Mid-Holocene climatic and cultural dynamics in Northern Europe

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This chapter reviews the climatic and cultural dynamics in the mid-Holocene period in Northern Europe. It briefly reviews a commonly used model for the Holocene climate, summarizes results indicating frequent fluctuations in temperature with an amplitude of a few degrees centigrade, and discusses possible implications. It presents a view that is distinctly different from the commonly accepted climate model which claims that no major changes in the climate took place during the mid-Holocene. In Scandinavian archaeology there is a general agreement today that the social changes in the mid-Holocene showed considerable dynamism. The transition from the Atlantic chronozone to the Subboreal is contemporaneous with the shift from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic at 6000 cal yr BP. Changes in forest composition facilitated the introduction of agriculture and correlate with a major change in the material culture. Another natural explanation that has played a major role in the discussion concerns the increasingly dramatic rises in sea level. Large Late Mesolithic sites along the coast were submerged and replaced by small hamlets at the coast as well as further inland. Earthen long barrows and later megalithic tombs replaced the large cemeteries. The wetlands were used as sacrificial sites with deposits mainly of flint axes. Despite the great changes, the development of archaeological cultures in most regions within southern Scandinavia can be traced from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic.