Daniel Groß

Despite an increasing number of studies, the application of stable sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis to prehistoric bone collagen remains in its infancy. Conventionally, stable sulfur isotope compositions reflect coastal proximity and the interaction between humans and animals. Here, we undertook stable carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis of human and faunal bone collagen. To understand the local environmental conditions as well as the husbandry regime employed by the first farmers, and investigate where the animals were raised or hunted in non-specific terms, we sampled 50 faunal, including wild and domestic taxa, and human remains from the Late Mesolithic to Early-Middle Neolithic (c. 4860–2310 cal BC) site of Syltholm II on the island of Lolland, Denmark. We show that the wild animals were obtained from multiple locations surrounding the prehistoric Syltholm Fjord, including forested and open landscapes, areas impacted by sea spray and saltmarshes. In contrast, the domestic taxa, especially cattle, were tightly managed for the majority of their lives based on their δ13C and δ15N isotope compositions, though were likely raised in multiple locations, including sea spray-affected areas, salt marshes and wetlands, based on their δ34S values. The domestic dogs had a broad range of δ13C, δ15N and δ34S values, reflecting the consumption of varying degrees of marine foodstuffs, including animals that were sulfide-derived. Overall, our results contribute to a growing body of evidence for possible cultural and animal husbandry duality during the earliest Neolithic in southern Scandinavia.

This chapter starts with a theoretical introduction to the concept of the creation and perception of cultural landscapes. Niche construction theory and human agency, often treated as controverse concepts are discussed as complementary aspects of human environment relations. The DPSIR framework (the concept of Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses) is applied as valuable approach for the explanation of the transformations in human behaviour in reaction to environmental developments. Aspects of intended and unintended reactions to human agency and action are discussed as well as the temporal and spatial scales of transformations that consequently occured. Therefore, four examples are presented from case studies within the CRC 1266. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic use of natural resources will have left visible but short-lived traces in the landscape as first steps towards a cultural landscape. The role of humans in the spread of plants and the influence of human action on the plant distribution and composition are discussed in this context. The Neolithic transformation shows a new dimension of changes in the landscape. The producing economy leads to a wide range of resource extractions that enable a much higher population being nourished by the manipulated environment with anthropogenic open land as a new landscape element or niche. Bronze Age progression and intensification of land use in many areas lead to soil degradation and the widespread expansion of heathlands. Even though the process was too slow to be perceived consciously, associated economic adaptations to this new type of cultural landscape are observable. The fourth example explains an unexpected positive aspect of deforestation. In the context of Neolithic Trypillian megasites the soil developed towards a deep and fertile Chernozem. The role of earthworms is discussed as key factor for the soil development in the transition from a forest and forest steppe towards the agrarian steppe of today. The difference between human agency and human action is discussed for the presented examples as the awareness of the consequences of human behaviour very much depends the velocity of changes and human perception.

Archaeological research at ancient Lake Duvensee began almost 100 years ago and has recently revealed another early Holocene site, Duvensee WP 10, which was excavated from 2016 to 2020. Here, we will present the first results of the investigations. The site shows several characteristics known from other sites within the area. However, it is noteworthy that, in comparison to the other local campsites, several discarded animal bones were foundan archaeological find group that is almost lacking in the microregion. Dense scatters of flint artefacts and hazelnuts represent the majority of the find spectrum and indicate a mainly undisturbed, single-phased site as corroborated by the radiocarbon dating and the stratigraphy. Furthermore, the results show that the lake level at ancient lake Duvensee must have dropped significantly shortly after the occupation of Duvensee WP 10 and that people used the site for processing hunted animals, artefact production, and hazelnut roasting.

Time and timing are essential to many archaeological questions, especially when dealing with archaeo-cultural borders or transitions.
In this paper, we address the transition from the Final Palaeolithic to the Early Mesolithic on the North German Plain
with respect to chronological evidence. Based on several well-dated sites from the area, we aim to discuss preconditions and
consequences for the spreading of Early Mesolithic technocomplexes. Furthermore, we highlight which problems have to be
approached when dealing with this timeframe.
It is shown that the onset of the Mesolithic in the area under consideration currently appears to date not prior to the Middle
Preboreal, i.e. from ca. 9200 calBC onwards. The short cold spell, the Preboreal Oscillation, seems to coincide with a seizure
between the hunter-gatherers of the Ahrensburgian and the aforementioned Early Holocene societies. It is made clear that the
Pleistocene/Holocene border should not generally be parallelised with the Ahrensburgian/Early Mesolithic in the respective area.

We investigate the landscape development of the early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer sites of Duvensee (10000–6500 cal. BCE). Based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and geoarchaeological drillings, we present for the first time a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the palaeoenvironment of 63 ha covering subarea of the former lake during the Mesolithic. The archaeological aims were (1) to detect the location of former islands possibly hosting hunter-gatherer settlements and (2) to reconstruct the ancient landscape development for understanding prehistoric land use. The research in Duvensee lasts almost 100 years, providing vivid illustrations of early Mesolithic life. Clusters of Mesolithic camps have been found located on small sand hills that formed islands in the prehistoric lake. For this environment, we present depth maps of the three most important sedimentary facies interfaces of the ancient Lake Duvensee. Interface1 represents the transition between coarse organic sediments (peat and coarse detritus gyttja) and fine-grained organic sediments (fine detritus gyttja, calcareous gyttja), Interface2 represents the transition to the underlying clayish-loamy sediments, and Interface3 marks the top of the basal sand deposits at the lake bottom. From Interface3, we identified the location and extent of five former islands with Mesolithic camps. Stratigraphic information from the corings enabled us to create a 3D model of the spatio-temporal development of the Duvensee bog. The locations of the islands and their estimated dive-up times agree with the spatio-temporal pattern of the previous archaeological finds. The model shows where huntergatherers
could settle and move from one island to another following the shorelines of the overgrowing lake. The 3D stratigraphic model provides growth and shrinking rates of the island and lake areas in the Mesolithic, and volumes of organic and non-organic deposited lake sediments. Besides, it provides a basis for a sustainable groundwater management needed for heritage preservation.

