Ertebølle culture

The Ertebølle culture is named after the place where Ertebølle was found on the east bank of the Limfjord in Jutland , near Farsø . In Germany, the culture is also called the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture, after another location . Ertebølle is a 140 m long, 30 to 40 m wide and up to 1.5 m high clam heap that was examined between 1893 and 1897 and from 1979 to 1984. In addition to countless leftovers, it contained numerous legacies of the Ertebølle culture.

Living spaces

Excavation of Køkkenmødding from Ertebølle (before 1900)

The living places (such as Dyrholmen , Smakkerup Huse ) were found mainly on the coast. One reason is the so-called Køkkenmøddinger (“kitchen rubbish heaps”), which the antiquarians of the 19th century noticed. These heaps, consisting predominantly of mussel or snail shells, were partly sought out by the bearers of the following Neolithic beaker culture ( Åmølle , Krabbesholm, Norsminde, Visborg). Coastal, inland and underwater living areas are also known, such as Muldbjerg I, in Åmose on Zealand , Ringkloster , Nekselø , Møllegabet, Næbbet and Tybrind vig in Denmark; Timmendorf-Nordmole, Jäckelberg-Nord in Mecklenburg and Ellerbek in Schleswig-Holstein . Such heaps of rubbish have been found in various places in Atlantic Europe . On the Schleswig-Holstein coast, however, no mussel heaps could be detected, possibly because they were inundated by the subsidence .

The first finds of this culture in Germany were made when the port of Kiel was dredged between 1876 and 1903. One of the most recent finds is a paddle blade from Baabe on Rügen .

Material culture

Ceramics

Pointed vessel from the Ertebølle culture

Clay lamp of the Ertebølle culture

In the course of the Ertebølle culture, the first ceramics appeared in northern Germany in the form of undecorated, pointed-bottom (not standing alone) vessels and clay lamps , which can be traced back to suggestions from the neighboring or Baltic influence of the Narva culture . In Schlamersdorf ( Segeberg district ), pointed-bottom vessels were found, one of which has an edge decoration with fingernail impressions and tiny punctures in the edge area. Their dating to 5300-5200 BC. BC shows it to be the oldest Ertebølle ceramics. In Seedorf (Segeberg district) , the earliest ceramics of this culture dates from 4900–4800 BC. In southern Scandinavia, this ceramic did not appear until 4600 BC. Chr. On. The vessels are made using the bulge or inclined construction technique. Their wall thicknesses vary between 5 and 15 mm.

Equipment for hunting and fishing

In underwater excavations , very well-preserved fish hooks , fish spears, fish fences , nets, net sinks and net swimmers , cross angling, fish traps and the remains of boats and paddles have been found .

Arrow and sheet served as hunting weapons . The best-known bows come from Holmegård on Zealand in Denmark , but date back to the previous Congemose culture . The following arch finds from the Ertebølle culture are known.

Ageröd V, southern Sweden (in the Atlantic , C14 dating 6860–6540 BP ): a flat arch made of elm ( Ulmus sp. ), Approx. 170 cm long; a flat arch made of mountain ash or rowan tree ( Sorbus aucuparia ), 61.7 cm still preserved in fragments; a stick arch. According to Bergman, the bow tie is less efficient and, according to his speculation, may have been built by young people.
Ring monastery, Denmark: dating 5400-3550 BC. Chr.
Tybrind vig , Denmark: elm arch ( Ulmus sp. ), Approx. 160 cm long, dating 4600-3200 BC Chr.

Since several of the arches are constructed and dimensioned very similarly, this form of the flat arch with a D-shaped cross-section is sometimes considered to be the standard mesolithic type.

Flint devices

In the flint industries across edged are arrowheads typical. At the Timmendorfer Nordmole a unique date for Northern Europe was geschäftete Mesolithic flint blade found.

