Transmission of knowledge, crafting and cultural traditions, interregional contact and interaction, 7300 Cal BC: A study of worked material from Norje Sunnansund, Sweden

International audienceThe newly discovered site of Norje Sunnansund, located in south-eastern Sweden, presents great potential for analysing the origin of technological change in postglacial Europe based on transmission patterns through the technological analysis of Mesolithic material production and how manufacturing techniques and implements were distributed chronologically and geographically. Vertical transmission is displayed in the way that most of the cultural equipment—specifically, hunting weapons—was traditionally produced. In the framework of this research, horizontal transmission is indicated by the unexpected geographical distribution of particular artefact types—slotted gear and pendants—that were technically shaped and adorned in a specific style. The study concerns the material from Norje Sunnansund, compared to other contemporary archaeological assemblages in the region. While on the one hand, Early Holocene sites in Europe contain lithic and bone assemblages that are suitable for characterizing the material cultures of prehistoric human groups, on the other hand, some of these industrial products are also adorned, so that a technological study can reveal the techniques used not only in the manufacture of bone and lithic items, but also in art. The site of Norje Sunnansund is geographically situated in a border zone between the region with a Maglemosian tradition stricto sensu, located in Denmark, and the region with a north-eastern tradition, around the eastern side of the Baltic Sea (the Kunda-Butovo-Oka-Volga or Post-Swiderian-related technocomplex). An overview of similarities and differences in the material from Norje Sunnansund in comparison with its neighbourhood, where aspects of the two Mesolithic traditions seem to interact, thus yields an interesting methodological framework for deciphering sociocultural transmission through postglacial records in the region of southern Scandinavia. The study shows that material from the site was manufactured according to the north-eastern tradition but also displays a newly characterized Norje Sunnansund style, relating to the shape of certain weapons and the art they bear in the form of specific engraved motifs (tiny zigzag lines and scores). The distribution of specific items exhibiting the Norje Sunnansund style on contemporary Maglemosian sites, where no such examples are otherwise recorded, suggests a relationship between Maglemosian (Phase 2) and north-eastern groups. This coincides with the introduction of new knapping techniques in southern Scandinavia from c. 7500 cal BC onward, suggesting that direct contact might have occurred between specific social groups, probably craftsmen/hunters with distinct cultural traditions