19 With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of 20 accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the 21 agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, 22 to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: 23 (1) in a typical pattern of research design, studies seek to detect simultaneous shifts in the environmental 24 and archaeological records, variously positing the former to have influenced, triggered or caused the latter; 25 (2) the question of determinism involves uncertainty about the justification for the above research design 26 in particular in what comes to biologism and the concept of environmental thresholds on the one hand and 27 the externality of the drivers of transformation in human groups and societies on the other; (3) adapting 28 the concepts of the social production of vulnerability and the social basis of hazards from anthropology 29 may help to clarify the available research design choices at hand. 30 Keywords agency; anthropology of hazard; paleaoenvironmental; vulnerability; resilience; causality 31 Introduction 32 Determinism, in particular environmental determinism, is a recurring topic of debate in modern 33 archaeology and related disciplines (Meggers

Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic environmental changes of hunter-gatherers and present new palaeoecological and palynological data. The studies are framed with ethnoarchaeological data from Western Siberia to gain a better understanding of how different triggers lead to coping mechanisms. For archaeological implication, we use two Mesolithic case studies from Germany: One of them focuses on hazelnut economy around ancient Lake Duvensee, and the other broaches the issue of selective roe deer hunt and its consequences at the site of Friesack. We address the archaeological evidence from the perspective of active alteration and its consequences, starting our argumentation from a perspective of niche construction theory. This approach has rarely been applied to early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe even though the available data render possible to discuss human–environment interaction from such a perspective. It is demonstrated that archaeological research has tools at hand that enables to detect anthropogenic niche construction. However, the ethnoarchaeological example shows limitations and archaeologically invisible triggers and consequent results of human adaptations. The critical revision of such perspectives based on empirical data provides a better understanding of social and environmental transformations in the early- and mid-Holocene.

Durch direkte AMS-Datierungen von 18 organischen Funden aus dem oberen und mittleren Travetal konnten weitere Daten zur Entwicklung des mesolithischen Gerätespektrums in Schleswig-Holstein gewonnen werden. Die Erweiterung der Datenbasis dient dem Verständnis der typochronologischen Entwicklung von Knochen- und Geweihgeräten im norddeutschen Früh- und Mittelholozän und liefert Anhaltspunkte für die absolutchronologische Entwicklung der verschiedenen Artefaktkategorien. Die Studien wurden an Material durchgeführt, das im Zuge von Kanalbau und -begradigungen sowie Meliorationsmaßnahmen geborgen wurde. Generell stellt sich das obere und mittlere Travetal als eine steinzeitlich intensiv besiedelte Landschaft dar, wenngleich ein direkter Zusammenhang der vorgestellten Funde mit intakten Fundplätzen noch nicht abschließend geklärt ist. Dennoch konnten diverse Kernbereiche identifiziert werden, in denen noch mit ungestörten Bereichen gerechnet werden kann, die potentiell für zukünftige Studien von Interesse sein können.

The ancient lake Duvensee in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is one of the prime locations in northern Europe for early Holocene research. Archaeological
sites on the former lakeshore provide vivid illustrations of early Mesolithic life, with bark mats and other organic finds preserved, including evidence for
the extensive use of hazelnuts. Although the area has been the subject of research for almost 100 years, a coherent summary of these discoveries has not
yet been written. Here we review past research at Duvensee, and give some prospects for further research. We show that the Duvensee sites varied
in their structure and chronology. While only a limited number of sites can be connected to hazelnut exploitation, some of them show signs of hafting
and retooling and other domestic activities. At a few sites, specific hearths were excavated which can be connected with hazelnut roasting and other
subsistence activities. Finally, we show that while most earlier studies focused almost exclusively on archaeological research questions, Duvensee has the
potential to reveal not only transformations in human behaviour, but also environmental changes at a detailed scale; we therefore argue for a more holistic
perspective and multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing prehistoric landscapes and cultural transformations.

Recent studies have shown that faunal assemblages from Mesolithic sites in inland Northern Europe contain more fish remains than previously thought, but the archaeological and archaeozoological record does not reveal the dietary importance of aquatic species to hunter-gatherer-fishers, even at a societal level. For example, the function of bone points, as hunting weapons or fishing equipment, has long been debated. Moreover, traditional methods provide no indication of variable subsistence practices within a population. For these reasons, paleodietary studies using stable isotope analyses of human remains have become routine. We present radiocarbon (14C) and stable isotope data from nine prehistoric human bones from the Early Mesolithic-Early Neolithic site of Friesack 4, and isotopic data for local terrestrial mammals (elk, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, aurochs, beaver) and freshwater fish (European eel, European perch). The reference data allow individual paleodiets to be reconstructed. Using paleodiet estimates of fish consumption, and modern values for local freshwater reservoir effects, we also calibrate human 14C ages taking into account dietary reservoir effects. Although the number of individuals is small, it is possible to infer a decline in the dietary importance of fish from the Preboreal to the Boreal Mesolithic, and an increase in aquatic resource consumption in the Early Neolithic.

