All Is Fish that Comes to His Net - contextualising subsistence strategy, animal economy and mobility in coastal Sweden's Mesolithic past

Abstract: In an extensive analysis of seven coastal sites that are spread across the East and West coast of southern Sweden, animal economy and specialised hunting is at the forefront of interpreting the subsistence strategy and mobility in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies. Through comparative data, the following thesis will observe the differences and similarities between the aforementioned coastal regions of southern Sweden in an attempt to study the possible seasonality and sedentism of residential locations. In order to express a more nuanced variation between mobile and sedentary sites, the island of Blå Jungfrun, located on the East coast of southern Sweden, will be presented as the primary outliner when contrasting the utility and function of the various sites between one another. With an osteological assemblage that has never officially been analysed before, Blå Jungfrun offers a unique opportunity to discuss the definition of sedentary and mobile foragers, as well as provide arguments for a diverse Mesolithic past in southern Sweden – a past that is interpreted as complex with opportunistic and specialised subsistence strategies.