From forager to farmer in flint: A lithic analysis of the prehistoric transition to agriculture in southern Scandinavia.

摘要

A major debate over the last fifty years concerns how and why apparently successful south Scandinavian foragers became farmers. A unique group of Stone Age settlements in Denmark provide an ideal opportunity to evaluate variation in flint technology at different points along this transition. Lithic materials from sites in the Danish Amose bog and the Norsminde shell midden on eastern Jutland are used to examine how flint technology changed over the transition, and at what pace. Of particular interest is the degree of technological continuity between the terminal Mesolithic and early Neolithic assemblages, as well as the role of the emerging Neolithic cultural system upon assemblage composition and technology. The data suggest a considerable degree of continuity exists between Mesolithic and Neolithic flint assemblages, as overall differences between assemblages are minor. Differences in tool production technology between periods (e.g., a switch from blade to flake technologies) took place as a gradual process of replacement. Based on these data, it is concluded that the arrival of the Neolithic in Denmark represented a movement of ideas, not people, from areas to the south of Denmark. It is furthermore argued that these data best support a social competition hypothesis for the adoption of the Neolithic by Danish foragers.