<p>The variety of fish species found at the archaeological sites indicates the exploitation of local and regional ecosystems. The focus of the fisheries varies from site to site. </p><p> The study is based on the analyses of faunal materials from 10 archaeological sites from Eastern Middle Sweden, Gotland, and Åland dating to approximately 3800 – 1850 B.C. The mainland assemblages are mainly burnt and highly fragmented. When comparing burnt and unburnt bone materials, results showed a marked predominance of fish specimens within the unburnt assemblages. The burnt bone materials showed a striking preponderance of marine mammals. The burning process impairs identification and quantification of fishbone. Species presence per context complemented summary data and showed that low and medium frequency species were handled more often than summary data indicate. Intra-site studies of burnt bones demonstrated the importance of detailed studies of the taphonomic history of the faunal assemblages.</p><p> At Ajvide on the island of Gotland, large amounts of well preserved unburnt faunal remains, and ca. 600 bone fishhooks have been unearthed. Replicas of fishhooks from this assemblage were subjected to strength test, osteometric, morphological, and breakage studies. Results point to an elaborated fishing technology for capturing medium sized cod. Incremental studies of cod otoliths (ear stones) from Ajvide showed that most cod were captured in fall and winter. A comparison with the contemporaneous Jettböle site on the Åland islands, showed that in general smaller cod and herring were captured there. </p><p> The ecological conditions were somewhat different during the Neolithic. The growth pattern for cod indicate a more rapid growth for young cod but with a lower asymptotic length compared to modern cod.</p>

<p>This thesis examines a sample of Pitted Ware pottery from the Gotlandic site of Ajvide in regard to the spatial and temporal relationship of the shards. Ajvide Stone Age site have been extensively excavated over the past 25 years and the most recent analysis of pottery was carried out by Inger Österholm in 1987 and new analyses of the material are therefore greatly needed. Pottery from three sample areas was analysed in regard to their distribution, decoration, fragmentation, part of pot and quality of the goods. To analyse the material in a contextual way a multivariate statistical analysis called correspondence analysis was used. Two areas denominated “dark areas”, which Österholm defined previously, as possible ritual sites, and one reference area with mixed material were chosen for the analysis. By including two of these “dark areas” the study also examine if similarities or differences could be seen among the shard distribution how these areas have been defined and possibly re-defined.</p>

Stone Age research on Northern Europe frequently makes gross generalizations about the Mesolithic and Neolithic, although we still lack much basic knowledge on how the people lived. The transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Europe has been described as a radical shift from an economy dominated by marine resources to one solely dependent on farming. Both the occurrence and the geographical extent of such a drastic shift can be questioned, however. It is therefore important to start out at a more detailed level of evidence in order to present the overall picture, and to account for the variability even in such regional or chronological overviews. Fifteen Stone Age sites were included in this study, ranging chronologically from the Early Mesolithic to the Middle or Late Neolithic, c. 8300–2500 BC, and stretching geographically from the westernmost coast of Sweden to the easternmost part of Latvia within the confines of latitudes 55–59° N. The most prominent sites in terms of the number of human and faunal samples analysed are Zvejnieki, Västerbjers and Skateholm I–II. Human and faunal skeletal remains were subjected to stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to study diet and ecology at the sites. Stable isotope analyses of human remains provide quantitative information on the relative importance of various food sources, an important addition to the qualitative data supplied by certain artefacts and structures or by faunal or botanical remains. A vast number of new radiocarbon dates were also obtained. In conclusion, a rich diversity in Stone Age dietary practice in the Baltic Region was demonstrated. Evidence ranging from the Early Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic show that neither chronology nor location alone can account for this variety, but that there are inevitably cultural factors as well. Food habits are culturally governed, and therefore we cannot automatically assume that people at similar sites will have the same diet. Stable isotope studies are very important here, since they tell us what people actually consumed, not only what was available, or what one single meal contained. We should not be deceived in inferring diet from ritually deposited remains, since things that were mentally important were not always important in daily life. Thus, although a ritual and symbolic norm may emphasize certain food categories, these may in fact contribute very little to the diet. By the progress of analysis of intra-individual variation, new data on life history changes have been produced, revealing mobility patterns, breastfeeding behaviour and certain dietary transitions. The inclusion of faunal data has proved invaluable for understanding the stable isotope ecology of a site, and thereby improve the precision of the interpretations of human stable isotope data. The special case of dogs, though, demonstrates that these animals are not useful for inferring human diet, since, due to the number of roles they possess in human society, dogs could deviate significantly from humans in their diet, and in several cases have been proved to do so. When evaluating radiocarbon data derived from human and animal remains from the Pitted-Ware site of Västerbjers on Gotland, the importance of establishing the stable isotope ecology of the site before making deductions on reservoir effects was further demonstrated. The main aim of this thesis has been to demonstrate the variation and diversity in human practices, challenging the view of a “monolithic” Stone Age. By looking at individuals and not only at populations, the whole range of human behaviour has been accounted for, also revealing discrepancies between norm and practice, which are frequently visible both in the archaeological record and in present-day human behaviour.

