Abstract:

From 2013-2022 the largest Stone Age excavation ever undertaken in Denmark, uncovered an entire fjord landscape beneath marine sediments at Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland. Based on the excavations, Museum Lolland-Falster, in collaboration with Aarhus University and the Danish National Museum, organised an international conference on the topic of “LOST 2022 – Changing Identity in a Changing World” on 16 and 17 June 2022 to discuss the time around 4000 BCE in Denmark and beyond from different angles.

This book summarizes the conference and presents its main outcomes. It also gives an overview of the current state of research within the Femern project and sets them into context with the wider area. By including contributions from the Netherlands to Finland, the central position of Lolland as a corridor in the Stone Age is highlighted and discussed. The topics covered in this book deal with technological change, archaeological analyses of identity, aspects of landscape interaction and perception in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic.

This book is aimed at specialists, students and the interested public alike, as it provides the first complete overview of the excavations of the Femern project and places them in context. At the same time, it serves as a basis for further studies on the material and highlights the challenges and possibilities of the archaeological record from the period around 4000 BCE.

Contents

Forword
Ulla Schaltz and Kasper Høhling Søsted

Introduction: Changing Identity in a Changing World
Daniel Groß and Mikael Rothstein

PART 1: Changing worlds

The Femern project: a large-scale excavation of a Stone Age landscape
Bjørnar Måge, Daniel Groß and Marie Kanstrup

Environmental changes after the last deglaciation, southern Lolland, Denmark
Ole Bennike and Catherine Jessen

Niche construction: Hard-working settlers and a neglected principle in understanding the early Neolithic of southern Scandinavia
Niels Nørkjær Johannsen

Estuary and lacustrine fishing with stationary wooden structures in Neolithic Finland: Evidence from waterlogged sites
Satu Koivisto

How to build a Neolithic? Perspectives on megalith building practices and landscape perception during the Funnel Beaker period in northern Germany
Maria Wunderlich

Tombs and Settlements, Bog and Sea – the possible influence of landscape change on Neolithic life in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor, Germany
Moritz Mennenga, Anja Behrens, Martina Karle and Steffen Wolters

PART 2: Losing Boundaries

Duality in the Early Neolithic on Lolland-Falster and in south Scandinavia
Theis Zetner Trolle Jensen and Lasse Sørensen

Long-term perspectives on Neolithisation: Pottery use in the Ertebølle Culture and its connection to the development of settlement patterns and hunter-gatherer complexity
Ann-Katrin Meyer

Changing diet in a changing world
Bente Philippsen

Mesolithic persistence and Neolithic emergence at Syltholm II (MLF00906-III). Osseous artefacts before and after 4000 BCE on the coast of Lolland, Denmark
Solveig Chaudesaigues-Clausen

Neolithisation in Denmark from a depositional perspective
Søren Anker Sørensen

Lola’s people hunted wild boar; their neighbours kept domestic pigs: analysis of the Syltholm pigs
Peter Rowley-Conwey

Neolithic farming in forager-resource systems: A case from southern Norway
Svein Vatsvåg Nielsen and Jo-Simon Frøshaug Stokke

PART 3: Identities of Change

Mesolithic hunters in mixed oak forests: Differences in hunting strategy and hunting behaviour
Ulrich Schmölcke

Changing diet during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition: An examination of the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of late Mesolithic and early Neolithic humans in Denmark
Rikke Maring, Jesper Olsen and Marcello A. Mannino

Going against the grain? The transition to farming in the Dutch wetlands re-examined (5000–4000 BCE)
Daan C. M. Raemaekers, Nathalie Ø. Brusgaard, Merita Dreshaj, Jolijn Erven, Michael W. Dee and J. Hans M. Peeters

Stone Age Fishing in the prehistoric Syltholm Fjord
Terje Stafseth and Daniel Groß

The Unbeknownst Pottery Craft at the Alvastra Pile Dwelling
Nathalie Hinders

Evidence of a base model for Neolithic depositions in Central and Northern Europe
Michael Müller

People, contacts and identities: the sixth-fifth millennium south of the western Baltic Sea
Thomas Terberger, Andreas Kotula and Henny Piezonka

Perceptions of Stone Age Landscapes? A note on how humans of the Stone Age may have experienced their surroundings
Mikael Rothstein