Journal of Archaeological Science
Available online 5 July 2012
Lipid residue analyses of Early Neolithic funnel-beaker pottery from Skogsmossen, eastern Central Sweden, and the earliest evidence of dairying in Sweden
Sven Isaksson, , Fredrik Hallgren
This study address the question of the use and function of Early Neolithic (4000-3000 cal. BC) funnel-beaker pots from Mälardalen in eastern Central Sweden. The material studied is pottery from a wetland offering at the site Skogsmossen in the province of Västmanland. While deposited under ritual circumstances in a fen, the pots were likely used in a domestic domain on the settlement adjacent to the offering fen, prior to final deposition. The lipid analysis indicate a varied vessel use, there are traces of aquatic resources, plants, terrestrial animals and milk. The identification of milk residue is the oldest so far from Sweden.
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5 comments:
Is there still a case for dairying and farming as distinct waves anywhere, or has new evidence eliminated the gap and shown that they were a single wave?
I bet they also go together.
European cattle are not suited to the kinds of marginal pasture land that get left to nomads. What cattle are especially good for is utilizing marginal close in to arable land, the kind where people are sedntary but can't use for anything else. Areas in Europe that had a good mix of arable and less arable land like most of Britain and Scandinavia had peasant economies where dairying was important.
In Germany OTOH land was either actively farmed and paid rents or was kept by the local lords as hunting preserves where no grazing was allowed, so dairying was not really an option. this is reflected in the diet, where pork fat was always much more important than butter, and still is by prefenece, at least in cooking.
In Germany OTOH land was either actively farmed and paid rents or was kept by the local lords as hunting preserves where no grazing was allowed, so dairying was not really an option. this is reflected in the diet, where pork fat was always much more important than butter, and still is by prefenece, at least in cooking.
You must know a different Germany than I do. Sure, Speck and Schmalz played a huge role in frying and as an occasional bread addition/spread - but butter and cheese and milk did so and still do anywhere else, in cooking. Milk, butter, and cheese production in Germany traditionally has been huge, and continues to be so. Most areas receive ample amounts of rain, especially during the hot summer months, and grazing areas and areas for supplemental feed growing are plenty (even if nowadays, supplemental feed stuff often is imported).
"You must know a different Germany than I do. Sure, Speck and Schmalz played a huge role in frying and as an occasional bread addition/spread - but butter and cheese and milk did so and still do anywhere else, in cooking. Milk, butter, and cheese production in Germany traditionally has been huge, and continues to be so."
Guess so. I know that it is easier to get beer delivered to the house than milk, and that until recently schoolchildren were given beer instead of milk because it was cheaper. I recall being commented on when I put butter on bread to eat with sooup - the custom is to use butter only when you are eating bread by itself; if you are eating it with soup there is supposedly no need for butter.
Milk is almost never drunk as a beverage, and never by adults - unlike the case tradtionally in Scandinavia and Ireland. Cheese is important, but again, nowhere on the scale of Scandinavia, or even france. The use of dairy products in germany may well be greater than somewhere like china, but it lags western and northern Europe considerably, enough to help define the cultural cline between the areas. (The beer, the bread, the windows, the bedding and a whole range of other traits also define this cline.)
Milk, butter and cheese production look huge only when you don't compare them to the gignatic size of the population. When it comes to cattle and milk, really "l'Asie commence au Rhin."
"Most areas receive ample amounts of rain, especially during the hot summer months, ...."
As I said earlier, the constraint on dairying was social rather than climatological.
Jim
"European cattle are not suited to the kinds of marginal pasture land that get left to nomads"
Pasture is only restricted to marginal land where crops are more productive. That is the case *now* but were the crops available in Sweden in 4000 BC more productive than raising cattle on the same land?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funnelbeaker_culture
"It was dominated by animal husbandry of sheep, cattle, pigs and goats, but there was also hunting and fishing. Primitive wheat and barley was grown on small patches that were fast depleted, due to which the population frequently moved small distances."
I don't think so.
There's a theory that the funnel beakers were for beer. I think they were for milk (or milk mixed with cereals and foraged nuts, seeds and fruits i.e. neolithic granola).
"As I said earlier, the constraint on dairying was social rather than climatological."
In 4000 BC?
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