The variety of fish species found at the archaeological sites indicates the exploitation of local and regional ecosystems. The focus of the fisheries varies from site to site. The study is based on the analyses of faunal materials from 10 archaeological sites from Eastern Middle Sweden, Gotland, and Åland dating to approximately 3800 – 1850 B.C. The mainland assemblages are mainly burnt and highly fragmented. When comparing burnt and unburnt bone materials, results showed a marked predominance of fish specimens within the unburnt assemblages. The burnt bone materials showed a striking preponderance of marine mammals. The burning process impairs identification and quantification of fishbone. Species presence per context complemented summary data and showed that low and medium frequency species were handled more often than summary data indicate. Intra-site studies of burnt bones demonstrated the importance of detailed studies of the taphonomic history of the faunal assemblages. At Ajvide on the island of Gotland, large amounts of well preserved unburnt faunal remains, and ca. 600 bone fishhooks have been unearthed. Replicas of fishhooks from this assemblage were subjected to strength test, osteometric, morphological, and breakage studies. Results point to an elaborated fishing technology for capturing medium sized cod. Incremental studies of cod otoliths (ear stones) from Ajvide showed that most cod were captured in fall and winter. A comparison with the contemporaneous Jettböle site on the Åland islands, showed that in general smaller cod and herring were captured there. The ecological conditions were somewhat different during the Neolithic. The growth pattern for cod indicate a more rapid growth for young cod but with a lower asymptotic length compared to modern cod.

This article is an attempt to put forward the use of new digital techniques and data for understanding prehistoric landscapes. The starting point is that the specific characteristics of the landscape and of the sites included affect the interpretation. One character is the contemporary landscape and its topographies. Ancient landscapes can be successfully recreated digitally using GIS. By applying GIS methodology, a regression equation and new data, we reinvestigated an hypothesis proposed by Welinder in 1978 concerning the acculturation of the Pitted Ware Culture. The results indicate that a reconstruction of the landscape may alter the understanding of the Neolithic land use and the question of the relocation and termination of the Pitted Ware Culture at the end of Middle Neolithic B.

