Exploitation of plant resources in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of southern Scandinavia: from gathering to harvesting

This paper is a review of the archaeobotanical evidence for the exploitation of plant resources in the mesolithic and neolithic economies of southern Scandinavia. It spans the transition from a total reliance on collecting and gathering, to the advent and establishment of arable agriculture. The area covered is that represented by present-day Denmark and southern Sweden (figure 21.1). A summary of the local mesolithic and neolithic chronology is given in table 21.1.