Paths towards a new world neolithic Sweden / Mats Larsson ; with Geoffrey Lemdahl and Kerstin Lidén.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Larsson, Mats, 1951- author.

Lemdahl, Geoffrey, 1955- author.

Lidén, Kerstin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neolithic period--Sweden.

Neolithic period.

Sweden--Antiquities.

Sweden.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (317 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Philadelphia : Oxbow Books, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Covering the approximately 6,500 years from the beginning of the Late Mesolithic to the transition to the Bronze Age, Mats Larsson takes the reader on a journey through the development of Swedish prehistoric society and culture set against the backdrop of climatic and landscape change. Using examples selected from a wealth of archaeological sites, artefacts and palaeo-environmental studies he explores a series of chronological themes: such as how the relationship between land and water influenced people's lives in many ways and the development of often long-distance cultural and exchange netwo

Contents:

Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface; Introduction; 1 Environmental History; Geological archives; Methods of analysis; Pollen analysis; Plant microfossil analysis; Analysis of bone and shell remains; Insect analysis; Dating; Examples of palaeoecological applications; Suggested readings; 2 The Mesolithic Period and Stone Age hunters; The last hunters; The Late Mesolithic - a few trends; Suggested readings; 3 From Hunter to Farmer; Northern Europe; Paths towards a new world; The early farmers and their contemporaries; Time and artefacts

What was life like for the early farmers?Settlement trends; What did they eat?; Stone Age food; 4 The Dead and the Afterlife; Long barrows; Flat graves; Dolmens; Döygg (Dolmen Ridge); Meeting places for the living and the dead - Sarup structures; Burnt axes and ceremonial deposits; The Early Neolithic - a few trends; Suggested readings; 5 Science and the Neolithic; Domestication; Adaptation; Kinship; The future; Isotopes; Diet; Mobility; The future; Suggested readings; 6 A Time of Change; Farmers and seal hunters; Time and objects; Settlements and houses; The dead and the afterlife

Sarup structuresSeal hunters; The settlement at Åby; Fräkenrönningen; The afterlife; Seal hunters or...?; The Alvastra pile dwelling; So, who were these seal hunters?; Changes and new times; 7 New Manners and Customs; The Battle Axe Culture; Events in North Sweden; Graves, dwellings and battle axes; Flint and stone; Preparing the dead -burial customs; Houses for the dead; Houses for the living; Trends in settlements; Palisades and timber circles; Crop growing and livestock; Suggested readings; 8 Longhouses and Stone Cists; Daggers, sickles and arrowheads; House and home

Late Neolithic dwellings - main featuresColonization phase or...?; Stone cists and earthen graves; Cremation graves; Flat ground graves; Late Neolithic trends; Suggested readings; Epilogue; References

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781782972600

1782972609

9781782972587

1782972587