Recent studies have shown that faunal assemblages from Mesolithic sites in inland Northern Europe contain more fish remains than previously thought, but the archaeological and archaeozoological record does not reveal the dietary importance of aquatic species to hunter-gatherer-fishers, even at a societal level. For example, the function of bone points, as hunting weapons or fishing equipment, has long been debated. Moreover, traditional methods provide no indication of variable subsistence practices within a population. For these reasons, paleodietary studies using stable isotope analyses of human remains have become routine. We present radiocarbon (14C) and stable isotope data from nine prehistoric human bones from the Early Mesolithic-Early Neolithic site of Friesack 4,
and isotopic data for local terrestrial mammals (elk, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, aurochs, beaver) and freshwater fish (European eel, European perch). The reference data allow individual paleodiets to be reconstructed. Using paleodiet estimates of fish consumption, and modern values for local freshwater reservoir effects, we also calibrate human 14C ages taking into account dietary reservoir effects. Although the number of individuals is small, it is possible to infer a decline in the dietary importance of fish from the Preboreal to the Boreal Mesolithic, and an increase in aquatic resource consumption in the Early Neolithic.

Recent studies have shown that faunal assemblages from Mesolithic sites in inland Northern Europe contain more fish remains than previously thought, but the archaeological and archaeozoological record does not reveal the dietary importance of aquatic species to hunter-gatherer-fishers, even at a societal level. For example, the function of bone points, as hunting weapons or fishing equipment, has long been debated. Moreover, traditional methods provide no indication of variable subsistence practices within a population. For these reasons, paleodietary studies using stable isotope analyses of human remains have become routine. We present radiocarbon (14C) and stable isotope data from nine prehistoric human bones from the Early Mesolithic-Early Neolithic site of Friesack 4, and isotopic data for local terrestrial mammals (elk, red deer, roe deer, wild boar, aurochs, beaver) and freshwater fish (European eel, European perch). The reference data allow individual paleodiets to be reconstructed. Using paleodiet estimates of fish consumption, and modern values for local freshwater reservoir effects, we also calibrate human 14C ages taking into account dietary reservoir effects. Although the number of individuals is small, it is possible to infer a decline in the dietary importance of fish from the Preboreal to the Boreal Mesolithic, and an increase in aquatic resource consumption in the Early Neolithic.

Excavations were undertaken at Star Carr by Clark in order to find a British counterpart to the well-known European sites such as Mullerup, Holmegård, Sværdborg, Lundby, Duvensee and Ageröd (Clark 1954, 179).
Clark noted that there was a certain cultural homogeneity across the North European plain at this time when Britain was still joined to the Continent. As it turned out, the material culture from Star Carr proved to be earlier in date compared to these other sites, which indicated to Clark that Star Carr belonged to a distinct phase of the Early Mesolithic, termed in Northwest Europe the Maglemose culture (Clark 1954, 180).

During the Early and Mid-Holocene significant changes in the ecology and socio-cultural spheres occurred around the Baltic Sea. Because of the underlying climatic changes and thus environmental alterations, the area was the scene for various cultural developments during the period under investigation. In the course of the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, isostatic and eustatic movements caused continual changes to the Baltic Sea basin. Changes in water level, however, affected not only the Early and Mid-Holocene coastlines, but also the whole Baltic Sea drainage system, including large lakes, rivers and watersheds in the hinterland were also dramatically impacted by these ecological changes. Prehistoric people were thus affected by changes in resource availability and reduction or enlargement of their territories, respectively. In order to evaluate the impact of changes in the water and land networks on the environment, resource availability, and human behaviour, and to reconstruct human responses to these changes, we pursue an interdisciplinary approach connecting environmental and archaeological research highlighted through different case studies.

After cattle, sheep were in Austrians prehistory the most relevant domesticated animals, but their relevance shifted between periods in which the human subsistence based on sheep and periods with minor importance. Possible reasons for these dynamics from the Neolithic to the Roman period are investigated. Another focus of the study is directed to the different products of sheep and in particular the emergence of woolly sheep. Using the Logarithmic Size Index (LSI) technique on previously published morphometrical data we found no indication of an introduction of a larger, foreign kind of woolly sheep as assumed hitherto. From Middle Neolithic to Germanic settlements of the Roman period hardly any differences in size of sheep can be determined. Only in Roman period a statistically highly significant larger sheep breed occurred. At least in Austria but presumably in most European regions the development of sheep with woolly fleece seems to have been a multiple and independent event produced by human selection. The larger sheep recorded in Roman periods were very probably introduced from Roman stocks. Zusammenfassung Nach den Rindern waren Schafe in Österreichs Vorgeschichte meist die wirtschaftlich zweit-wichtigsten Haustiere. Ihre Bedeutung schwankte allerdings im Laufe der Zeit von Perioden, in denen die menschliche Nahrungsökonomie ganz wesentlich auf der Schafhaltung beruhte, bis zu Zeiten von untergeordneterer Relevanz. Ausgehend von morphometrischen Untersu-chungen bereits publizierter Knochenmaße mittels Logarithmic Size Index (LSI) werden mög-liche Gründe für diese Unterschiede und Veränderungen vom Neolithikum bis zur Römischen Kaiserzeit diskutiert. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt des Beitrags liegt auf den unterschiedlichen