This thesis presents the results from a osteological analysis and a GIS-study aimed to examinedifferences in the located animal bones in different areas of the excavation site of Ajvde. The osteological material came from five excavated square meters on the site and was comparedwith osteological results from other researchers from different areas to create overview and try tosee differences between the areas. The GIS-study took data from all animal bone material excavated on the site, a total of about 2300kilos, and presented them in maps of spatial distribution for each layer (pictures 4, 5, 6 &amp; appendixpicture 1) to see if there were any clusters of activity and changes between the layers. The dating ofthe culture layer and the burial field (pictures 7 &amp; 8) were presented in maps to see if they could becorrelated with what was seen with the animal bones. Pictures of different shorelines were alsopresented (picture 9) to compare with the results that were seen in the changes of animal bones fromdifferent layers. The results of the GIS-study have shown that the activity on the site have moved over time alongthe hight differences of the land. The earlier layers show activity only on the higher elevation butlater moves down, and in the upper layers activity have been all over the excavated area. Clusters ofanimal bones were seen in the so called “black areas” of the sites (shown in picture 2) but also otherareas contained a lot of animal bones. The results of the osteological analysis have shown that there are differences in what species arefound in different areas. The most common are seal, wild boar/pig and fish. And the main differenceare shown between what are found within the black areas and outside. The bone material frominside the black areas are much more fragmented and contained more wild boar/pig bones, andoutside the black areas more bones from seal and fish were found in less fragmented condition (seepicture 10). The bone parts found from wild boar/pig were mostly cranium, teeth and bones fromthe feet, while there were all parts of the body found from seals. It is thereafter discussed that seal and fish may have been the common foods for the Ajvideinhabitants, which is also confirmed by C13-results, and the wild boar/pig may have been a morevaluable resource, not just as food at events like feasts, but also as material for tools. The black areas are discussed as maybe ritual areas for preparation for feasts in connection to burialceremonies, but this is something that needs more research to determine. The continuity of the blackareas are also discussed, but this also needs more research to know anything for certain. / Den här uppsatsen presenterar en sammanställning av osteologiska analyser och en GIS-studie medavsikten att undersöka skillnader i djurbensmaterialet på olika områden av utgrävningsytan påAjvide. Det osteologiska materialet kom från fem utgrävda kvadratmeter och jämfördes med andraosteologers resultat från andra områden på platsen för att skapa en översiktsbild av de olikaområdena och försöka se om det fanns skillnader. GIS-studien tog data från allt dokumenterat djurbensmaterial från utgrävningarna, totalt 2,3 ton, ochpresenterades i spridningskartor för varje lager (bild 4, 5 &amp; 6) för att se om det fannskoncentrationer av aktivitet och förändringar mellan lagren. Dateringar från kulturlagret ochgravarna (bild 7 &amp; 8) presenterades i kartor för att se de kunde kopplas samman med vad som sågs ispridningen av djurbensmaterialet. Strandlinjemodelleringar skapades också (bild 9) för att jämföramed resultaten från spridningskartorna över djurbensmaterialet. Resultatet från GIS-studien visade att aktiviteten på platsen har förflyttat sig över tid längs medhöjdskillnaderna i landskapet. De djupaste lagren visar enbart på aktivitet på de högre nivåerna,men i de övre lagren har detta förflyttats neråt och spritt sig över hela utgrävningsområdet. Storakoncetrationer av djurben kunde ses i de såkallade "svarta ytorna" men det fanns även mycketdjurben utanför dessa områden. De osteologiska resultaten visade att det fanns skillnader i vilka arter som påträffats på de olikaområdena. De vanligaste arterna var säl, svin och fisk. Den största skillnaden var vad som återfannsinom de svarta ytorna jämfört med utanför. Benmaterialet inom de svarta ytorna var mycket merfragmenterat och innehöll mer svinben, och utanför de svarta ytorna återfanns mer ben från säl ochfisk som även var betydligt mindre fragmenterade (se bild 10). Benelementen som återfanns frånsvin var mestadels kranium, tänder och fotben, medan samtliga kroppsdelar från säl påträffades. Det diskuteras därefter att säl och fisk kan ha varit den vardagliga födan för Ajvidebefolkningen,vilket också bekräftast av C13-resultat, och därmed enbart behandlats som matavfall, medan svinenkan varit en mer värdefull resurs, inte bara som mat vid exempelvis festmåltider, men även sommaterial till redskapstillverkning. De svarta ytorna diskuteras som möjliga platser för förberedelser för gravceremonier eller vid slaktvid festmåltider, men detta är något som behöver undersökas vidare för att avgöra. De svartaytornas kontinuitet och användning över tid diskuterades också, men behöver även det ytterligareundersökning och dateringar för att kartläggas.

One of the most discussed archaeological subjects is the neolitisation, and the start of a neolithic lifestyle which is characterized by several significant events. The traditional view has been that settled people were cultivating and breeding, but this picture has been questioned and changed in later years. The development is principally based on two models; that already neolithic people immigrated and took over, or that the new lifestyle gradually developed out of the existing cultures. Southern Scandinavia was characterized by a settlement pattern with permanent settlements which were complemented by temporary special settlements, but in time more domestic settlements originated. On the British Isles the settlements didn´t consist of permanent agricultural settlements but instead did the people here move freely between several short term settlements.

This thesis aims to investigate the social structure of Neolithic Period. To do this, both physical anthropological and archaeological data are used, and it is sought after whether burial customs and skeleton biology can be a parameter to understand social organization of a concerned area in a given time period. For this thesis the data comes from Abu Hureyra and &Ccedil / ay&ouml / n&uuml / . Quantified data of burial types and grave goods are used in order to create descriptive statistical graphics. Then, correspondence analysis is employed to detect statistical significance in data sets, if exists. Anthropological data is stemmed from previous researchers. On the other hand, they were still used to investigate sex and age distributions with the same tools employed before. As a final study two settlements are compared within and with each other to chase the clues for social differentiation.

This thesis examines a sample of Pitted Ware pottery from the Gotlandic site of Ajvide in regard to the spatial and temporal relationship of the shards. Ajvide Stone Age site have been extensively excavated over the past 25 years and the most recent analysis of pottery was carried out by Inger Österholm in 1987 and new analyses of the material are therefore greatly needed. Pottery from three sample areas was analysed in regard to their distribution, decoration, fragmentation, part of pot and quality of the goods. To analyse the material in a contextual way a multivariate statistical analysis called correspondence analysis was used. Two areas denominated “dark areas”, which Österholm defined previously, as possible ritual sites, and one reference area with mixed material were chosen for the analysis. By including two of these “dark areas” the study also examine if similarities or differences could be seen among the shard distribution how these areas have been defined and possibly re-defined.

Based on a thesis (Ph.D.)--University of York, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.