Anders Högberg (Linnaeus University, University of Johannesburg), Kristian Brink (Sydsvensk Arkeologi), Torbjörn Brorsson (Ceramic Studies, Sweden) and Helena Malmström (Uppsala University)
From south Scandinavian archaeological data, we know of numerous migration events from c. 4100 to 1700 BCE that impacted and affected humans and their material lives. They occurred in specific situations that varied along multiple spatio-temporal scales with different rhythms in various contexts. With the Innovation Processes and Knowledge-Transfer Systems within South Scandinavian Stone Age Mobility project, we will generate new knowledge about transformation processes involved in these events, as interpreted from large-scale contract archaeological excavation records and archaeogenetic data. Especially, we will:
- analyse extensive large-scale contract archaeological excavation records to infer innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems at different spatio-temporal scales
- generate new and use existing archaeogenetic data to investigate population change
- explore how spatio-temporal variation in mobility, population change and changes in human being’s material lives correlate with each other
- re-theorize and test various models on Stone Age migration against our results
- build a conceptual framework to interpret transformation processes related to innovation and knowledge-transfer within south Scandinavian Stone Age mobility.
Our results will help us to understand in what ways mobility, population change, knowledge and innovations depended on and influenced each other. We expect our results to stimulate new ways of understanding mobility from a long-term perspective, as well as migration in other (pre)historic periods and, tentatively, also in modern society.
Background
The period between c. 4100 to 1700 BCE in south Scandinavia exhibits profound changes in terms of social transformation events, ranging from a pre-agricultural way of living to Bronze Age elite society (Sørensen 2014). From >4000 BCE, archaeological evidence indicates long-distance contacts. Foraging lifeways dominated, but variations in material culture on a local and regional level indicate an increase in territorial boundaries and a more sedentary population (Andersson et al. 2016). From 4000 to 3800 BCE (with the introduction of the Funnel Beaker Culture), we see gradual changes in landscape use with introduction of agriculture, farms, and collective landscape use manifested in large ritual and burial sites (Sørensen 2014). It is not clear how these changes relate to mobility, but a few hundred years after we have the first archaeological evidence of agriculture and cattle in south Scandinavia (Gron et al. 2020), data indicate genetic relationships with farming groups on the Continent (Skoglund et al. 2014). From the third millennia BCE, a move away from collective landscape use reveals changing relationships and new arenas of social interaction and contact (Vandkilde 2007; Brink 2009). These changes are linked to the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) and the Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe Culture (BAC). In some regions, PWC hunter-gatherer groups seem to have lived in parallel with farming groups, whereas in other areas a more transformative lifestyle emerged. Groups in Eastern Sweden were genetically distinct, and closely resemble those of Mesolithic Scandinavian hunter-gatherers (Coutinho et al. 2020). In other regions, this pattern is less distinct (Allentoft 2020). Individuals from BAC contexts show genetically close relations with sampled individuals from Corded Ware Culture contexts (CWC), indicating population change and migration (Malmström et al. 2019). Parallel to these evidences of transformation processes, we also have archaeological evidence of long-term continuity in landscape use related to monumental burial sites, ritual places and procurement sites of raw material for tool production which lasted for thousands of years (Högberg et al. in print).
Evidently, we have extensive spatio-temporal evidence for continuity as well as variation in material culture and landscape use indicating multiple transformation processes during the period from 4100 to 1700 BCE. We also have important knowledge about gene flow between populations, and multiple evidence of prehistoric human interaction. But, we do not know how migration impacted and affected humans and their material lives, and we do not fully understand how this played out in terms of changing relationships and social interaction within south Scandinavian Stone Age mobility.
