ABSTRACT
The Skateholm Project began early in 1980 and eventually continued for five years. Although the Early Mesolithic period in south Scandinavia is covered by the Maglemose culture, the expression "Late Mesolithic" is used to denote the time scale which includes the Kongemose and Ertebolle cultures. The study of the Mesolithic has, for the better part of a century, been based totally on the results of settlement investigations, primarily of sites adjacent to the sea or a lake. A trial excavation was carried out during spring 1980 in order to ascertain whether traces of an occupation layer still survived after continuous intensive cultivation. The research at Skateholm was concentrated mainly at the Skateholm I and Skateholm II sites. Large concentrations of graves are quite unknown in south Scandinavia — and in other parts of Europe, too — before the Late Mesolothic. A barrier to research of almost a mental nature had been broken through.
