The allure of the exotic: the social use of non-local raw materials during the Stone Age in Sweden.

The allure of the exotic: the social use of non-local raw materials during the Stone Age in Sweden. JACQUELINE TAFFINDER. The allure of the exotic: the social use ofnon-local raw materials during the Stone Age in Sweden (Aun 25). 182pages, 153 figures, 13 appendices. 1998. Uppsala: Uppsala University Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden, 64 kilometres (40 miles) north-northwest of Stockholm.[1] Founded in 1477, it claims to be the oldest university in Scandinavia, outdating the University of Copenhagen ,Department of Archaeology & Ancient History; paperback 91-506-1312-XISSN ISSNabbr.International Standard Serial Number 0284-1347. From a meeting in 1992, Dr ZVELEBIL et al. have compiled 30 paperson social and technological developments at the end of the Mesolithicand beginning of the Neolithic in western Russia, around the Baltic Sea Baltic Sea,arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.163,000 sq mi (422,170 sq km), including the Kattegat strait, its northwestern extension. The ?resund, Store Bælt, and Lille Bælt connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits, which lead to the and in Norway. Three cover problems of definition -- important because,as well known, in general, the transition was very slow. Most are oneconomic archaeology. Five assess persistence of Mesolithic economythrough much or all of the Neolithic period Neolithic periodor New Stone Age.The term neolithic is used, especially in archaeology and anthropology, to designate a stage of cultural evolution or technological development characterized by the use of stone tools, the existence of in Pomerania and Poland,ascribing it to the physical environment. Animal husbandry animal husbandry,aspect of agriculture concerned with the care and breeding of domestic animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, hogs, and horses. Domestication of wild animal species was a crucial achievement in the prehistoric transition of human civilization from seems to havebeen taken up very slowly in the lake country of northeastern Poland(`Paraneolithic', p. 108). S. Welinder argues, on the other hand,that environmental conditions and long-distance exchange allowed bothhorticulture and herding in southern Sweden by 3000 BC. P. Rowley-Conwyargues that the Ertebolle cemetery of Skateholm I marked a relativelylarge community in continuous occupation of a comparatively smallterritory but that the way of life was not fully sedentary. O. Gronargues for a continuously rising trend in the size of settlements andhousing through the Mesolithic into the Neolithic. Specific problemswith radiocarbon dates are rehearsed in the assessment of Zealand by C.Meiklejohn et al., who also review funerary fu��ner��ar��y?adj.Of or suitable for a funeral or burial.[Latin fner evidence for social statusand diet. There are also articles on physical anthropology fromcemeteries in Russia and Lithuania and on evidence for climate. Thisvaluable collection of papers could be complemented by comparisons witheastern North America and the northern Far East. For Denmark,Schleswig-Holstein and Skane, Dr PERSSON considers the same issues oftechnology, technological diffusion from farming colonists to the south,population change, and radiocarbon chronology. He provides a substantialabstract in English. With a view to assessing social differentiation, Dr TAFFINDERstudied imported materials in Mesolithic and Neolithic burials fromSweden and Denmark and slate implements from south and central Sweden,Oland and (briefly) Gotland. She developed her very widely researchedargument with reference to the work of M.W. Helms in Central America andto a rapid perusal of ethnography. That the cemeteries did yield imports-- `prestige goods', presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. , including copper from the earlyNeolithic onward-- supported the proposition that there weredistinctions but Dr TAFFINDER reasons that differentiation increasedsignificantly during the late Neolithic, not before. Late Neolithic`battle axes', she argues, were in a long series of bone and stoneartefacts `emulating' admired prototypes -- but she holds that, asfor their `seams', imitation was not necessarily accurate.Artefacts of red slate have been interpreted in the same way but herX-ray diffraction analyses show that this material could be local, not`exotic'. The book is of interest well beyond Scandinavia, notleast in the Americas, North and South, as well as Central (and cf.FORENBAHER, below). The presentation is admirably orderly but an indexwould have helped. Dr SEGERBERG assesses archaeological and palynological evidencefrom a bog in eastern Sweden for settlements in the Early and MiddleNeolithic, including results from her own excavation at Anneberg.Fishing and hunting remained important in both periods, she argues, but,during the early period, cereals were probably grown on eskers, and,later, herds were kept. She relates the local sequence to regionalchange in sea level and draws comparisons with archaeology fromelsewhere in Sweden. A substantial summary is provided in English.