Stone Age - Fennoscandia

The Kanozero Lake located at the southern part of the Kola Peninsula (Murmansk region, Russia). In 1997 the first petroglyphs were discovered at the lake on Kamenniy Island, which were mainly made in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Up to now 20 panels with petroglyphs are recorded and total number of recorded rock carvings is close to 1500 images. In this article a short geographical and historical overview of the area and
history of discovery and investigation of the Kanozero petroglyphs is given.

The main thesis incorporates the following embedded articles:

    Paper I. Manninen, M. A. & Knutsson, K. 2011. Northern Inland Oblique Point Sites – a New Look into the Late Mesolithic Oblique Point Tradition in Eastern Fennoscandia. In: T. Rankama (Ed.), Mesolithic Interfaces – Variability in Lithic Technologies in Eastern Fennoscandia. Monographs of the Archaeological Society of Finland 1, 143–175.

    Paper II. Manninen, M. A. 2009. Evidence of mobility between the coast and the inland region in the Mesolithic of Northern Fennoscandia. In: S. B. McCartan, R. Schulting, G. Warren, P. Woodman (Eds.), Mesolithic Horizons, Vol. I. Oxbow books, Oxford, pp. 102–108. Embedded with permission from Oxbow books.

    Paper III. Tallavaara, M., Manninen, M. A., Hertell, E. & Rankama, T. 2010. How flakes shatter: a critical evaluation of quartz fracture analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 2442–2448. Embedded with permission from Elsevier.

    Paper IV. Manninen, M. A. & Tallavaara, M. 2011. Descent History of Mesolithic Oblique Points in Eastern Fennoscandia – a Technological Comparison Between Two Artefact Populations. In: T. Rankama (Ed.), Mesolithic Interfaces – Variability in Lithic Technologies in Eastern Fennoscandia. Monographs of the Archaeological Society of Finland 1, 177–211.

    Paper V. Manninen, M. A. & Knutsson, K. 2014. Lithic raw material diversification as an adaptive strategy–Technology, mobility, and site structure in Late Mesolithic northernmost Europe. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 33, 84–98. Embedded with permission from Elsevier.

"This dissertation focuses on Late Mesolithic (ca. 8450 6850 cal BP) lithic technological changes in the northernmost parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden and on the relationship between these changes and the 8.2 ka climate event that was caused by a disruption in the North Atlantic Thermohaline circulation. The study uses a framework derived from Darwinian evolutionary theory and acknowledges the effects of both environmental constraints and socially transmitted information, i.e., culture, in the way lithic technology was organised in the studied region. The study discusses whether climatic cooling and its effects on the biotic environment could explain the way lithic technology and settlement patterns were reorganised during the Late Mesolithic.

The dissertation takes an organisational approach to the study of past cultural change and seeks to understand changes in prehistoric material culture by studying lithic technology and settlement configuration using lithic technological, statistical, and spatial analyses. The results suggest that Late Mesolithic coastal communities were affected by a marked decrease in marine productivity that resulted from the cooling caused by the 8.2 ka event and a subsequent cold episode at ca. 7700 cal BP. It is concluded that the technological changes that occurred during the marine cooling were a result of developments that led to increased use of terrestrial resources and an accompanying long-distance coast/inland residential mobility pattern.

The study contributes to a wider field of research into past climate change as a factor in prehistoric ecological, cultural, and behavioural change and provides reference material for studies on the impacts of future climate change on human communities. The results suggest that in northernmost Fennoscandia, the marine ecosystem is particularly sensitive to disturbances in the North Atlantic oceanographic system. In addition, the study provides new knowledge concerning the relationships between raw material availability, lithic technology, and culture. This new knowledge is widely applicable in research on the way lithic technology was organised in relation to other behavioural and organisational dimensions in past human adaptations."

The basis for discussions of the pioneer human settlement of northernmost Fennoscandia has always been twofold: The timing and directions of human settlement on the one hand and the controlling factors inherent in the deglaciation of the Fennoscandian ice-sheet on the other. Whereas the last decade in particular has seen many contributions in the form of new data and analyses advancing our understanding of the process of pioneer human settlement, there has been a limited discussion of literature concerning the shifting nature of the deglaciated landscapes emerging as the Fennoscandian ice-
sheet withdrew. This paper attempts to address this question by focusing on recent excavations and re-analyses of archaeological data from Eastern Finnmark, while keeping a broader primarily northern Fennoscandian focus with regards to recent developments concerning deglaciation, climate, flora and fauna. Recent literature has suggested a rapid settlement along the western coast of Norway into Finnmark. While this is fairly well documented, it is suggested that this was one
of two, possibly contemporaneous routes – the other being of eastern origin, likely originating in Northwestern Russia. The exact timing and nature of pioneer eastern journeys into Finnmark – including the possibility of local developments in Finnmark sparked by climate change – is only starting to emerge.

