Ertebølle culture ( Dat. Ertebølle ) or EBK is a North European sub-Neolithic culture (VI — IV millennium BC) centered in southern Scandinavia . Genetically related to cultures of northern Germany and the Netherlands . The name was given to the localization of the settlement discovered near the Danish village of Ertebelle on the shore of the Limfjord .
Ertebelle subneolithic | ||||
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Geographic region | Northern Europe | |||
Localization | Denmark , southern Sweden | |||
Dating | VI - IV millennium BC e. | |||
Continuity | ||||
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Content
Research
Excavations began in the 1890s in huge piles of prehistoric debris consisting of oyster shells and other mollusks mixed with bones and remains of flint and deer antlers. They were kitchen garbage ( Dat. Køkkenmødding , kökkenmedding), therefore the culture is sometimes called köckenmedding or the culture of kitchen garbage, as well as Ertebølle -Ellerbek , according to the names of the Danish and German settlements (the latter is in the town of Schlezwig Kiel )
In the 1960-1970s, a related culture was studied in the Netherlands , near the village of Swinterbant . However, the Swifterbant culture , which existed simultaneously with EBK (in 5300–3400 BC), is transitional from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic , and not purely Mesolithic or subneolithic , as its carriers combined fishing, hunting and gathering with animal husbandry and cultivation cereals [1] , probably borrowed from the tribal culture of linear tape ceramics settled near Limburg . The oldest layers of Swiftbant culture date back to 5600 BC. e., and its burials of this period are identical to those found in Erteboll [2] .
Pottery
One of the main types of EBK ceramics was a lamp filled with whale oil, a small deep oval-shaped vessel in which to burn a combustible liquid. It is believed that the presence of a large amount of whale fat means active fishing of animals from which it can be obtained.
Farm
The main type of economy of the tribes of this culture were fishing , hunting and gathering. Although its grain carriers were not cultivated, a certain amount of grain fell into their possession, probably through exchange with southern agricultural crops.
Representatives of the Ertebelle culture were the first in Europe to domesticate pigs 7 thousand years ago [3] .
Fishing
The main food was fish. The remains of ships and fishing tackle were found. The ships were mainly odnoderevki boats with oars. For fishing, dams were set up in shallow water, for which purpose 4 poles from hazel were stuck in the bottom. Harpoons were made from deer horns, a specimen was found to which a rope was attached; used and peaks with wooden teeth.
Dozens of fish species were present in the catch: pike , carp , eel , perch , salmon , cod , herring , anchovy , flounder, and even several species of sharks , the presence of which indicates the ability of EBK mariners to go hunting in the open sea. Since no ships were found except for odnoderevki, it is not known what means the carriers of this culture used for long sea voyages.
In addition to fish, they hunted marine mammals: killer whales , dolphins , seals and other pinnipeds .
Hunt
Judging by bone remnants, EBK carriers preyed mainly on large forest animals, fur animals and seabirds. Their prey was deer , wild boar , round , occasionally horse , presumably wild, beaver , squirrel , ferret , badger , fox , lynx . Available in swamps and ponds, the bird was a black - throated and red-throated loon , cormorants , swans , ducks , as well as curly pelican , capercaillie and grebe .
History
EBK developed on the basis of the pre-existing Scandinavian culture of Congemose . In the north, it was adjacent to other Mesolithic cultures of Scandinavia. There are two phases of EBK, the early (5300–4500 BC) and the late (4500–3950 BC). Since 4100 BC e. EBK spread eastward along the shores of the Baltic Sea , at least to the island of Rügen , but then suddenly gives way to a funnel-shaped goblet culture , which later also included the Swiftbanten culture . There is no evidence of its conquest by new aliens, so EBK carriers could make up at least a portion of the funnel cup culture population.
Anthropological type
The skulls of representatives of the Ertebelle culture are often characterized as Cro-Magnoid , since they were massive and had pronounced superciliary arches, they also had a very broad face - their bisigomatics were about 154–157 mm [4] .
Culture
In the cemeteries (Wedck, Dragsholm, Skateholm), deer teeth beads, amber pendants and clay goblets, bone arrowheads are found [5] . It is known that the tribes of this culture ate boiled food [6] .
There is information about the cannibalism of the carriers of the Ertebelle culture. [7]
See also
- Dogerman substrate
Notes
- ↑ Europe's First Farmers - T. Douglas Price, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Cambridge University Press 2000 [1]
- ↑ LP Louwe Kooijmans - Trijntje van de Betuweroute, Jachtkampen uit de Steentijd te Hardinxveld-Giessendam, 1998, Spiegel Historiael 33, blz. 423-428, [2]
- ↑ Europeans domesticated pigs 7 thousand years ago
- ↑ Flood spilled into ... the Baltic Sea? Archived December 22, 2007.
- ↑ Herman K. E. Graves with red ocher on the territory of Fennoscandia (Unavailable link) . Date of treatment February 6, 2008. Archived December 4, 2007.
- ↑ Neolithic tribes of Europe, Central and North Asia in the V — IV millennia BC e.
- ↑ Golovnev A.B. Anthropology of the movement (antiquities of Northern Eurasia). Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of RAS; "Volot", 2009, ss. 107-108.