Køkkenmødding

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Excavation of a Køkkenmødding of the Ertebølle culture by the Limfjord , 1890s.
Shell midden from Whaleback, Maine .
Oyster shells in whaleback
Caribbean rubbish heap with casings of Lobatus gigas whose meat was eaten
The 18 m high Sambaqui from Figueirinha I in Brazil

A midden ( Danish also Östersdynger, oesterdalen bunker (oysters pile), Affaldsdynger (waste heap), Skaldynger (Muschelhaufen), German  , kitchen garbage heap ' , notation according sec Kjökkenmödding ) is a prehistoric waste heap of food residues, such as shells and screw housings, often as a result of tidal fishing at Sea or river banks.

Research and conceptual history

The term Køkkenmødding was introduced in the middle of the 19th century by the Danish zoologist Japetus Steenstrup (1813-1897) as an expression for mostly Stone Age finds from remains of marine and malaco fauna and is the common name in continental European archeology , while in Anglo -american space shell midden interspersed. In Portuguese one speaks of sambaqui or concheiro . Japetus Steenstrup has been concerned with the mussel heaps on the Danish coast since 1837 and in 1848 began a dispute with the archaeologist Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–1885) about the nature of the Køkkenmøddinger, in which Johann Georg Forchhammer (1794–1865) also intervened. Steenstrup thought the Køkkenmøddinger were silted up mussel beds; the tools were left behind by the early humans in their search for oysters. Worsaae, on the other hand, suspected that the mussel heaps were "a kind of common eating place from ancient times that lived in the vicinity of tribes". The dispute resulted in the establishment of a commission of inquiry by the Danish government in 1850. Steenstrup subsequently revised his views on the nature of the Køkkenmøddinger. The commission, to which Forchhammer, Steenstrup and Worsaae belonged, laid the foundations for research into Danish prehistory with the results presented in 1851.

Excavation on Elizabeth Island on the Strait of Magellan (1888)

Charles Darwin described clam heaps in Peru, RC Gunn (1808–1881) in 1846 in Tasmania . In the United States, L. Vanuxem described clam heaps in New Jersey in 1834 . In 1863, Carlos Ribeiro drew attention to clams near Muge in Portugal. In 1865, FA Pereira da Costa dug in the Cabeço da Arruda and found 45 skeletons in the clam pile. Post holes were later found in the Moita do Sebastião .

Edward S. Morses (1838–1925) Investigation of the mussel heaps ( kaizuka ) of Ōmori in the Tokyo district of Ōta in Japan. 1879 was the hour of birth of Japanese prehistoric archeology. He also examined the different species compositions and tried to use them for an environmental reconstruction.

Research into shell middens on the coast of America was stimulated by the Køkkenmødding research in Denmark. The first beginnings already existed in the 19th century. A publication by WH Dall from 1877 about his excavations in the Aleutian Islands , in which he was already using stratigraphic approaches , was not yet taken into account. Therefore, Max Uhle's (1856–1944) excavation in 1902 on a clam heap in Emeryville , California is considered the first real stratigraphic excavation in America. Further excavations took place shortly afterwards, in particular in Florida and in the southeast of North America, furthermore in Nova Scotia, on the Aleutian Islands and on the Brazilian coast.

Naturally formed clam clusters

Clam heaps can be caused by storms when live and dead clams in the intertidal zone or lower areas are washed onto the beach. Anthropogenic clam heaps can be repositioned by storms.

Birds also collect (smaller) clams. Oystercatchers and seagulls are particularly worth mentioning here. Several Australian bird species such as the Reinward chicken ( Megapodius reinwardt ) and the thermometer chicken ( Leipoa ocellata ) from the large foot fowl family gather shells around their nests. These accumulations can reach heights of over ten meters.

Dating

The oldest clam heaps that contained stone tools come from Terra Amata near Nice and are around 400,000 years old. Shell piles from the Pinnacle Point cave on the Indian Ocean in South Africa have been dated to an age of 164,000 years. A more intensive use of marine resources seems to have started in the last interglacial , but our knowledge is naturally limited by changes in sea level in the wake of the ice ages.

