Wild at heart: Approaching Pitted Ware identity, economy and cosmology through stable isotopes in skeletal material from the Neolithic site Korsnäs in Eastern Central Sweden

• Published in: Journal of anthropological archaeology Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 281 - 297
• Main Authors: Fornander, Elin, Eriksson, Gunilla, Lidén, Kerstin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.09.2008; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Anthropology; Archaeological dating; Archaeological Science; Archaeology; Archaeology subjects; Arkeologi; Arkeologiämnen; Carbon; Cosmology; Dentition; Diet; Environmental studies; Europe; Fauna; Fossils; Historisk-filosofiska ämnen; History and philosophy subjects; Human remains; HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP; HUMANITIES and RELIGION; Identity; Isotopes; laborativ arkeologi; Methodology and general studies; Middle Neolithic; Neolithic; Neolithic Age; Neolithic and chalcolithic; Nitrogen; North West Europe; Pitted Ware Culture; Prehistoric era; Prehistory and protohistory; Radiocarbon dating; Stable isotopes; Sulphur; Sweden; Neolithic; Sweden; Europe; Baltic sea; Sweden; Radiocarbon dating; Diet; Stable isotopes; Pitted Ware Culture; Nitrogen; Identity; Carbon; Sulphur; Middle Neolithic; Site; Subsistence strategy; Isotope; Fauna; Wild boar; Economy; Radiocarbon; Seal (animal); Cosmology; Skeleton; Bone; Dating; Isotope Analysis
• ISSN: 0278-4165; 1090-2686; 1090-2686
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2008.03.004

The Middle Neolithic Pitted Ware Culture on the Baltic Sea islands comprised a common identity distinguished, in part, by an almost exclusively marine diet. Based on evidence from the first stable isotope analysis on Pitted Ware skeletal material from the Eastern Central Swedish mainland, we suggest that this identity was shared by PWC groups in the archipelago of the west side of the Baltic. Fifty-six faunal and 26 human bone and dentine samples originating from the Pitted Ware site Korsnäs in Södermanland, Sweden were analysed, and the data clearly shows that the diet of the Korsnäs people was marine, predominantly based on seal. The isotope data further indicate that the pig bones found in large quantities on the site emanate from wild boar rather than domestic pigs. The large representation of pig on several Pitted Ware sites, which cannot be explained in terms of economy, is interpreted as the results of occasional hunting of and ritual feasting on wild boar, indicating that the animal held a prominent position, alongside seal, in the hunting identity and cosmology of the Pitted Ware people. Further, eleven new radiocarbon dates are presented, placing the Korsnäs site, with a large probability, within Middle Neolithic A.