In 2002, in the coastal settlement of Grube-Rosenhof in Schleswig-Holstein , an ax from the Danube was found with the remainder of a limewood shaft that was too soft for work. This makes their function as a prestige object likely.

economy

Marine resources seem to have been important for nutrition, at least seasonally. In addition to sea fish ( cod , flatfish ) and mussels, perch and pike were also caught. Seals, harbor seals and porpoises ( whales ) were hunted. Game also played a role, the bones of red deer , wild cattle , roe deer and wild boar can be found in the clams in Jutland . Bow and arrow and the dog were used for hunting. There are vague indications of an incipient Neolithization , especially in the form of isolated animal husbandry. In Tybrind Vig, the first dugout place in Denmark using diving archeology, an almost completely preserved dugout canoe and a fragment from the stern of a high-sided boat were discovered 300 m from the beach at a depth of three meters . The former is about 9.50 m long and 0.65 m wide. The paddles found are made of ash wood . They have a heart-shaped oar blade and a wooden shaft more than 1 m long. Two of the paddles are decorated on the rudder blade.

Burials

Most burials were found in the mussel heaps . Grave fields are known from Vedbæk ( Bøgebakken site ) and Skateholm . More recent investigations (1978–1987) come from the Tybrind Vig site near Middelfart on Funen , including a double burial . Raymond Terrace in found a collective grave at Køge Bay with eight dead, from around 4600 BC. Chr.

literature

Søren H. Andersen: Mesolithic dug-outs and paddles from Tybrind Vig, Denmark. In: Acta Archaeologica. 57, 1987, ISSN 0065-101X , pp. 87-106.
Søren H. Andersen: Norsminde, a clam heap with a late Ertebølle and early beaker culture. In: Jürgen Hoika (Hrsg.): Contributions to the early Neolithic funnel cup culture in the western Baltic Sea region (= studies and materials on the Stone Age in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Baltic Sea region. 1). Wachholz, Neumünster 1994, ISBN 3-529-01844-9 , pp. 11-49.
Marco Chiriaco: The material goods of the Ertebølle culture. Grin, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-640-27114-6 .
Karsten Kjer Michaelsen: Politics bog om Danmarks oldtid . Copenhagen 2002 ISBN 87-567-6458-8 p. 28
Raymond R. Newell, Trinette Constandse-Westermann: The significance of Skateholm 1 and Skateholm 2 to the Mesolithic of western Europe. In: Lars Larsson (Ed.): The Skateholm Project. Volume 1: Man and Environment (= Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet. Scrifter. 79). Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1988, ISBN 91-22-01103-X , pp. 164-174.
Liv Nilsson Stutz: Embodied rituals and ritualized bodies, Tracing ritual practices in late Mesolithic burials (= Acta archaeologica Lundensia. Series in octavo. 46). Almqvist & Wiksell International, Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-22-02037-3 (also: Lund, University, dissertation, 2003).

Web links

Commons : Ertebølle-Kultur - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Denmark's History - Ertebølle Culture (in English)

Individual evidence

^ Sönke Hartz, Dirk Heinrich, Harald Lübke: Early farmers on the coast. New ¹⁴ C data and current aspects of the neolithization process in the North German Baltic Sea coast area. In: Prehistoric Journal . 75, 2000, pp. 129-152, doi : 10.1515 / prhz.2000.75.2.129 .

^ Hermann Schwabedissen : The Ellerbek culture in Schleswig-Holstein and the advance of the Neolithic across the Elbe to the north. In: Jürgen Hoika (Hrsg.): Contributions to the early Neolithic funnel cup culture in the western Baltic Sea region (= studies and materials on the Stone Age in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Baltic Sea region. 1). Wachholz, Neumünster 1994, ISBN 3-529-01844-9 , pp. 361-401.

^ Harald Lübke: Timmendorf-Nordmole and Jäckelberg-Nord. First research results on submarine settlement sites of the end Mesolithic Ertebølle culture in the Wismar Bay, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: Working group underwater archeology. Newsletter. 7, 2000, ISSN 1434-842X , pp. 17-35, ( online ).

^ Klaus Hirsch, Stefanie Klooß: Find of the month November 2007. Mesolithic paddles from the island of Rügen . At www.kulturwerte-mv.de.

^ Lars Larsson: Ageröd V. An atlantic bog site in Central Scania (= Acta archaeologica Lundensia. Series in octavo. 12). Bloms, Lund 1983, ISBN 91-7260-829-3 , pp. 57-59.

↑ Christopher A. Bergman: The development of the bow in Western Europe: A technological and functional perspective. In: Gail Larsen Peterkin, Harvey M. Bricker, Paul Mellars (Eds.): Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia (= Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Vol. 4, No. 1). American Anthropological Association, Washington DC 1993, ISBN 0-913167-61-4 , pp. 95-105, here pp. 98-99, doi : 10.1525 / ap3a.1993.4.1.95 .

