Arensburg culture

The earliest finds associated with this crop are bows and arrows (although these tools themselves could have been invented earlier).

The Arensburg culture was preceded by the Hamburg culture and the Federmesser culture , and the Mesolithic cultures inherited it.

Finds related to the Arnsburg culture were made in the south and west of Scandinavia , in the North German lowland and in the west of Poland . Also, the territory of the Ensburg culture included vast territories now hidden at the bottom of the North and Baltic Seas ( Doggerland ), since during the late Dryas the coastline ran much to the north of the present.

The culture is named after the tunnel valley near the village of Ahrensburg , located 25 km north-east of Hamburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein , where layers associated with this culture were found in places such as Meiendorf ( de: Meiendorf ), Stelmoor ( de: Stellmoor ) and Bornek ( de: Borneck ). Although these monuments, like most other monuments of this culture, belong to the late Dryas , the cultural layer of the Ahrensburg culture in Alt Dufenstedt dates from a very late Allerian period , that is, it seems to be the earliest stage of this culture that could correspond to a similar Bromme culture in the north. Artifacts found in the same context with tail arrowheads are associated with both Bromme and Arnesburg cultures.

According to a number of Russian researchers, the upper boundary of the spread of this culture was the upper reaches of the Volga River ^[1] . In the West, this point of view is not accepted.

The later Fosna-Hensbach cultures in Norway and Sweden originate from the Arensburg culture.

The archaeological site of Stelmoor ( de: Stellmoor ) was a seasonal settlement, inhabited mainly in October, where bones belonging to 650 different reindeer were found. For hunting, bows and arrows were used. Well-preserved shafts of pine arrows, intended for the characteristic tips of this skaftunge type of flint, were also found in Stalmoor . A number of reindeer skeletons with arrowheads in the chest were found intact — they were probably sacrificed to higher forces. In the settlements, archaeologists discovered stone circles that could serve as grounds for tipi houses.

The earliest reliable traces of habitat in northern Norway and western Sweden belong to the transitional period between late dryas and the prerepure period . More favorable living conditions, as well as the experience of the past, acquired during the seasonal wander, stimulated the intensive exploitation of marine resources in the northern territories. The culture of Fosna-Hensbach on the west coast of Sweden is an example of a process of cultural fragmentation that has taken place within the framework of the continental Arensburg culture. ^{[2] [3] [4]} Instead of new migrations at the beginning of the Mesolithic, the discovery of bone deposits and new dating indicate the absence of a noticeable gap in the continuity of the settlements. New knowledge points to a continuation of autochthonous development, despite the fact that rapid climate change has stimulated rapid changes in culture. ^[five]

The Arensburg culture belongs to the complex of cultures of the Late Upper Paleolithic and Early Mesolithic , the occurrence of which relates to the retreat of the glacier and the subsequent decay of Late Paleolithic cultures 15–10 thousand years ago. The extinction of the megafauna, which was the main source of nutrition for the Upper Paleolithic population, provoked an increased demand for other forms of diet, including marine resources. Migrations to the north coincided with the Böhling and Alleida warmings, but most of Northern Europe remained unpopulated throughout the late Dryas .

During the Holocene climatic optimum, the increased biomass led to a significant intensification of the exploitation of biological resources from all then-population groups, the development of intergroup contacts and ultimately to the beginnings of agriculture. ^[6]