ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the characteristics of early ceramics in hunter-gatherer and early agricultural societies in northern and southern Sweden. It presents an overview of the present knowledge of the history of the introduction of pottery into societies primarily with a hunter-gatherer economy in the coastal regions. The chapter focuses on the interplay between technology, representativity, design and use of early ceramics during the introduction of a new technology into existing social and economic contexts. It also focuses lies principally on Early Comb Ware and to a certain extent on the later development named Typical Comb Ware. Comb Ware has an eastern distribution covering northern Norway and Sweden, Finland, and western parts of Russia during the Late Mesolithic and Neolithic. The fact that most of the north Swedish topography laid, and still lies, above the highest coastline means that marine and other fine sediments are lacking in vast areas.
