Early Neolithic flint mining at Södra Sallerup, Scania, Sweden

The area around the villages of Kvarnby and Södra Sallerup in south-west Scania is the only known flint-mining site in Sweden. Radiocarbon dates show that the flint was mined mainly during the earliest phase of the Early Neolithic, between c. 4000 and 3600 BC, thus coinciding with the earliest evidence of the Funnel Beaker Culture in the region. The type of flint, the size of the flint nodules, production debris in the mining area and the concentration of point-butted axes to south-west Scania all suggest that the mining was related to the extraction of flint for the production of point-butted axes. However, considering the abundance of easily available flint elsewhere in the region, it seems clear that the mining was not motivated purely by economic reasons. We suggest that the very extraction of flint from pits and shafts in the chalk was socially and symbolically significant in itself