A northern Neolithic? Clay work, cultivation and cultural transformations in the boreal zone of north‐eastern Europe, c.5300–3000 bc

Abstract

Summary The adoption of pottery in eastern Fennoscandia in the later sixth millennium BC has traditionally been understood in straightforward technological and practical terms, and as a development that did not mark other significant changes in local culture or ways of life. Recent research in the region, combined with new ideas about Neolithization in Eurasia more generally, nonetheless suggests that the adoption of pottery was associated with more fundamental cultural and environmental transformations than has previously been thought. This article brings together diverse old and new data from north‐eastern Europe and discusses the character and dynamics of cultural and human‐induced environmental change following the adoption of pottery. The aim is to provide a scenario of long‐term cultural changes and, in particular, to consider the significance and broader implications of the very practices of clay use and cultivation, as well as their links to wider cultural and environmental phenomena.

A Review of the Earliest Evidence of Agriculture in Lithuania and the Earliest Direct AMS Date on Cereal

“…In previous studies, most authors discussing the earliest agriculture in eastern Baltic countries referred to the first occurrence of Cerealia-type pollen in palynological cores as an indicator of agriculture in the region from the fifth or even sixth millennium bc onwards (e.g. Poska & Saarse, 2006; Girininkas, 2009: 219; Alenius et al, 2013; Nordqvist & Herva, 2013; Herva et al, 2017). But macrobotanical remains of domesticated plants during this period are very scarce and none were radiocarbon dated.…”

Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland

“…At the same time, sedentary habitation in village-like arrangements of pithouses became established (Zhul'nikov 1999(Zhul'nikov , 2003Núñez and Okkonen 2005;Vaneeckhout 2009;Mökkönen 2011), a high tide of rock art was about to begin (Lahelma 2008;Gjerde 2010), and the number of furnished burials with intense red-ochre usage increased (Halinen 1999;Zagorska 2006Zagorska , 2008. Although not all of these phenomena are found in the current study area, these changes are part of the Neolithization process that took place in the north-north-eastern European boreal forest zone (Herva et al , 2017.…”

“…The appearance of the first Cannabis and Hordeum pollen during this particular time is not unexpected, as this period shows increasing evidence of cultivation and human impact on vegetation within the sphere of Typical Comb Ware distribution (Kriiska 2009;Mökkönen 2010). In addition, this period is associated with a profound cultural change, which spread rapidly over vast areas in the north-north-eastern European forest zone through highly active contact networks that incorporated new technologies, new raw materials, and obviously new ideas that affected the way people engaged with the material world (Núñez and Okkonen 2005;Mökkönen 2011;Herva et al 2014Herva et al , 2017. At the same time, sedentary habitation in village-like arrangements of pithouses became established (Zhul'nikov 1999(Zhul'nikov , 2003Núñez and Okkonen 2005;Vaneeckhout 2009;Mökkönen 2011), a high tide of rock art was about to begin (Lahelma 2008;Gjerde 2010), and the number of furnished burials with intense red-ochre usage increased (Halinen 1999;Zagorska 2006Zagorska , 2008.…”

“…At the same time, there arose a new awareness that included a range of new techniques for manipulating materials and engaging with the material world. As a whole, these are seen as integral elements of Neolithization in north-eastern Europe and Eurasia (Nordqvist and Herva 2013;Herva et al 2014Herva et al , 2017Nordqvist et al 2014. Although traditional elements of the material culture that defines the Neolithic Stone Age have been known to be present among north-eastern European cultures, which were previously labelled as Subneolithic or even as pottery Mesolithic cultures (e.g.…”

The environment they lived in: anthropogenic changes in local and regional vegetation composition in eastern Fennoscandia during the Neolithic

“…Recent studies suggest that the Neolithization of Eurasia was a more complex process and the Neolithic a more diverse phenomenon than traditionally assumed (Barker 2006;Fuller et al 2011;Herva et al 2017;Nordqvist 2018). As pointed out by Bogucki (1995) and Smith (2001), an extensive and systematic manipulation of resources and some degree of control of wild species was already taking place during the Mesolithic.…”