hypothesis
Kristiansen, Kristian Fornvännen 247-251
http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/1993_247
Ingår i: samla.raa.se
hypotesen vågar jag ställa - ett troget klientel av arbetare på äng och åker, vid fiskevatten, som utgjorde samhällenas anonyma flertal och som i vördnad inför de g u d a b o r n a vapenbärarna utförde det dagliga livets tunga sysslor. Att ingjuta respekt och tillgivenhet hos dessa var religionens uppgift. Religionen var sålunda ett sammanhållande element i samhällsbyggnaden.
Men vi behöver inträngande studier av relationerna; habitation-kultplats-gravplats- ekonomirevir, i själva verket en bronsålders- samhällenas byggnadsplan eller rättare gene- ralplan, innan vi förmår lösa de problem, seim mina funderingar rör sig kring. Mycket fältarbete återstår - men ett fältarbete med klara frågeställningar. För h a n t e r a n d e t av dessa frågeställningar skulle också behövas fastare samarbete med hällristningsforskare i Sydeuropa, inte minst de franska och italiens- ka, än vad sammanträffanden vid symposier kan erbjuda.
Referenser
Almgren, B. 1962. Den osynliga gudomen. Proxima Thuk, hyllningsskrift till H. M. Konungen.
Slockholm, s. 53-71.
Berlilsson, U. 1987. The Rock Crinrings of Northern Bohuslän. Spatial Structures and Social Symbols.
Stockholm.
Boyer, R. 1991. Le symbolisme des petroglyphes de 1'age du bronze scandinave. Le Mont Bego. Tende, Alpes-Maritimes. Symposiehandlingar bd 2, s.
586-602.
Görman, M. 1987. Nordiskt och keltiskt. Syd- skandinavisk religion under yngre bronsålde-r och keltisk järnålder. Lund.
Kjellén, E. 8c Hyenstrand, Å. 1976. Upplands häll- ristningar. UFT 49.
Malmer, M. P. 1981. A Chorological Study of North European Rock Art. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar. Antikvaris- ka ser. 32. Stockholm.
- 1989 a Hällristningar och hällmålningar i Sverige.
- 1989 b North-European Bronze Age Rock Art.
Nordström, H. A. 8c Knape, A. (eds.), Bronze Age Studies. The Museum of National Antiquities.
Stockholm. Studies 6,
Nordbladh, |. 1980. Glypher och rum. Kring hällrist- ningar i Kville. Göteborg.
Sognnes, K. 1983. Bergkunsten i Stjordal. Helle- ristningar og busetning. Trondheim. Gunneria 45. Univers. Trondheim, Vitcnskapsmuseet.
Li I i Kaelas Prästgårdsgatan 68 412 71 Göteborg
Neolithie Farming Practice—An Archaeological Response to the Göransson Hypothesis
Rapid d e v d o p m e n t s in palaeobotanical work över the last two decades have created a new platform for understanding prehistoric farm- ing practice. Basically this is due to a signifi- cant rise in the n u m b e r of m o d e m C14-dated diagrams, the sophistication of analytical methods, each diagram i n d u d i n g more and more specific information, and an increasing understanding of the interplay between re- gional, local and on site vegetational changes (Andersen 1992; Behre 1981 and 1986; Birks et al. 1988: part 2). This development, howev- er, has also raised a n u m b e r of new problems, questioning traditional kneiwledge. It has be-
conie increasingly clear how difficult it is tei establish general patterns of development
(Groenman-van Waateringe 1988), to delimit
cattle husbandry from agriculture (Berglund
1985), or even defme the relationship be-
tween cultural and natural processes of vege-
tational change as reflected in the pollen rec-
ord. Hans Göransson in particular has pro-
moted a n u m b e r of interesting new hypoth-
eses about Neolithie farming practice
(Göransson 1982 and 1988 o) which run
counter to traditional interpretation. This has
stimulated research (e.g. Bjerck 1988), which
is most welcome. The problem is, however,
Fornvännen 88 (1993)
that these new interpretatiems largely ignore the archaeology of the period, which in some important aspects may modify eir even lälsilv some of them ( 0 s t m o 1988; J e n n b e r t 1993).
The second problem is that Göransson has increasingly come to consider his own the- ories as established knowledge, rather than a.s working hypotheses. In a recent a r t i d e (Göransson 1988 A) this led him to reject the traditional understanding of Neolithie farm- ing practice, as originally proposed by Iversen (1941), as a myth.