At first sight, brown bears and beavers do not have much in common: the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the largest terrestrial predator in Europe, dreaded by humans but also respected, on the one hand, and on the other hand the beaver (Castor fiber), a primarily aquatic rodent, at all times exploited for fur and meat. Some aspects, however, link these two very different species. T here is, first, their pelt, which was appreciated and utilized because of its high quality at all times. A second similarity is that both species were originally distributed all over Europe but widely extirpated by human hunting and by habitat loss in modern times. However, both bear and beaver have undergone a comeback in many European regions during the last decades as a result of the changing perception of wild animals in present-day societies, which results in legal protection, hunting restrictions, reintroductions, habitat protection and restoration. A final aspect linking the two species is much more abstract, but at the same time extraordinary and meaningful: bear and beaver are ‘ The Browns ’. Their names both have, in all Indo-European languages, the same shared root, meaning ‘brown’ and ‘brown animal’ respectively.
This observation brings us in the first part of the present essay to considerations about the role of ‘The Browns’ in spiritual worlds of former humans and about archaeological findings connected to rituals. Subsequently, hunting procedures and hunting motivations as well as different kinds of utilizations will be debated. In the end we will take a look at ‘cultural refuges’ of traditional human-bear/beaver interactions which survived until today.

(Pinnberg 7 – Technological analyses to test the internal chronology)

The site Ahrensburg-Pinnberg 7 is located northeast of Hamburg and shows an occupation sequence ranging from the late Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age. In his publication the excavator Alfred Rust (1958a), differentiates up to nine cultural units which date to several chronological zones. Though the excavation is thoroughly published
it is not absolutely clear if A. Rust differentiated the chronological zones
only on typological considerations or if he had further criteria to do so.
In our project we analysed lithic artefacts with emphasis on technological respects. Main focuses of this investigation were blades and cores to re-evaluate the proposed chronological differentiation by A. Rust. The technological re-evaluation of primarily the blades showed that the chronological differentiation cannot be comprehended. Therefore Ahrensburg-Pinnberg has to be seen as a mixed inventory.

The 23rd Annual Meeting of the German Mesolithic Workgroup took place in the district office at Landshut, from 21–23 March
2014 at the invitation of the district of Landshut. The meeting was attended by more than 60 scientists, students and amateur archaeologists from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. A total of 20 papers were presented. In addition to the reports from the individual work areas of the participants, the Bavarian Mesolithic and a workshop on settlement dynamics in the Mesolithic were in the focus of the meeting.

Vom 1 9. bis 22. März 2015 fand in Rotenburg (Wümme) die 24.
Jahrestagung der AG Mesolithikum statt. In mehr als 20 Vorträgen
wurden neue Forschungen zum Mesolithikum vorgestellt. Der nun
vorliegende Tagungsband beinhaltet 12 Aufsätze von 21 Autoren,
die aus den Vorträgen hervorgegangen sind. Neben der Bearbeitung
von einzelnen Fundplätzen (Pinnberg, Schlamersdorf, Wangels) werden auch Befundgruppen (Feuergruben, "Rötel"-Verwendung) behandelt, Vermittlungsstrategien betrachtet (Bachmann-Museum), Theorien überprüft (Mikrolithen und Risikomanagement) sowie Studien zu Großräumen (Mähren, „Se-Sa-Rhe-Traditionsraum“, Schleswig-Holstein, Landkreis Rotenburg (Wümme), Landkreis Main-Spessart) vorgestellt.

SESSION 18 @ EAA2024
Along with hunting and agriculture, aquatic resources represented an important aspect of subsistence in past communities. The various fishing techniques are proven through the finds of artifacts such as fishing equipment, through pictorial representations, and bones.
In this session we want to discuss the role that aquatic resources played in prehistoric societies as well as methods and tools for assessing their societal impact. We aim to discuss the role of fish and marine mammals in the livelihoods of past  communities, since for certain periods and cultures, the fish not only served as a food source, but also had a symbolic or mythological meaning. We aim at coming closer to answering the question of the internal and external perception of “fishers”.
We would like to invite contributions dealing with the use of aquatic resources and fishing techniques, but also theoretical contexts to discuss, for instance:
>> The importance of marine resources as food source and methods and techniques for aquiring them
>> the symbolic-religious meaning of the fish during different prehistoric periods
>> the archaeological analysis and evaluation of the relevance of aquatic resources in mixed economies
>> the social functions of fishing in certain communities. Were marine resources famine food, feast, seasonal abundance exploitation, export and trade, competitional, ‘social refugia’, etc.?
We want to welcome colleagues at all career levels and offer particularly young researchers a platform to present their research results.
We also encourage studies that go beyond data presentation and contextualize their findings in a social perspective. Hence. ideas and methodological discussions are as welcome as archaeozoological, iconographic or techno-typological studies, to name a few.

