Hensbakka

The Hensbakka or Fosna culture is the oldest section of the Swedish and Norwegian Mesolithic . However, some researchers see Fosna as a maritime expression of the Ahrensburg culture . The distribution ranges from the Swedish west coast near Halland to Vättern or Vänern . It begins around 9600 BC. In southern Sweden, with earlier hunting trips being considered, and lasts until about 7000 BC. The living spaces are connected to the 40–90 m coastline. Typical artifacts are coarse lanceolate microliths , disc axes , unipolar and bipolar blade cores with a working surface , handle tips , Høgnipen tips and Lerberg axes.

According to Åke Fredsjö (1913–1978) it is divided into four phases. H. Kindgren only recognizes two phases, an older one with stem tips before 9700 BP and a younger one with lanceolate microliths from 9700 to 9200 BP. Numerous clam heaps are known, especially in the Udevalla area . Presumably, as in the Askola culture , the diet was mainly based on seals , but there are also known inland sites.

The runoff of the Ancylussee (the then pre-Baltic Sea) into the North Sea over the Vättern and Vänern separated the southern Scandinavian population of these northern European hunters and gatherers into the Scandinavian successor culture, which spread to the north, while the southern population became the Ertebölle- Culture further developed, whereby the establishment of agricultural cultures in Central Europe exerted a displacement effect to the north and thus also influenced the southern hunters and gatherers of Scandinavia.

The meeting of northern hunters and gatherers with a hunter-gatherer culture that had immigrated via Karelia ended the Fosna-Hansbekka culture, which, however, developed in a new form of expression.

literature

• L. Larsson, H. Kindgren, D. Loeffler, A. Akerlund (Eds.): Mesolithic on the Move. Papers presented at the Sixth International Conference on the Mesolithic Europe, Stockholm 2000. Oxbow Books, Oxford 2003, ISBN 1-8421-7089-9 .