Submerged landscapes : locating Mesolithic settlements in Blekinge, Sweden
Abstract: Historic settlements are of great interest since they play a role in understanding our past and our cultural roots. The development of technology now makes it easier to map the seafloor and locate submerged settlements. Finding submerged Mesolithic settlements has led to hypotheses being made on what characteristics to look out for which could suggest Mesolithic settlement locations. This study focuses on such settlements between 11,600 – 6000 cal. BP in Blekinge, southern Sweden. Similar studies have already been done in this region, making it possible to compare already identified settlements to the submerged settlement locations suggested in this study. Many of the already identified settlements in Blekinge have been close to major rivers, and in this study, the suggested settlements are all in close proximity three rivers; the Bräkne, Vieryd and Ronneby rivers. Three beneficial characteristics for Mesolithic settlements and a fishing site location model are used to suggest potential Mesolithic settlement locations. Along with this, the three rivers Bräkne, Vieryd and Ronneby have been reconstructed in the submerged landscape. The main finding in this study show that only one of the nine suggested settlements in the submerged landscape met all three of the beneficial characteristics, with the other eight meeting at least one of these. When comparing the suggested settlement locations to the already identified settlement locations, there are not enough similarities to conclude that they are all located in similar landscapes. This could suggest that either more already identified settlements should be analysed before being able to compare their characteristics more accurately with suggested settlement locations, or that more research should be made into the characteristics that define the location of a Mesolithic settlement.
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