Besides time, spaces and spatiality are important measures in archaeology. Intra-site analyses are used to understand local processes, while inter-site comparisons help us to understand traditional spatial organisations of groups. We address local structures on a small scale, settlement systems or kinship networks on an intermediate scale, and trade routes and territories on the large scale. Hence, we essentially aim to identify social units and the social use of space in the past. In contrast to well organised settlements of sedentary groups, spatiality becomes more complex when dealing with mobile forager societies due to the number of sites, their different functions, and limitations of their identification. In this session, we want to address spatial aspects of prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies and discuss our possibilities and challenges for identifying ranges, information networks, kinships, and identities. How do we identify social bonds and territories? Are the territories we identify the range of a family group or a larger information network? Are two very different sites an expression of different tasks, different purposes, different occupation time, different group sizes, or of different groups with different toolkits and/or coping strategies? Hence, we aim to discuss the social dimension of space and how we identify it in the archaeological record. Assuming that spatial behaviour of foragers is rather stable since it represents an adaptation to their environment and landscapes, we wonder when and why does this socio-spatial behaviour change? How can we identify substantial changes in socio-spatial behaviour that may be crucial for major transformations in the past like the Palaeolithic-Mesolithic transition? Therefore, we welcome papers that in particular focus on aspects of transformation in relation to the social dimensions of space in forager societies.

Organic tools are an important aspect of prehistoric societies, especially in the Stone Age. Therefore the analyses of these can give deep insight into people's typological and technological constraints such as behaviours. Being widely available in hunter-gatherer communities osseous materials have to be considered as one of the main resource for tool production in the past. However, in a European scale, the discovery of objects made with bone, antler and tooth is very irregular. Obviously, these contrasts are related to taphonomic issues but also to economic and cultural aspects. The session " Evaluating the importance of osseous tools in the Early Holocene: a European perspective" is meant to deal with a wide range of topics related to the analyses of osseous material. Apart from classical approaches, especially technology and typology, we would like to integrate the results from other disciplines and approaches to discuss from a European perspective. Per example, archeozoology or use-wear analyses on bone and lithic tools can also be considered as crucial to a better understanding of the role osseous industries played in Early Holocene communities. This session will also be the occasion to debate taphonomic issues and various contexts of discoveries which influence the archaeological visibility of this group of tools. Consequently we encourage researchers to address these and comparable questions from their very own perspective and contribute to our session.

Peatlands are extraordinary archives for understanding prehistoric and historic landscape change and cultural processes. As a characterizing element of many lowland areas in Northern and Central Europe they have long been embedded in socio-cultural life and have undergone a range of natural and anthropogenic transformations. On the one hand, climate change, agriculture and urbanization continues to have a severe impact on many peatlands, on the other hand some of these processes enable the discovery of and subsequent research into peatland archaeological sites and processes.
In this session we want to address different aspects related to the value of peatlands as cultural and ecological archives as well as the extended insight they provide into prehistoric and early historic life. New discoveries and studies are welcomed that provide insight into (pre)historic landscape, life, and lifeways such as overarching projects that embed archaeological sites within their cultural and ecological context. Threats to peatland related cultural remains (e.g. peat extraction, agriculture and infrastructural developments) and potentials, methods, and possibilities of protecting them shall be addressed. We similarly welcome contributions dealing with topics like integrating public or political actors within archaeological research into peatland sites.
We hope to foster discussions about European perspectives on peatland archaeology and further development of research methods, approaches and standards. The session might serve as a 'stepping stone' towards a European agenda for understanding the past and preserving into the future these valuable but fragile landscapes.

The purpose of this session is to bring together specialists who work on wetland sites dating from the end of the last Ice Age to the introduction of farming. The excellent organic preservation of such sites provide a unique insight into past lives and have an enormous importance for the understanding of our past – especially for the temperate climatic zone north of the Alps. Interdisciplinary collaboration and cutting-edge scientific methods are enabling high-resolution palaeo-climatic and palaeo-environmental modelling to be used to discover how people reacted to and adapted to severe climate changes at the end of the Ice Age and in the early Holocene. Over the last five years, new research projects, especially in early Holocene Mesolithic bog sites have been initiated throughout Europe. We would like to invite presentations about new results of archaeological investigation of Stone Age bog sites from a wider perspective, which connect regional/local environmental databases to the archaeological record. Furthermore, we want to discuss the threat to such sites due to current climate change, modern farming practices and extraction of peat, resulting in rapid peat degradation and the destruction of this valuable archaeological heritage. We anticipate that through discussion of the various topics, the session will broaden our common knowledge of these archaeological resources, stimulate the growing interest of the scientific community in new areas of research on bog sites, and foster collaboration on an international level.

Extended Deadline Dezember 14, 2016!

The session deals with changes in areas around the Baltic Sea during the Early and Mid-Holocene. Because of the underlying climatic changes and thus environmental changes, the area was also the scene for various cultural developments during the period under investigation. Due to the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice-Age, isostatic and eustatic movements caused continual changes to the Baltic Sea basin. But, changes in water level affected not only the Early and Mid-Holocene coast lines, the whole Baltic Sea drainage including large lakes, rivers and water sheds in the hinterland were also dramatically impacted by climate variability and consequent ecological changes. Thus, this had to affect prehistoric people as well by reducing or enlarging their territories. In order to evaluate the consequences of changes in the water networks on the environment, resources, and human behaviour, and to reconstruct human responses to these changes, this session pursues an interdisciplinary approach connecting environmental and archaeological research. We call for papers from various disciplines such as climatology, geology, palynology, zoology, and archaeology, to contribute to the understanding of the aforementioned processes. The discussion of the current chronological framework of coastline changes, water network displacements, lake level developments, and land upheaval/subsidence will enable us to synchronize palaeo-geographical and palaeo-cultural changes. This will serve as a basis for discussions of limitations and enhancements of cultural entities during the Early and Mid-Holocene.

