The Essence of Stone: Making Axes during the Late Mesolithic in Södertörn in East Central Sweden

Mattias Ahlbeck; Alexander Gill

doi:10.37718/csa.2010.07

The Essence of Stone: Making Axes during the Late Mesolithic in Södertörn in East Central Sweden

Current Swedish Archaeology ◽

10.37718/csa.2010.07 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 59-78

Author(s):

Mattias Ahlbeck ◽

Alexander Gill

Keyword(s):

East Central ◽

Late Mesolithic

Greenstone axes produced during the Late Mesolithic in east central Sweden are notoriously dissimilar. Each axe appears to have been given its own special charac- teristics. These axes were not made into a certain shape by following a technological template. In this article, the authors present the interpretation that people believed the form of an axe was already present in the stone se- lected for work. Making axes was about releasing es- sential forms from stones. The essence of stone effec- tively determined the appearance the axe was destined to have. This is the reason that axes in the region have such variable appearances.

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Middle and Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in East Central Europe: changing paradigms of the ‘non-Neolithic’ way of life

Documenta Praehistorica ◽

10.4312/dp.34.7 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 34 ◽

pp. 89-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Marek Nowak

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Central Europe ◽

Way Of Life ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

East Central Europe ◽

East Central ◽

History Of ◽

Late Mesolithic ◽

Middle And Late Holocene

According to traditional views, the main reason for ‘demesolithisation’ in East Central Europe was the spread of the Neolithic oecumene, particularly from c. 4000 BC. Simultaneously, the disintegrated Late Mesolithic world gradually underwent typological unification, and finally reached the stage that is sometimes described as pre-Neolithic. However, we definitely have to bear in mind that as a matter of fact we deal only with the ‘history’ of archaeological artefacts that are treated as typical attributes of hunter-gatherers. The analyses of chronological, technological, settlement, economic, and social data referring to foragers of East Central Europe demonstrate that the quantitative decrease and changes of their archaeological attributes in the fifth, fourth, and third millennia were not connected with a profound reorientation of their spatial and ideological existence. It was rather a continuation of previous patterns, even though territories settled by farming societies were steadily growing in size. The final disappearance of Central European hunter-gatherers – but only in a strictly typological dimension – took place in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

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