Mesolithic Childhoods: Changing Life-Courses of Young Hunter-Fishers in the Stone Age of Southern Scandinavia

Fahlander, Fredrik

doi:10.1179/cip.2012.5.1.20

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, there is considerable spatial and temporal variation in infant funerary treatment across the late Mesolithic of northern Europe 14 , 30 . Children at sites such as Skateholm in Sweden who were interred separately from adults were mostly buried without grave artifacts 32 . The well-preserved child (< 6 months of age) from the site of Groß Fredenwalde in Germany dated to approximately 8400 calBP 33 is likely to provide important insights (especially when a full biological profile has been completed) by pushing back the northern European infant record earlier into the Mesolithic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

Hodgkins

Orr

Gravel-Miguel

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211–9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40–50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child’s interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

Hodgkins

Orr

Gravel-Miguel

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Comparison with verified burial sites does, however, show that a large number of confirmed graves have irregular or indistinct plans, the equivalent of classes 1–2 (Table 1). These graves include child and animal burials (see Fahlander 2012). Unfortunately, none of the analogous northern European sites have been published in sufficient detail to evaluate the number of irregular pit-like anomalies that were not considered to be graves.…”

Section: Assessing the Burial Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

A large fifth-millennium BC cemetery in the subarctic north of the Baltic Sea?

Hakonen,

Perälä,

Vaneeckhout

et al. 2023

Antiquity

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The European far north is an improbable location for a large prehistoric hunter-gatherer cemetery. Tainiaro, 80km south of the Arctic Circle, was first excavated four decades ago but the unpublished findings and their potential significance have evaded wider recognition. Despite the absence of skeletal evidence, dozens of fifth-millennium BC pits have been tentatively interpreted as burials. Here, the authors present the first analytical and comparative overview of the site. Many of the pits are consistent in form with those used for inhumation at contemporaneous sites suggesting that Tainiaro is one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries in northern Europe and raising questions about the cultural and subsistence practices of prehistoric societies in the subarctic.

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“…A central theme in the number of studies aimed at understanding the intersection between age, sex, and social status during the Ertebølle, is the fundamental persistent difficulty with geography; comparisons are separated widely in space (Fahlander 2012). This is problematic because of land tenure (see above) and strong indications that the Ertebølle was characterised by estates of varying scales (Vang Petersen 1984;Sørensen 2007;Grøn 2020).…”

Section: Social Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Known Ertebølle burials range in age from children and infants though mature adults and, among these, there are discernible differences in burial treatment. Fahlander (2012) identified differences between age classes from analysis of grave-goods and spatial distribution of burials at Skateholm. At c. 7 or 8 years children started to engage with the adult world and, by puberty, their graves were indistinguishable from those of adults.…”

Section: Social Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic: Adults and Children from the Strøby Egede Burial, Køge Bugt, Denmark

Gron¹,

Meiklejohn

Pedersen³

et al. 2022

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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In the summer of 1986 a mass grave was discovered along the bank of the river Tryggevælde Å where it empties into Køge Bugt, the bay south of modern Copenhagen, Denmark. The human remains, dating to the late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture, consisted of eight individuals of multiple ages, ranging c. 35–45 years old to newborn children. Four were arranged on one side of the grave, with four on the other, placed head to foot. How they were related and what befell them is a mystery. Herein, we present a bioarchaeological assessment of these individuals for the first time and apply an acid etch-based analysis of dimorphic sex chromosome-linked tooth enamel peptides to confirm their biological sex. Our results allow a direct connection between engendered grave treatment and biological sex in non-adult individuals as young as c. 4 years of age. We conclude with a discussion of the possible circumstances of their deaths and their possible relationships to one another.

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Mesolithic Childhoods: Changing Life-Courses of Young Hunter-Fishers in the Stone Age of Southern Scandinavia

Cited by 6 publications

References 10 publications

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe

A large fifth-millennium BC cemetery in the subarctic north of the Baltic Sea?

Sex and Gender in the Mesolithic: Adults and Children from the Strøby Egede Burial, Køge Bugt, Denmark

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