Mobility is seen as key to understand Stone Age lifeways and subsistence of hunter-gathererfisher communities. A large variety of different aspects is summarized in the concept of mobility. Economical decisions are important motives for hunter-gatherer mobility. This has repeatedly been shown, using, for instance, ethnographic analogies (e.g. Groß et al. 2019) or theoretical constructions, as the marginal value theorem (e.g. Venkataraman et al. 2017). Applied to archaeological sites, a reconstruction of the local environment is quite often available and thus allows us to develop further analysis and theories regarding prehistoric movements in a landscape (e.g. Boethius et al. 2022). However, other important aspects are harder to trace archaeologically: Where are the borders of mobility (physically and mentally)? When did people stop and turn around? Can we trace the reasons for these limits of mobility, which in turn result in regional behavior? At which point did orientation strategies like piloting and homing (Golledge 2003) as well as traditions, songs, or stories may have played a part in everyday mobility? In this session, we want to discuss and shed light on as many aspects of mobility in huntergatherer-fisher communities as possible. We welcome a wide range of contributions (from ethnographic to archaeological and computational methods), considering not only the different environments in which the foraging communities lived, like open steppe-like environments, forests, mountainous landscapes, and maritime areas but also look at different methods and means of analysis, e.g. origin of raw materials, shape of sites, rhythmicity of settlement, navigation or theoretical attempts. Single case studies are welcomed as well.

In general, fishing during the Early Mesolithic Maglemose culture is not well understood. This is largely due to the low number of excavated sites as well as differential rates of preservation and recovery. In order to elucidate these inherent issues, the fish remains recovered from the site of Friesack IV were subjected to a detailed archaeo-ichthyological analysis.

Covered by fluvioglacial sands and extensive peat, the early Holocene archaeological site of Friesack IV is located in Rhinluch, Havelland District, Brandenburg, northern Germany. At the time of occupation, the site was situated on the shoreline of a lake, which is presently a peat bog. From 1977 to 1989, excavations, headed by Bernard Gramsch, were undertaken in the refuse zone of the site (Gramsch 1992). These investigations yielded well-preserved organic materials, including antler, bone, and teeth, bark, wood and bast, as well as fragments of nets, ropes and strings that were found alongside lithic artifacts (Gramsch 1992).

Although Gramsch (1992, 69) stated ‘fish are not numerous’ at Friesack IV, no less than 7520 were recovered. This paper presents these data, drawing on contemporaneous sites throughout northern Europe. The material is quantified and estimates of total fish lengths are also provided. Interpretation focuses on the relative importance of the fishes (with wels catfish being especially well- represented), the possible fishing methods employed, and the season(s) of capture. The data demonstrate that the assemblage was anthropogenic since butchery marks were present on several specimens as well as the presence of one perforated vertebra. Interestingly, it would appear that a change in the exploitation of fish throughout the course of occupation took place, with the end result being a developed technique targeting wels catfish.

References
B. Gramsch, Friesack Mesolithic Wetlands. In B. Coles (Ed.), The Wetland Revolution in Prehistory (Exeter 1992), 65–72.

Since the beginning of this millennium, palaeodietary studies of Northern European hunter-gatherer-fisher populations using stable isotope analyses have become more and more
popular. One application of individual diet reconstruction is the detection and quantification of dietary radiocarbon reservoir effects, which are correlated with the importance of aquatic
products as foodstuffs, an important research question in itself. Even at a societal level, the archaeological record does not resolve this question, as the function of simple and barbed bone
points, in particular, as hunting weapons or fishing equipment has long been debated. Recent investigations, however, have shown that archaeozoological assemblages from early Mesolithic
sites contain more fish remains than previously suspected.
Here we present new archaeozoological and stable isotopic data for a range of herbivores (auroch, elk, red and roe deer, beaver) and freshwater fish (northern pike, European perch,
European eel and Wels catfish) species, together with radiocarbon and stable isotope data from eight prehistoric humans, from the renowned Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic site of Friesack
IV. The availability of local reference data for herbivores and fish allows the amount of fish consumed by each individual to be quantified. Using modern values for local freshwater
reservoir effects, we can then calibrate the human radiocarbon ages.
Although the number of human samples is small, it is possible to infer a decline in the dietary importance of fish from the Preboreal to the Boreal Mesolithic, and an increase in aquatic
resource consumption from the Early Neolithic onwards. Finally, we will compare these data with comparable prehistoric sites in Northern Germany, including Groß Fredenwalde and
Ostorf-Tannenwerder.

Programme provisoire de la session 3 du XXVIIIe congrès préhistorique de France

L’Europe du Nord-Ouest autour de 10 000 BP (9 600 cal.BC) : quels changements ?