^ Søren H. Andersen: Tybrind Vig: A submerged Ertebolle settlement in Denmark. In: John M. Coles, Andrew J. Lawson (Eds.): European Wetlands in Prehistory. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-19-813406-1 , pp. 253-280.

^ Søren H. Andersen: Tybrind Vig. A Preliminary Report on a Submerged Ertebølle Settlement on the West Coast of Fyn. In: Journal Danish Archeology. Vol. 4, 1985, ISSN 2166-2282 , pp. 52-69.

↑ Christopher A. Bergman: The development of the bow in Western Europe: A technological and functional perspective. In: Gail Larsen Peterkin, Harvey M. Bricker, Paul Mellars (Eds.): Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia (= Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Vol. 4, No. 1). American Anthropological Association, Washington DC 1993, ISBN 0-913167-61-4 , pp. 95-105, doi : 10.1525 / ap3a.1993.4.1.95 .

↑ Harald Lübke: A hollow retouched blade with a preserved shaft from the final Mesolithic site of Timmendorf-Nordmole, Wismarbucht, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: Working group underwater archeology. Newsletter. 8, 2001, pp. 46–51, ( digitized version (PDF; 334.14 kB) ( memento of the original dated May 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and Archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2

^ Archeology in Germany . Issue 3, 2002, p. 56.

[1] Sönke Hartz, Dirk Heinrich, Harald Lübke: Early farmers on the coast. New ¹⁴ C data and current aspects of the neolithization process in the North German Baltic Sea coast area. In: Prehistoric Journal . 75, 2000, pp. 129-152, doi : 10.1515 / prhz.2000.75.2.129 .

[2] Hermann Schwabedissen : The Ellerbek culture in Schleswig-Holstein and the advance of the Neolithic across the Elbe to the north. In: Jürgen Hoika (Hrsg.): Contributions to the early Neolithic funnel cup culture in the western Baltic Sea region (= studies and materials on the Stone Age in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Baltic Sea region. 1). Wachholz, Neumünster 1994, ISBN 3-529-01844-9 , pp. 361-401.

[3] Harald Lübke: Timmendorf-Nordmole and Jäckelberg-Nord. First research results on submarine settlement sites of the end Mesolithic Ertebølle culture in the Wismar Bay, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In: Working group underwater archeology. Newsletter. 7, 2000, ISSN 1434-842X , pp. 17-35, ( online ).

[4] Klaus Hirsch, Stefanie Klooß: Find of the month November 2007. Mesolithic paddles from the island of Rügen . At www.kulturwerte-mv.de.

[5] Lars Larsson: Ageröd V. An atlantic bog site in Central Scania (= Acta archaeologica Lundensia. Series in octavo. 12). Bloms, Lund 1983, ISBN 91-7260-829-3 , pp. 57-59.

[6] Christopher A. Bergman: The development of the bow in Western Europe: A technological and functional perspective. In: Gail Larsen Peterkin, Harvey M. Bricker, Paul Mellars (Eds.): Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia (= Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Vol. 4, No. 1). American Anthropological Association, Washington DC 1993, ISBN 0-913167-61-4 , pp. 95-105, here pp. 98-99, doi : 10.1525 / ap3a.1993.4.1.95 .

[7] Søren H. Andersen: Tybrind Vig: A submerged Ertebolle settlement in Denmark. In: John M. Coles, Andrew J. Lawson (Eds.): European Wetlands in Prehistory. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-19-813406-1 , pp. 253-280.

[8] Søren H. Andersen: Tybrind Vig. A Preliminary Report on a Submerged Ertebølle Settlement on the West Coast of Fyn. In: Journal Danish Archeology. Vol. 4, 1985, ISSN 2166-2282 , pp. 52-69.

[9] Christopher A. Bergman: The development of the bow in Western Europe: A technological and functional perspective. In: Gail Larsen Peterkin, Harvey M. Bricker, Paul Mellars (Eds.): Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia (= Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association. Vol. 4, No. 1). American Anthropological Association, Washington DC 1993, ISBN 0-913167-61-4 , pp. 95-105, doi : 10.1525 / ap3a.1993.4.1.95 .