Stone Age mobility
With the so called ‘third science revolution’, migration has found a renewed place in archaeology and researchers have gained access to rich archaeogenetic data that contribute to re-writing our knowledge of human genetic prehistory (Daniels 2022). Initially, archaeogenetic results were presented in general terms of linear inheritance and population replacement (Skoglund et al. 2012; Haak et al. 2015), overlooking the differences involved in creating comparative genetic profiles of individuals and populations, and integrating such data into interpretative frameworks. Naïve interpretations of migration and its spatio-temporal impact and effect on humans and their material lives were presented. Consequently, these studies are criticized for their lack of theoretical engagement as well as for neglecting archaeological evidence (Furholt 2018). This has since changed, and a wider range of aspects involved in Stone Age mobility are now analysed. Studies have shown that an understanding of individual genetic history does not equate to large-scale population history, that the effects of migration vary across spatio-temporal scales, and that variability in the archaeological record does not always go hand-in-hand with genetic change (Furholt 2017; Johannsen et al. 2017; Kristiansen et al. 2017; Malmström et al. 2019; Friis-Holm Egfjord et al. 2021).
Evidently, we know more today than we did only a decade ago. But, even though our knowledge has increased significantly, we still need a comprehensive data- and theory-driven framework to understand this new knowledge. Researchers have urged archaeology to go beyond binaries and to embrace new techniques as powerful tools for exploring the Stone Age in new ways, pointing to the fact that archaeogenetic studies have matured in their approaches (Crellin & Harris 2020). While several researchers have suggested ways to move forward in this direction (Daniels 2022), few studies have actually implemented such approaches (but see Kristiansen et al. 2022).
A ‘good-to-think-with’ model
Human migration is the movement of people and their thoughts, relationships and materiality – in large groups, smaller units or as individuals over long distances or internally within a region. Reasons for migration vary and migration itself may be forced or voluntary. Patterns of movement reflect the conditions of a changing world and impact the ways in which people interact and establish relationships. These patterns are again modified through social interactions (Daniels 2022).
At their core, theories of migration are outlined from either a macro- or a micro-analytical perspective. While macro-theoretical approaches refer to large-scale changes for human society, micro-theoretical approaches focus on the individual and small-scale transformative changes in human social and material lives (Portes 2008). As Castles (2010) emphasises, a conceptual framework for migration studies should consider transformation processes across various scales as a central aspect in exploring complexities involved in mobility.
A reasonable hypothesis is that shifting forms of mobility were in play throughout various spatio-temporal settings from 4100 to 1700 BCE. As we still do not fully understand the specific forms of Stone Age mobilities we are dealing with, or their impact and effect on humans and their material lives, we need an approach that accounts for spatio-temporal variation. We also need an approach that helps us to distinguish lines of change brought about by migration, from those produced by other forms of cultural transfer (Burmeister 2000). In this project, we take our starting point from a ‘good-to-think-with’ model that suggests a range of impacts and effects related to migration. See Table 1. From this, we will investigate some of the innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems involved in mobility.
Table 1. Various scenarios of transformation by migration, related to potential impact and effect in technology, and social transformation (from Högberg et al. in Press).
High-quality data
At our disposal we have full, easy first-hand access to considerable quantities of previously underused high-quality data available from substantial numbers of large-scale contract archaeological excavations done in south Scandinavia. The focus for a detailed analysis is the Malmö area, a well-known region in Stone Age research (Sørensen 2014). See Figure 20. Excavations here have resulted in systematically investigated and -analysed archaeological material unique for northern Europe (Nilsson & Rudebeck 2010). Our project is innovative in using this data.
Figure 20: Map with south Scandinavia with Malmö area (dot) enlarged, and quality of sites exemplified.
Expected outcomes
Our approach will allow us to explore impacts and effects related to transformative social relationships and patterns of interactions from micro- and macro-analytical perspectives, comparing the events of specific times and places with trends over larger scales. All in all, this gives us an empirical basis to re-theorize migration and to establish a conceptual framework with which to interpret transformation processes related to innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems within south Scandinavian Stone Age mobility.
Our three-year-project was initiated in 2022. It is funded by The Swedish Research Council (project number 2021-01522).
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