Technology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe

This volume explores technology and communication of the early settlements of Northern Europe. The articles will discuss case studies and present overviews from the early and middle Mesolithic of Northern Europe. Special emphasis will be put on the spatial and temporal transmission of knowledge and culture. This subject addresses themes such as the transmission of specialised knowledge, the generative transmission of knowledge, the understanding of technology as somatic or incorporated culture in human society and the role of pedagogies and teaching in cultural sustainment and transformation. Other papers will discuss the relation between demography and technological developments, as well as the natural and cultural context for the transmission of culture. The understanding of the transmission of technology is, again, closely interrelated to the nature and efficiency of social networks of contact and their social and physical framework. Ultimately these question addresses one of the fundamental issues of our time – how to understand and cope with radical changes. This book provides new and different answers to this great problem of our time.

1. Introduction Hakon Glorstad, Kjel Knutsson, Helena Knutsson and Jan Apel 2. Postglacial Pioneer Colonization of Eastern Fennoscandia: Modelling Technological Change Mikael A. Manninen, University of Helsinki, Esa Hertell, University of Helsinki, Petro Pesonen, National Board of Antiquities, Finland, and Miikka Tallavaara, University of Helsinki 3. An Examination of Theories on Lithic Reduction Methods in Swiderian Technology Witold Grudtz, State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw 4. Continuity and Change in Late Glacial and Postglacial Social Networks: Knowledge Transmission and Blade Production Methods in Ahrensburgian and Early Mesolithic North West Europe Inger Marie Berg-Hansen, University of Oslo 5. The Pioneer Settlement of Scandinavia and its Aftermath: New Evidence from Western and Central Scandinavia Hege Damlien, University of Stavanger, Mathilda Kjallquist, Uppsala University, and Kjel Knutsson 6. Raw-material and Blade Technology Variability: A Case Study of Mesolithic Pressure Blade Methods in the Wolin Island Region (North-western Poland) - an Experimental Approach Michal Adamczyk, University of Szczecin 7. Knowledge and Knowhow Transmission in Lithic Blade Technology and Microlithic Production in the Maglemosian Phase 3 - from Blekinge to Central Jutland and Northern Germany Mikkel Sorensen, University of Copenhagen 8. Axes in Transformation: A Bifocal View of Axe Technology in the Oslo Fjord Area, Norway, c. 9200-6000 cal BC Carine Eymundsson, Guro Fossum, Anja Mansrud, Lucia Koxvold and Axel MjAerum, all at University of Oslo 9. Transmission of Knowledge, Crafting and Cultural Traditions - Interregional Contact and Interaction, 7300 cal BC E. David, Nanterre University, and M. Kjallqvist, Uppsala University 10. Middle Mesolithic Blade Technology in Sweden, c. 8th Millennium BC M. Guinard, Uppsala University

Hakon Glorstad is Professor in archaeology at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. His research covers Stone Age archaeology of Scandinavia, archaeological epistemology and cultural heritage management. Glorstad has been leading or supervising several large scale excavations in Norway and research projects in Stone Age archaeology. He is currently the museum director at the Museum of Cultural History. Kjel Knutsson is Professor in archaeology at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient history, University of Uppsala, Sweden, but has also worked as a visting professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway. His research has a focus on Stone Age archaeology of Scandinavia but he has also carried out field work and published Stone Age materials from East Africa and China. He is specialized in lithic analysis. Dr Helena Knutsson is a consultant with focus on Stone Age archaeology and study of artefact production and use. Her main interests are irreconcilable. On the one hand psychology and sociology of life in hunting-gathering societies, and, on the other hand understanding of stone tools with the help of methods brought from material science. Jan Apel is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Deparment of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University (Sweden). His research covers stone tool technology and human evolution, stone age archaeology of Scandinavia and social complexity in prehistory. He has lead or supervised several large-scale excavations in Sweden and is currently involved in the research project “The Pioneer Settlements of Gotland”.

• Edited by Jan Apel
• Edited by Hakon Glorstad
• Edited by Helena Knutsson
• Edited by Kjel Knutsson