The huge scientific and interpretive value of wetland archaeological sites has been well demonstrated in several studies. The management of the archaeological resource of wetland landscapes is problematic, however, and there is an urgent need for noninvasive techniques to detect waterlogged organic archaeological remains. Stationary wooden fishing structures associated with fishing sites constitute an important wetland archaeological resource in northern Europe. In Finland, similar wooden constructions have been used for fishing from prehistory to the early modern era. The discovery of sites has been accidental, because the waterlogged organic remains have been considered invisible to conventional geoprospection techniques. Because of this, a small
project was launched at Lamminoja, northwest Finland, in order to investigate whether it would be possible to improve our chances to detect fishery sites in demanding wetland habitats. New information was obtained through geophysical prospection, trial excavations, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating. Geophysical testing was hampered by several factors, including complex sediments affected by modern drainage. New information was obtained, however, on the composition, age, and spatial distribution of the wooden fishing structures preserved in peat over 5000 years.

The chronology of the eastern Fennoscandian Neolithic is organized with the help of pottery styles, one of which is southwestern Finnish Jäkärlä Ware. In this paper a number of new radiocarbon dates connected with Jäkärlä Ware and other relevant ceramic groups are presented and discussed. The radiocarbon dates of each group are modelled within a Bayesian chronological framework. Also, the potential reservoir effect in charred crust dates is estimated for each date based on stable carbon isotopic ratios of the crust samples and incorporated into models. Jäkärlä Ware appears to be a short-living and quite a isolated group, which had no chronological contacts with Sper-rings 1-2 Wares, but with possible coexistence with Middle Neolithic Typical Comb Ware. Jäkärlä Ware is partly simultaneous with eastern Finnish asbestos-tempered Kaunissaari Ware, and forms with it a short chronological horizon in the turn of the Early and Middle Neolithic of eastern Fennoscandia.

The wetland site of Järvensuo 1 is located by the southern shore of the overgrown and drained Lake Rautajärvi in Humppila, south-west Finland. The peatland drainage and small-scale wetland excavations have revealed a rare corpus of organic archaeological and palaeoenvironmental remains from prehistory, which have been preserved in moist anoxic conditions on the lake shore. The reporting and publishing of the preliminary excavations in 1985 were left unfinished and, therefore, the character and context of this extraordinary lake site have remained largely undetermined. After 35 years, the available data associated with Järvensuo 1 has finally been compiled and will now be presented in this paper as a whole for the first time. Even though the contexts and circumstances of recovery have been challenging to reconstruct after more than three decades, and the organic artefacts are badly degraded today, the study will offer a long-awaited update about the site and its investigations. The results will also serve as valuable baseline data for the purposes of new multidisciplinary research underway at Järvensuo 1, potentially revealing more elaborate information concerning the site and its prehistoric inhabitants in a dynamic lake environment.

Formal technologies and intensified reduction are often seen as responses to increased mobility and low abundance of lithic raw material of good flakeability and controllability. Although patterns of lithic raw material availability and occurrence are in many ways analogous to those of subsistence resources, resource diversification, an adaptive strategy commonly discussed in relation to food procurement, is rarely discussed in connection to changes in lithic resource availability and technology. We present a case from northernmost Europe in which pronounced differences in raw material availability caused by a distinct geological setting existed within a relatively small area. We conclude that restricted availability of high-quality raw material due, for instance, to increased mobility or changes in the size or location of the foraging range does not necessarily lead to formalization and intensification and can, in certain situations, as in the studied case, lead to the application of an adaptive strategy that can be called raw material diversification. This strategy entails a widening of the rawmaterial base to include raw materials of lower workability and a consequent alteration of existing technological concepts, often in the form of simplification and informalization.

Archaeological native copper finds pertaining to Neolithic sites in Finland and Russian Karelia were analysed using a multi-method approach comprising portable X-ray fluorescence spectrom-etry (pXRF), electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA), metallography and the Vickers hardness test of microhardness. The results indicate how the processing of this exotic raw material took place in several ways. Native copper nuggets show evidence of annealing. Small copper sheets and strips have been produced by both cold hammering and hot working, while the making of some artefacts has involved smelting and casting. Some finds previously interpreted as possible Neolithic native copper objects are shown to be made of copper alloys or other metals and dated to later periods. The use of float copper of local or regional origin, or even the utilization of copper ore, instead of or alongside native copper are also briefly discussed.

Изделия из кости и рога были важнейшей частью материальной культуры древних охотников и рыболовов побережья Баренцева моря от неолита до эпохи раннего железного века. Прослежена изменчивость двух ведущих категорий костяного инвентаря – зубчатых наконечников гарпунов и цельных рыболовных крючков. 428 изделий происходит из замкнутых, полузамкнутых и открытых комплексов, многие из которых имеют серии радиоуглеродных дат. В ходе исследования разработана система описания и классификация орудий. На основе метода сопряженности выявлены 4 группы комплексов с устойчивой совстречаемостью типов – периоды развития костяного инвентаря Северной Фенноскандии. Хронологические рамки периодов определяются радиоуглеродными датами комплексов: A – 5000-2500 calBC, B – 2500-1600 calBC, C – 1500-1100 calBC, D – 900-0 calBC. В общих чертах периодизация наконечников гарпунов и рыболовных крючков совпадает с периодизацией типов жилищ, керамики и каменного инвентаря, предложенной для Северной Норвегии.

The increasing number of Stone Age rock art sites across northern Fennoscandia invites studies of variation in topography and motivations between locations, both between and within regions. Even a preliminary overview suggests significant differences between regions, which in turn must indicate differences in perceptions and practices at the major sites. In addition, the variation in topography, choice of panel location and / or execution within each region suggest different practices and perhaps different spiritual associations at different kinds of sites.