Gropkeramiker är en intressant kultur som utmärker sig under mellanneolitisk tid på grund av de mesolitiska jakttendenserna. Denna text undersöker gropkeramikernas förhållningssätt kring motgångar och resiliens, genom att registrera potentiella motgångar inom kulturen. Detta kommer att genomföras genom att sammanställa källor från tidigare forskning kring kulturen samt utgå från den adaptiva modellen där kollaps och resiliens definieras. De sammanställda källorna inkluderar gropkeramikernas kontaktnät, ritualer, diet, osteologiska analyser, DNA - analyser och handel. Uppsatsen har avgränsat det geografiska området där de primära källorna inkluderar lokalerna: Ajvide, Västerbjers och Jettböle. / Pitted ware culture is an interesting culture during the middle neolithic period due to the mesollithic hunting tendencies. This text examines the cultures approach to setbacks and resilience by registering potential setbacks within the culture. This will be done by compiling sources from previous research on pitted ware culutre and by using the adaptive model where collapse and resilience are defined. The compiled sources include the social network, rituals, diet, osteological analyses, DNA - analysis and trade of the pitted ware culture. This essay has defined the geographical area where the primary sources include the sites of: Ajvide, Västerbjers and Jettböle.

<p>The Pitted Ware Culture site Korsnäs in Södermanland, Sweden presents a, for the region, unique amount of preserved organic material suitable for chemical analyses. Human and faunal skeletal material has been subjected to stable isotope analysis with the aim of examining whether the diet of the Korsnäs people correlates with the seal-based subsistence of Pitted Ware Culture groups on the Baltic islands. Further, the relationship between the faunal assemblage and the human diet has been studied, and the debated question of whether the Pitted Ware people kept domestic pigs has been addressed. Ten new radiocarbon dates are presented, which place the excavated area of the site in Middle Neolithic A, with a continuity of several hundred years. The results show that the diet of the Korsnäs people was predominantly based on seal, and seal hunting was probably an essential part of the Pitted Ware Culture identity. Based on the dietary pattern of the species, it is argued that the pigs were not domestic. The faunal assemblage, dominated by seal and pig bones, does not correlate with the dietary pattern, and it is suggested that wild boar might have been hunted and sacrificed and/or ritually eaten on certain occasions.</p>

The Pitted Ware Culture site Korsnäs in Södermanland, Sweden presents a, for the region, unique amount of preserved organic material suitable for chemical analyses. Human and faunal skeletal material has been subjected to stable isotope analysis with the aim of examining whether the diet of the Korsnäs people correlates with the seal-based subsistence of Pitted Ware Culture groups on the Baltic islands. Further, the relationship between the faunal assemblage and the human diet has been studied, and the debated question of whether the Pitted Ware people kept domestic pigs has been addressed. Ten new radiocarbon dates are presented, which place the excavated area of the site in Middle Neolithic A, with a continuity of several hundred years. The results show that the diet of the Korsnäs people was predominantly based on seal, and seal hunting was probably an essential part of the Pitted Ware Culture identity. Based on the dietary pattern of the species, it is argued that the pigs were not domestic. The faunal assemblage, dominated by seal and pig bones, does not correlate with the dietary pattern, and it is suggested that wild boar might have been hunted and sacrificed and/or ritually eaten on certain occasions.

The Mid-Neolithic site of Ajvide on the Baltic Island of Gotland comprises the burials of 89 individuals within 85 separate burial contexts (Österholm 2008). Some of these individuals were detected with absent skeletal elements, such as the cranium, which have been believed to be represented by the considerable number of dispersed human bone fragments discovered from the site (Burenhult 2002: 33, see also Lundén 2012). These occurrences were initially proposed to be caused by agricultural ploughing, which however has not been done on the fields of Ajvide with the modern machinery of the late 20th century (Burenhult 2002: 31). It was hence the intention of this study to investigate the alternative motives behind these phenomena, by reviewing the statistics between these skeletal materials. The correspondence was additionally analysed with some other selected variables on the available data from these burial contexts. Based on the attained results, it was concluded that the human skeletal remains from the disturbed burials were likely intentionally retrieved to be used in the different ritual activities of the PWC populations on Gotland. / Den mellanneolitiska Ajvidelokalen på Gotland omfattar 85 begravningar av totalt 89 individer (Österholm 2008, Burenhult 2002). Vissa av individerna påträffades utan specifika skelettelement, såsom kraniet. Dessa individer har använts som representanter för tolkningen av den markanta kvantiteten av spridda mänskliga benfragment, som hittats via arkeologiska utgrävningar på lokalen (Burenhult 2002: 33, se även Lundén 2012 och Wallin 2015). Till en början ansågs jordbruksplogningen vara ansvarig för detta fenomen, dock har inga plöjningar utförts med moderna maskiner, eller sedan 1900-talet (Burenhult 2002: 31). Därmed, var syftet med studie att undersöka alternativa tolkningar bakom dessa fenomen. Studien är på analyser av de två olika grupperna med skelettmaterial, som inkluderats i en statistisk modell. Dessutom utfördes en korrespondensanalys mellan andra särskilt utvalda variabler från varje gravkontext. Studien har konkluderat, att de mänskliga skelettresterna från de förstörda begravningarna, hämtades sannolikt avsiktligen för olika rituella aktiviteter som praktiserades av den mellanneolitiska befolkningen på Gotland.