In o r d e r to keep the debate open, I shall briefly discuss the basic elements in the Göransson hypothesis (1982, 1988«, and es- pecially 1988/i) from an archaeological (anel South Scandinavian) point of view, although I shall allow myself also to comment briefly upon the palaeobotany (see review by Ander- sen 1989).
Göransson hypothesis is simple and elegant.
It presumes
- that Neolithie Man practiced some farming before the Elm decline
— that this will only be sporadically recog- nized in pollen diagrams due to the forest cover
- that the Elin Decline was basically a natural p h e n o m o n which suddenly opened up the cover and not emly allowed pollen evidence of the existing farming practice to spread, but also stimulated further expansion of farming
— that the gradual closing of the förest visible in many Neolithie diagrams consequently did not reflect a decline in farming activi- ties, but rather the closing of the pollen spread in combination with an intensilied exploitation of the forest into a developed len est farming practice.
The basic philosphy is that Man was respond- ing to Nature during the Neolithie rather than the reverse. The natural lifiing of the feirest cover a r o u n d 4000 B.c. allow us to catch a glimpse of what was really happening, and soon afterwards the curtain was drawn again.
Only frenn the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age onwards did Man open the landscape sufficiently to allow for pollen dispersion and
a more straightfcirward explanation of the hu- man impact on nature in the pollen record.
1. Pre-Neolithic farming. T h e r e is virtually nothing in the archaeeilogical record of Southern Seandinavia to support such an hy- pol hesis. No domestie animals, no traces of grain. A few late Fatebolie settlement sites (by some considered mixed settlement sites) may, if accepted, suggest import and use of grain frenn neighbouring tribes south eif the Baltic as reflected in grain impressions on pottery (Jennberg 1984, discussion in Journal of Dan- ish Archaeology Vols. 4 and 5). But the evi- dence is ainbiguous and not yet supported by finds from other sites. Moreover the indica- tions from pollen diagrams are still scanty, and most likely due to other factors, as l u n g a s they are not supported by more evidence.
This is not to deny that late Ertebölle society could have manipulated the forest for hunting
purposes.
2. The Elm Decline was due In natural causes (elm decea.se/climate). I shall not go into the pollen botanical discussiem, but only point out that Early Neeilithic sites are often found upon low King slopes and tciiaces d o s e to lakes and streams, as well as on higher ground. Only laler did higher lands come into full cultivation, and even låter marginal lands.
This pattern is recurrent in Northern Europé
(Sherratt 1981; Kruk 1982; Madsen and J u d Jensen 1982). A.s the lower slopes and terraces were its typical hahilat, il comes a.s no sin prise- that elm is always d e d i n i n g in Early Neolithie pollen diagrams, in various combinations with other species, mostly lime (tilia), from high ground. To this could be added that "Elm D e d i n e s " are also found in earlier diagrams Ironi the Linear Band Culture of Central Eu- ropé during the 5th millennium B.C. where they are linked to agricultural expansion (Ka- lis and Meurers-Balke 1988; Kalis and Zim-
mermann 1988).
Another critical feature of the Elm Decline
is its apparent synchrcinous occurrence över
most of Europé between 4 0 0 0 - 3 8 0 0 B.C, sug-
gesting a natural cause. Such rapid spread of
new cultural and economic practices, how-
ever, are not unusual in prehistory. O n e need
only to refer to the C o r d e d Ware/Battle Axe
Förmännen 88 (1991)
Culture (Kristiansen 1989), or the Tumuli and Urnfield Cultures of the Bronze Age, which expanded with similar speed and with signifi- cant consequences in pollen diagrams. I am not denying the possibility that d m decrease may have been a feature of Early Neolithie agricultural expansion; thus in Switzerland leaf-foddering was practiced at this time, but with elm as a weak component (Rasmussen
1989 pp. 64 ff). However, the picture is com- plex and cannot be reduced to a single factor or cause, hiological or cultural, bul rather to an interaction (Starkel 1992).
3. The Landnam is a myth, since it reflected small scale förest farming, neiw suddenly rec- Ognized, while at the same time expanding in the natural eipenings of the ftirest created by the Elm Decline. The forest remained the ba- sic resource, and Neolithie Man consequently welcomed the recovery of the forest and adapted successfully to it. Recent pollen analyses from dolmens and passage graves, however, basically confirm Iversen's percep- tion of slash and b u i n practice (in opposition to Rowley-Conwy 1981). They also confirm the existence of pastures, as well as the inlen- tional maintenance of a secondary ftirest or liush vegetatiem which corresponds to region- al diagrams (birch in the Early Neolithie, hazel from the Middle Neolithie onwards, with sec- ondary förests predominating (Andersen
1988 and 1993)).