Amiens - vendredi 3 et samedi 4 juin 2016

Session organisée par Jean-Pierre Fagnart, Ludovic Mevel, Boris Valentin et Mara-Julia Weber en collaboration avec la commission UISPP « The Final Palaeolithic of Northern Eurasia »

Birgit Gehlen, Daniel Groß, Elisabeth Noack & Clemens Pasda : The Late Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic in (north)eastern Germany

The 26th Annual Meeting of the German Mesolithic Workgroup took place in Wuppertal from 10-12 March 2017 and was organised and hosted by Annabell Zander (University of York) and Birgit Gehlen (CRC 806, University of Cologne). In sum, more than 70 academics, students and amateur archaeologists from 8 different countries attended this conference. The international programme consisted of 24 talks and 10 poster presentations which were held in English and German. The presentations ranged from international to regional themes concerning the Final Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Early Neolithic.

Key words – Mesolithic; Final Palaeolithic; Early Neolithic; Westphalia

http://www.dguf.de/index.php?id=9

The Duvensee peat bog, Northern Germany, represents one of the most prominent Stone Age palaeo landscapes in Northern Europe, with several Stone Age campsites on small islands or peninsulas on the western border of the former Holocene lake. The outstanding preservation of these campsites allows detailed examinations of the spatial organisation of prehistoric hunter-gatherer campsites. The most recently excavated is the boreal Mesolithic site Duvensee 11, where a concentration of hazelnut roasting hearths, bark-mat layers and incorporated small knapping areas with a diameter of about 4m was found. What initially appeared to be a uniphase central fireplace of a larger settlement area turned out to be a multiphase structure, which had accumulated intermittently on the highest and driest spot of a former island over an extended period.

Zum dritten Mal fand der von der Graduiertenschule »Human Development in Landscapes« organisierte Workshop »Socioenvironmental Dynamics over the Last 12,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes« an der Universität Kiel statt. Das ZBSA war u. a. mit der Session »From Lateglacial Forestation to Holocene Drowning« vertreten, in der der thematische Fokus auf die Umweltverhältnisse sowie das archäologische Fundgut in diesem Kontext gelegt war. Die Vorträge spannten einen zeitlichen Bogen zwischen Alleröd und ausgehendem Atlantikum. Als Keynote-Speakers waren Quartärwissenschaftler Heikki Seppä (Helsinki) und Archäologin Nicky Milner (York) vertreten.

Das insgesamt dritte Treffen der Stone Age Bog
Group fand als geschlossener Workshop in Höör, Südschweden, statt und wurde von Arne Sjöström, Björn Nilsson und Lars Larsson organisiert. Über 20 Kollegen aus acht Staaten nahmen an dem Treffen Ende August teil.

The broad development of northern Central-European vegetation history between ca. 12000 and 8000 cal. years BP is known through a network of pollen diagrams distributed along the shores of the Baltic and North seas, pointing to a coherent transition from Younger Dryas steppe/park tundra to Mid-Holocene mixed-deciduous woodlands. Yet high resolution records from well-dated and annually laminated sedimentary sequences are still rare. As a consequence, little is known concerning the fine timing of land-cover changes at a local and regional scale, and a precise comparison between vegetation development and large scale climate fluctuations is still hardly achievable. Here we present the first results from ongoing multidisciplinary analysis at the site of Poggensee, located in Northern Germany, focusing on the Early Holocene section of the sedimentary record. The age-depth model is built upon a combination of annual varves and radiocarbon datings, with error estimates lying in the range of ca. ±12-27 cal. years (1σ). Early pollen data are presented at an average resolution of ca. 30 years per sample. This solid chronological support allows us to track species migration and expansion at a multi-decadal resolution. It provides a much needed environmental framework to aid the interpretation of local archaeological data and evaluate the effects of known climatic shifts on vegetation cover. Furthermore, we test to which extent the Poggensee chronology can be transferred to local pollen diagrams sharing comparable vegetation dynamics but lacking accurate chronologies. This experiment is meant to improve the dating quality of legacy pollen data-especially those collected in connection with Mesolithic sites-in order to include them in modern region-wide vegetational syntheses and man/environment interaction models.

Rapid environmental change is reflected by, and might be deduced from the microscopic composition of annually laminated sediments (varves). In this paper, we present high-resolution paleo-limnological data of the 11.1 ka, 10.3 ka, 9.3/ 9.5 ka and 8.2 ka before today climate oscillations as reflected by abrupt changes in the annually laminated sediments of Poggensee (northern Germany). Micro-facies analyses (thin sections) are accompanied by geochemical data (xrf, TOC/TN, TIC, BiSi) delivering additional clues for a better understanding of Early Holocene lake and landscape processes. The preservation of Early Holocene sedimentological anomalies in one varved sequence allows a precise dating of the anomalies in a continental geo-archive. This is important for considerations about human-environmental interactions during the Early Holocene. Additionally, a comparison of the detected climate oscillation phases (e.g. intensity, duration, character) is made possible. The results are discussed against the background of the Early Holocene paleo-environmental and archaeological record from central Europe. The detected pronounced climate variability might have resulted in changing availability of natural resources in central Europe. For example, the decrease in lacustrine productivity could have led to shortages of aquatic resources like fish. Nevertheless, new opportunities as landscape openness increased might have resulted as well.