Lewis Binford postulated a revolutionary broadening of the nutritional basis at the beginning of our interglacial ( Broad Spectrum Revolution ), but his theses found little support. A check, for example by isotope analyzes , is still largely pending. In North Africa the accumulation of mussel heaps falls into the end of the Paleolithic ( Capsia ).

With the beginning of the Neolithic , the use of marine resources in north-western Europe appears to be declining overall. Mussel heaps were also newly created in the Neolithic. For the Køkkenmøddinger from Ponta da Vigia in Portugal , a date of about 6,730 BC was given. Determined. From Scotland are out of Mesolithic and Bell Beaker time and Pictish middens known from Ireland early medieval and Danish Viking Age .

The Brazilian mussel heaps, known as sambaquis , were created between 5000 and 1000 BC. Chr.

distribution

In Europe, mussel piles are common on the Atlantic coast from Ireland to Portugal ( Concheiros von Comporta ), in western Scotland and in North Africa and in Denmark . Excavated places in Jutland are u. a .:

  • Ale
  • Bjørnsholm (used from 5050-4050 BC)
  • Ertebølle
  • Havnø
  • Krabbesholm
  • Mosegården
  • Norsminde
  • Visborg

They are also known from:

Shape and composition

The piles of rubbish can consist of the shells of oysters , mussels , limpets and other shellfish , but they can also be interspersed with flakes or devices made of flint . Some clams also contain hearths, charcoal, ceramics and human skeletal remains. In Ertebølle themselves were about impact seats demonstrated for flint.

The skeletons of 45 individuals were found at the Cabeço da Arruda (Portugal). The piles of waste from the Capsien are 10–15 m long and can be 3 m high. A heap of garbage 100 m long, 50 m wide and 2.5 m high was found in Constantine , Algeria .

Meaning and ritual use

While Europe's Mesolithic mussel heaps are initially formed from food preparation waste, they can take on a ritual character as a place for regular, especially seasonal gatherings. Such a role can be assumed in particular where burials were carried out inside the mussel piles , as was the case on a large scale in Indian Knoll , Kentucky, USA or on the Bay of San Francisco , California, USA. In these cases, ritual connections between the burial of members of the clan and the return of basic food and banquets are accepted as part of the funeral rites. A special role played by clam piles and similar permanent remains of food would have had a different character even in a culture that otherwise knows no waste than is the case in our contemporary western culture.

Connections between ritual and food waste can also be seen in the settlement area of ​​the Torres Strait islanders, which has been inhabited for around 9,000 years . For long periods of time, heavily structured piles of leftover food from mussel shells and bones from Dugong have been preserved and could be excavated and examined with the participation of today's Torres Strait islanders. There, burials of children were found in dugong bone piles. Since festive meals have a special meaning in the culture of the islanders, the burials indicate that the piles of bones are associated with family groups that regularly meet at their traditional locations for celebrations.

Kongemose and Ertebølle culture

The first remaining kitchen garbage piles in Northern Europe come from the Congemose culture (6000–5200 BC). Due to the eustatic rise in sea levels since the last ice age, they have only been preserved in areas where the land has risen. The shell pile from Ertebølle in northern Jutland , excavated at the end of the 19th century, gave the late Mesolithic / Neolithic Ertebølle culture (5,200-4,000 BC) its name ( eponymous site ). In Germany, references to this cultural stage were first found around 1900 in the port basin of the Ellerbek district of Kiel . Since it is not in the context of the mussel heaps that are common in Scandinavia , one speaks in Schleswig-Holstein of the Ellerbek group of the Ertebølle culture or of the Ertebølle / Ellerbek culture, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of the Lietzow group or Lietzow Culture (based on the Lietzow -Buddelin site on Rügen ). An approximately 8,000 year old, only 1.9 cm long fish hook made from the bones of a bird, with four small grooves on the shaft for attaching a line, was found in 1989 during the archaeological research of a living space on the Roe farm in the municipality of Bro Härnäset in Bohuslän , found in a Køkkenmødding. In Sweden, so far only sites are known in Bohuslän where prehistoric bones have been preserved. This is the size of hook that has likely fished eel or herrings .