Massive archaeological evidence further
proves that clearances and cutting of förest
for farming and grazing took plate- from lhe- Late Early Neeilithic onwards. Long efficient flint axes were preiduced and distributed throughout s o m h e r n Seandinavia in their h u n d r e d tbousands, as is evident from Ma- thiassen^ regional studies (Mathiassen 1948 and 1957), as well a.s låter suiTeys. Field sur- veys also show that broken, used and shai- pened axes are regularly found ovcr large- areas of today's farming land, ihreiwn away in Neolithie fields and clearings after use. Tö this we may add the recurrence of plough marks u n d e r many megaliths, proving the existence of fields and the maintenance eif an open landscape in the settled areas (Thrane
1989).
4. The recovery of the förest in many areas during the Late Middle Neeilithic (the late 4th and the early 3rd millennium B.C.) reflected more efficient exploitation of the forest rath- er than crisis and settlement contraction. This hypothesis I consider the most interesting anel probable. But modifications are needed here too.
Settlement agglomeratiein did take place in many regions, as proved by regional field sur- veys (Kristiansen 1988 pp. 74 and 68). It is a general feature that during the period eif the passage graves .settlements became larger, re- Ilecting the unificalion of former smaller dwelling sites. It can alsei be demonstrated that settlements became m o r e permanent.
The frequency of new foundations, i.e. the shilling of settlements, decreased throughout the fourth millennium, as dememstrated in some detail at L a n g d a n d by Skaarup (1985).
So although there may be some truth in Göransson's propeisal, settlement concentra- tion and movement, certainly contributed to förest recovery, as in NW Zealand and in Southern Scania, where inland settlemcnis moved towards the coast. This established a pattern of coast/inland dualism which appar- ently remained a characteristic feature up to the present day in several areas—the coastal region being densely settled, dominated by open land, while the interiör remained rather more sparsdy populated with a higher pro- portion of förest.
So perhaps we should ahandon both the crisis hypothesis—although it may still be valid for some regions—and the forest farming hy- pothesis, as ihe principal explanations, and rather seek to combine them in a pattern eif regional variation and interaction emerging
from the late fourth millennium onwards. It is
beyond doubt thal already from the third mil- lennium onwards large regions were heavily deftirested, and remained so, while there was ftirest recovery in others, which would serve as a reservoir for settlement expansion from the more densely exploited regions. Yet else- where there appeared changes between heav- ily and less heavily cxpleiited regions, forming long term cvdes of settlement expansion anel regression. The nature of such local and re-
Fomvånnen s s (1993)
g i o n a l i n t e r a c t i o n h o l d s a g r e a t p r o m i s e f o r f u t u r e r e s e a r c h ( K r i s t i a n s e n 1 9 8 2 ) as d e m e i n - s t r a t e d in t h e Y s t a d p r o j e c t ( B e r g l u n d 1 9 9 1 , c h . 5 a n d 6).
I p r o p o s e t h e n t h a t t h e m a j o r c o m p o n e n t s in t h e G ö r a n s s o n h y p o t h e s e s , a l t h o u g h h i g h l y i n s p i r i n g , d o n o t s t å n d u p a g a i n s t t h e a r c h a e - o l o g i c a l e v i d e n c e . I n s t e a d t h e y t e n d t o s u p - p o r t I v e r s e n ' s o r i g i n a l h y p o t h e s e s , as m o d i - fied by t h e r e c e n t r e s e a r c h r e f e r r e d t o a b o v e . W h a t is n e e d e d , t h e r e f o r e , is a d o s e r t h e o r e t i - cal a n d m e t h o d o l o g i c a l i n t e g r a t i o n o f a r c h a e - o l o g i c a l a n d p a l a e o b o t a n i c a l w o r k in a l o n g t e r m p e r s p e c t i v e , as e x c e l l e n t l y d e m o n s t r a t e d in t h e Y s t a d p r o j e c t ( B e r g l u n d 1 9 9 1 ) .
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Kristian Kristiansen Skov- og Naturstyrdsen Haraldsgade 53 DK-2100 Köbenhavn 0
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