Lithic material represents the dominant part of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeological record. Hence, lithic studies are an essential tool for analysing this record. Over the last one a half centuries different approaches to lithic studies have developed, often reflecting political, regional, and linguistic divisions. Consequently, approaches to lithic studies with different foci, methods, terminologies, and paradigms have co-existed for decades. With the development of computer-based analytical techniques, calls for greater comparability of data across larger areas and longer time periods grow louder. For this to be feasible, lithic studies need to become standardised in data collection methods and terminology.
But is this standardisation possible? Is it actually desirable? What are the advantages and disadvantages of diverse methodologies and research traditions? What might a standardised methodology and terminology of lithic analysis look like? What are the differences between the lithic studies of the Lower, Middle, Upper, Final Palaeolithic, and the Mesolithic? Where are the commonalities across the different national and regional research traditions?
In this discussion session, we want to identify areas of common ground and stumbling blocks in lithic studies and discuss the different possible scales of standardisation.

The late Palaeolithic and early Mesolithic in (north)eastern Germany provide good insights into cultural aspects of hunter-gatherer-communities due to the amount and density of key-sites. Representing different geographical zones like coast, lowlands, or middle range mountains, the areas inhabited by Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers show a distinct variety within their ecological constraints. Likewise other regions in Europe, these shifted in the area under investigation as a consequence of the repeated ecological changes. Regarding the archaeological finds, the presented area has been settled by several archaeological cultures or groups synchronously or diachronically. Therefore it serves as a good area for investigating contacts and changes in the archaeological record. Sites with fairly high significance (e.g. Abri Fuchskirche, Golßen, Friesack, Hohen Viecheln, Kleinlieskow, Reichwalde, Wustermark 22) render possible the link of archaeological finds and palaeo-environmental investigations and hence provide much better insights into the life of prehistoric foragers than many other regions. When it comes to regionalism, eastern Germany provides the opportunity to trace the connections or interferences of the "lowland-cultures" with those from higher elevations and serve as a bridging area between eastern, western, and southern traditions in Central Europe, both in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. In this paper we present summaries of some extraordinary sites and overarching cultural developments. Specific differences between Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene communities as well as alterations in the course of their existence are discussed. The changes during the Late Palaeolithic seem to be influenced by constraints proper to each tradition and perhaps reflecting the transition from one cultural entity to another whereas changes during the Mesolithic seem to follow common trends on a supra-regional level but with more regional specifications.

Résumé : En Allemagne du (nord)-est, il existe beaucoup d'informations culturelles sur les communautés de chasseurs-cueilleurs du Paléolithique final et du Mésolithique ancien en raison de l'abondance de sites de référence. Correspondant à différentes zones géographiques comme les côtes, les plaines ou les montagnes de moyenne altitude, les zones occupées par les chasseurs-cueilleurs du Pléistocène final et du début de l'Holocène présentent des contraintes écologiques diverses. Comme dans d'autres régions d'Europe, ces contraintes se sont modifiées dans la zone étudiée à la suite des changements écologiques répétés. En ce qui concerne les découvertes archéologiques, la région présentée a été occupée par plusieurs cultures ou groupes archéologiques de façon synchrone ou diachronique. Par conséquent, elle constitue un espace propice à l'étude des contacts et des changements. Les sites d'importance (p.ex. Abri Fuchskirche, Golßen, Friesack, Hohen Viecheln, Kleinlieskow, Reichwalde, Wustermark 22) permettent d'établir le lien entre les découvertes archéologiques et les études paléoenvironnementales, fournissant de bien meilleurs aperçus de la vie des chasseurs-cueilleurs préhistoriques que dans beaucoup d'autres régions. En ce qui concerne les problé-matiques régionales, l'Allemagne de l'Est offre la possibilité de retracer les connexions ou les interférences entre cultures « des plaines » et celles des régions plus élevées et de servir de pont entre les traditions orientales, occidentales et méridionales d'Europe centrale, à la fois au Paléolithique et au Mésolithique. Dans cet article, nous présentons des résumés synthétiques sur quelques sites très importants et sur les déve-loppements culturels globaux. Des différences spécifiques entre les communautés du Pléistocène final et de l'Holocène ancien ainsi que des transformations au cours de leur existence sont discutées. Les changements au Paléolithique final semblent être influencés par les contraintes propres à chaque tradition ou refléter la transition d'une entité culturelle à une autre alors que les changements au Mésolithique semblent suivre des tendances globales, avec toutefois des spécificités plus régionales.

The aim of this session is to challenge the conceptual dichotomy between the “Mesolithic” and “Neolithic”, by focusing on animal and plant management in prehistoric hunter-fisher-gatherer communities. The shift from foraging to farming and animal husbandry is often narrated as a turning point where humanity’s relationship with the environment was profoundly altered. Resource management is fundamental to concept of the Neolithic and further linked to aspects such as storage, surplus accumulation, and social complexity. Recent findings however show that human involvement with the environment was biologically, socially and economically complex long before the transition to agriculture. Multiple archaeological records point towards the existence of various resource management practices among hunter-fisher-gatherers long before, and independent of, the Neolithization process. Rather than being just “ecologically adapted” Mesolithic foragers actively engaged with, intervened, transformed, and cultivated the flora and fauna in their local landscapes. Examples include introducing novel plants to their environments, transferring fish fry between rivers and lakes, altering habitats attract grazing animals by burning and weeding, and constructing permanent trapping systems for various fish species and deer species. We invite papers addressing this topic independent of geographical scope and spatial scale. Contributions may focus on specific methods, models, case studies or theoretical frameworks such as niche construction theory and multispecies archaeology.