscandia and Russia that could be reached by an extensive network of major rivers and lakes. Effective transport for negotiating these routes both in the summer and winter existed already from the early Mesolithic. Goods moved along these routes included a wide range of artefacts discussed in the paper. Geographically, exchange was organised at three levels: regionally, inter-regionally, and over long distances. Each mode of exchange was probably organised along different lines socially, and each served to implement wide-ranging social strategies for the general purposes of social reproduction, mate exchange and biological reproduction, as well as the spread of innovations. In the concluding section, I discuss the nature of contacts and consequences of exchanges between the early farming communities and the hunter–gathering groups within the framework of the core-periphery relations.

Section snippets

Introduction: Baltic Sea basin—environment, palaeoenvironment, and natural contact routes

There is no other region in Europe where Mesolithic settlement was as fully represented and where hunter–gatherer communities continued to flourish until so relatively recently than Northern Europe. Atlantic Scandinavia and the basin of the Baltic Sea, with their network of marine coastlines and freshwater shorelines provided fertile grounds and rich waters for hunting, fishing, and gathering. Extensive networks of estuaries, lakes and rivers, bays and archipelagos provided ample opportunities

Prehistoric hunter–gatherers of the region—chronological overview

Colonization and settlement of northern Europe at the end of the last glaciation, ca. 14,000–10,000 years ago, was one of the key events in the history of hunter–gatherer communities of the area. This process of colonization was gradual and metachronous, laying foundations for the major patterns in cultural diversity of Northern Europe during the Mesolithic (Larsson et al., 2003, Zvelebil, in press).

Using southern Scandinavia as a frame of reference, the chronology of the Mesolithic can be

Later Mesolithic hunter–gatherers of the climatic optimum 6000–4000 BC

Long-distance contacts, circulation of exotic prestige items and of sought-after raw materials, as well as channels for the dispersal of innovations were all maintained through trade and exchange. In northern Europe, the use of skis and sledges in winter and of boats in the summer months facilitated such contacts (Burov, 1989, Burov, 1992, Clark, 1953, Clark, 1975, Fischer, 1995). Combined evidence from rock-carving sites, finds of paddles and of watercraft in waterlogged and submerged

Farming period—hunter–gatherers in the farming world and their role in core-periphery systems

Farming was introduced from Central Europe between 6400–6000 BP (5300–500 BC, 4400 and 4000 bc) into northern Poland and Germany by enclave forming, isolated settlements of the LBK and derivative (SBK, Lengyel) traditions. Following this episode, the first extensive farming communities in northern Poland and Germany, Denmark, southern Norway and southern and middle Sweden belong to the TRB culture and date from ca. 5700 BP (4600 BC, 3700 bc) on the north European Plain, and from ca. 5200 BP

Conclusions

It is clear that wide-ranging and intensive contact and exchange links operated in the circum-Baltic region and in Northern Europe in general during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic periods, a time that was marked by the continued florescence of hunting and gathering communities in parts of the area. In terms of economic orientation and subsistence practices, the area can be best described as a mosaic of hunting–fishing–gathering and of farming communities in the stone age farming period. The

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