Living at the margin of the retreating Fennoscandian Ice Sheet

The early Mesolithic sites at Aareavaara, northernmost Sweden

Bibliographic Data

ID12265017
AuthorsPer Möller (0000-0001-5365-2668, Lund University, corresponding author), Olof Östlund (County Museum of Norrbotten, Sweden), Lena Barnekow (Lund University), Per Sandgren (0000-0001-9175-7575, Lund University), Frida Palmbo (County Museum of Norrbotten, Sweden), E Willerslev (0000-0002-7081-6748, University of Copenhagen)
Year2012
Volume23
Issue1
Pages104-116
Publication date2012-09-18
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Holocene (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959683612455546
OpenAlexW2080906628
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited16

During an archaeological survey in Pajala parish, northernmost Sweden, clusters of quartz waste from knapping and burnt bone were discovered on a glaciofluvial gravel plateau close to Aareavaara village in the Muonio River valley. Sampled materials from a larger area and small-scale excavations (in total 6 m 2 ) are interpreted as resulting from short-stay hunter-gatherer camps. Radiocarbon dating on burnt bones suggest an age of occupancy at ~10,700 cal. yr BP, which is more or less contemporary with ‘Komsa Phase’ sites on the north coast of Norway (~300–360 km northwards). The Aareavaara site should thus be the oldest known archaeological site to date in northern Sweden. A palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, based on pollen analysis of sediment cores from two nearby lakes and radiocarbon dating of macrofossils for construction of time/depth sedimentation curves, suggests a deglaciation age of the area corresponding to occupation by early man (~10,700 cal. yr BP). Aareavaara was at the time of deglaciation situated in a transitional zone between subaqueous and subaerial ice-margin retreat from the northeast towards the southwest, with higher hills and plateaux forming an archipelago in the Ancylus Lake with highest shorelines formed at ~170 m a.s.l. The hunter-gatherer camp sites at Aareavaara were thus, both in time and space, located in close proximity to the retreating ice sheet margin, but also in a waterfront location, in fact on an island in the Ancylus Lake. Our pollen data suggest a subarctic birch woodland tundra landscape characterized by open vegetation, including occasional birch trees and an abundance of willow and dwarf birch

Archaeology · Arctic · Deglaciation · Geography · Geomorphology · Glacier · Holocene · Ice sheet · Macrofossil · Meltwater · Mesolithic · Midden · Physical geography · Plateau (mathematics · Radiocarbon dating · Subaerial · Tundra · Woodland · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology

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