Ecology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe

The first volume presents new archaeological and ecological data and analyses on the relation between human subsistence and survival, and the natural history of North-Western Europe throughout the period 10000 – 6000 BC. The volume contains contributions from ecological oriented archaeologists and from the natural sciences, throwing new light on the physical and biotic/ecological conditions of relevance to the earliest settlement. Main themes are human subsistence, subsistence technology, ecology and food availability pertaining to the first humans, and demographic patterns among humans linked to the accessibility of different landscapes.

1. Environment and Adaptation of Forager Pioneers in the North-western Regions of Europe Birgitte Skar and Heidi Mjelva Breivik Late Glacial Migration into the Skagerrak-Kattegat Region and Establishment of Permanent Post-glacial Settlement 2. Marine and Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna in Skagerak and Southern Norway in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Leif Jonsson 3. Why Walk When You Can Take a Boat: Moving beyond the North Central European Plain Lou Schmitt, University of Gothenburg 4. Seal-hunting in the Final Paleolithic of Northern Europe Erwin Cziesla, Martin Wurzelarchaologie und Umwelttechnik GmbH 5. Huseby Klev and the Quest for Pioneer Subsistence Strategies: Diversification of a Maritime Lifestyle Adam Boethius, Lund University 6. Waterworld: Environment, Animal Exploitation and Fishhook-technology in the Northeastern Skagerrak Area during the Early and Middle Mesolithic (9500-6300 BC) Anja Mansrud, University of Oslo, and Per Persson 7. Hunting Elk at the Foot of the Mountains- Remains from 8000 Years of Foraging at (on) the Edge of the Hardangervidda Plateau in Southern Norway Axel MjAerum, University of Oslo 8. The Earliest Settlement in the Middle Scandinavian Inland: A Discussion of Joel Boaz's Pioneers in the Mesolithic Per Persson The Early Mesolithic in the Baltic Region: Aquatic Resources and Regionalization 9. A Small Preboreal Settlement Site at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden Fredrik Hallgren, The Cultural Heritage Foundation, Vasteras, Sweden 10. Way out East - Evidence of Early Maritime Technologies from the East Coast of Sweden Mattias Pettersson and Roger Wikell, Independent Scholars 11. The Pioneer Settlements of Gotland - A Behavioral Ecological Approach Jan Apel. Lund University, and Jan Stora, Stockholm University 12. The Use of Aquatic Resources by Early Mesolithic Foragers in Southern Scandinavia Adam Boethius 13. Seascapes of Stability and Change: The Archaeological and Ecological Potential of the Early Mesolithic Seascapes with Examples from Havang in the South East Baltic, Sweden Bjorn Nilsson, Lund University, Arne Sjostrom, Lund University, and Per Persson The North Sea/Norwegian Sea: Environmental Preconditions and Use of New Landscapes 14. Seal and Reindeer: Immediate and Continuous Utilization of Coast and Mountains in the Early Mesolithic of Northwestern Norway Frode Svendsen, Telemark County Council, Skien, Norway 15. An Early Holocene Bearded Seal from the Trondheimfjord: Environmental and Archaeological Implications Jorgen Rosvold, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Heidi Mjelva Breivik 16. The Changing Landscape of Prehistoric Orkney Caroline R Wickham-Jones, University of Aberdeen, Richard Bates, University of St Andrews, Sue Dawson, University of Dundee, Alastair Dawson, University of Dundee, Martin Bates, University of Wales Trinity St David 17 Economy and Environment of the Early Mesolithic of Western Scotland: Repeated Visits to a Fishing Locality on a Small Island in the Inner Hebrides Karen Wicks and Steven Mithen, both at the University of Reading

Per Persson is Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, at the University of Oslo. Felix Riede is Associate Professor of archaeology at Aarhus University’s Department of Archaeology and Director of LaPaDiS – the Laboratory for Past Disaster Science and the Centre for Environmental Humanities at the same university. Working broadly within an evolutionary niche construction perspective, his research interests are pioneer colonisations and human-environment interactions in deep time and their reciprocal impacts on demography and social constellations. Birgitte Skar is associate professor in archaeology at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU University Museum. She is educated at The Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Moesgaard, University of Arhus. Her research focusses on Early Stone Age with emphasis on chaine operatoire in stone technology and human-environment relations. Heidi Mjelva Breivik holds a PhD in archaeology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Her research focusses Early Stone Age with emphasis on marine foragers, human-environment relations, technology and settlement patterns. Leif Jonsson is an osteologist at The Goteborg Museum of Natural History in Sweden.

• Edited by Heidi Mjelva Breivik
• Edited by Leif Jonsson
• Edited by Per Persson
• Edited by Felix Riede
• Edited by Birgitte Skar

"Volume 1 is extremely well written and shold be a much sought after publication for anyone studying Early Mesolithic subsistence strategies, both for the new research presented and the thought-provoking debates." --Robson, H. (2019). The early settlement of Northern Europe. Antiquity, 93(367), 260-263. doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.264
—