ABSTRACT
The earlier part of the Ertebølle period, 5400-4600 BC was aceramic, and is famous for its burials. Inland campsites have provided evidence of fur trapping and hunting, as at Ringkloster, and shell middens accumulated at coastal gathering places, as at Bjørnsholm and Ertebølle (Figure 6.1). People probably moved between these different locales on a seasonal round fluctuating between temporary campsites and longer-term coastal settlements, making use of a wide range of animals and plants. Stable isotope analysis and archaeological remains suggest that the main food source was seafood; fish, eels and shellfish. At the same time inland camps like Ringkloster contained the stripped carcasses of pine martens, polecats and other small fur-bearing animals. The archaeological record from throughout Mesolithic Denmark is very rich (for related in-depth studies, see Strassburg 2000; Tilley 1996), and submerged sites have yielded wood and fibre remains. Decorated paddles, long hollow-log canoes, bows and arrows, fishing spears, weirs and fish-traps have all been found. Axes were made from or hafted with antler, and a whole variety of tools were made from animal bones and antler. From 4600 BC pottery was made, and bone ornaments included, in the western regions, polished arm-rings from the shoulder blades of aurochs and other large mammals.