Recent clams

The recent exploitation of molluscs also gives rise to clam heaps, for example in Australia and Transkei (South Africa). The studies of recent hunter-gatherers , for example by Betty Meehan and Theresa Lasiak, provide important starting points for the interpretation of archaeological findings ( Ethnoarchaeology ).

Recent usage

Prehistoric clam heaps were mined to be used as building material, fertilizer or chicken feed. Mussels were also often burned into lime, and crushed mussels are also a popular addition to mortar and cement. In France, the mussels of the recent oyster fishery are used as fertilizer.

See also

literature

General

  • Seán P. Ó Ríordáin: fifth edition of Ruaidhrí de Valera : Antiquities of the Irish Countryside. Methuen, London & New York 1979.
  • Søren H. Andersen: Køkkenmøddinger - en truet fund group . In: Arkæologiske udgravninger i Danmark. 1987, pp. 28-43.

Excavation reports

  • Edward S. Morse: Shell mounds of Omori . Tokyo 1879.
  • James Patrick Mallory, Peter C. Woodman: Oughtymore: an Early Christian shell midden . Ulster Journal of Archeology 47, 51-62, 1984.
  • Paul Anthony Mellars: Excavation and Economic Analysis of Mesolithic Shell Middens on the Island of Oronsay (Inner Hebrides). In: Paul A. Mellars (Ed.), The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe, London, Duckworth 1978, 371-396.

Ethnology and Ethno-archeology

  • E. Noll: Ethnoarchaeological studies on clam heaps . Tübingen 2002.
  • B. Meehan: Shell bed to shell midden . Canberra 1982.
  • Geoffrey Bibby : hand ax and bronze sword. Exploration of the early days of the European north . Rowohlt- Sachbuch, Hamburg 1972.

nutrition

  • Richards MP, Schulting, Rick J. and Richard EM Hedges: Sharp shift in diet at onset of Neolithic . Nature 425, 2003, 366.
  • N. Milner: Oysters, cockles and kitchenmiddens: Changing practices at the Mesolithic / Neolithic transition in P. Miracle and N. Milner (Eds.): Consuming Passions and Patterns of Consumption . Mac Donald Institute, Cambridge 2002.
  • A. Jerardino, R. Navarro: Cape Rock Lobster (Jasus lalandii) Remains from South African West Coast Shell Middens: preservational factors and possible bias . Journal of Archaeological Science 29, 993-1000, 2002
  • Søren H. Andersen: Køkkenmøddinger (Shell Middens) in Denmark. A survey . In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 66 (2000), pp. 361-384.

Malacology

  • Irvy R. Quitmyer, Douglas S. Jones: The sclerochronology of hard clams, Mercenaria spp., From the South-Eastern USA: a method of elucidating the zooarchaeological records of seasonal resource procurement and seasonality in prehistoric shell middens . Journal of Archaeological Science 24, 825-40, 1997

Web links

Commons : Køkkenmøddinger  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keyword Kjökkenmöddinger, die . Duden (online), accessed on May 7, 2020.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Haberland: American Archeology . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1991, ISBN 3-534-07839-X , page 15.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Haberland: American Archeology . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1991, ISBN 3-534-07839-X , page 18.
  4. ↑ Claasson 1998, 72nd
  5. ^ Paola Villa: Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological Record of southern France . University of California Publications in Anthropology 13, Berkeley, University of California Press 1983. ISBN 0520096622
  6. ↑ Curtis W. Marean et al., Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene . In: Nature Vol. 449, 2007, pp. 905-908.
  7. ^ SH Andersen: Køkkenmøddinger (Shell Middens) in Denmark: a survey. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 66, 2000, pp. 361-384.
  8. ^ Aboriginal shell midden at Weipa . In: Virtual Reading Room from 1958
  9. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, this section is based on: Ian J. McNiven: Ritualized Middening Practices . In: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory , Volume 20, No 4 (December 2013), pages 552-588.
  10. ↑ McNiven 2013, p. 560.
  11. ↑ McNiven 2013, page 563 ff.