| Prof Dr Berit Valentin Eriksen |
Research interests |
| Lithic studies |
|
Flint working is the oldest known craft in the world. Moreover, it is a
skill that has to be acquired and which cannot be exercised successfully
without a certain amount of knowledge, experience, and ability (motor as
well as mental, i.e. know-how). Advanced lithic studies operate
accordingly within the field of cognitive archaeology. The approach
employed emphasises a dynamic technological analysis of primary production
sequences (based on experimental flint knapping and refitting of
inventories), as well as of schéma and chaîne opératoires,
complexity and completeness of assemblages, technological skills, and
degrees of specialization in tool production. Functional analysis provides
a basis for addressing the handling and use of flint tools. Sourcing and
provenance analysis provide a basis for discussing the acquisition of
lithic raw material in relation to other socioeconomic activities, such as
scheduling, control and management of resources, as well as mobility
patterns and communication networks. My current research spans widely –
from "Heat treatment of chert as a cultural marker in the Early Mesolithic
of Southwest Germany" over "Craft’s
apprenticeship and transmission of knowledge in Bronze Age flint working"
to more methodological issues pertaining to "Social
Dimensions of Technological Change". |
| Modelling hunter-gatherer colonization of late glacial and earliest postglacial Northern Europe |
| One of my primary research interests relates to the question of how late glacial and early postglacial hunter-gatherer groups moved into frontier areas and coped with more or less rapid environmental changes. This entails perspectives on origins, colonization and migration; mobility; socio-economic organization of technology and settlement; subsistence economic adaptations and land use; various spatiotemporal issues; as well as the methodological approach. My research focus on the need for a reliable correlation of the relative archaeological and absolute geochronological frameworks for the Late Glacial and Early Postglacial, and on the question of the timing and nature of colonization in relation to the environmental preconditions in Southern Scandinavia. Currently my research is headlined by the project "Pioneers of the North: Transitions and Transformations in Northern Europe evidenced by High-Resolution Datasets (c. 15000–9500 BCE)" financed by the German Research Foundation through the CRC1266 "Scales of Transformation – Human-Environmental Interaction in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies". |
| Prehistoric Reindeer Hunters |
|
Reindeer represents a valuable prey species for human hunters in subarctic and arctic biotopes and probably was a key resource for the human colonization of the Baltic and Scandinavian area following the retreat of the Fennoscandian glacier during the Late Glacial. A current research project focuses on the reindeer as a supplier of raw material for artefact production. In 1897 Sophus Müller, head of the National
Museum of Denmark, reported on two recent finds of reindeer antler clubs
from Nørre Lyngby and Odense Canal. Unfortunately, both of these
implements were stray finds without context. Half a century later, the
chronological framework of the reindeer antler clubs and mattocks – now
also widely referred to as Lyngby axes – was firmly established to be Late
Glacial due to their occurrence in great numbers at the classic
Ahrensburgian Stellmoor site. Henceforth, these implements were generally
assigned to the Ahrensburgian culture without further argument. However,
most of the presently known specimens are single finds and their
spatio-temporal distribution is somewhat different from that of
Ahrensburgian lithic inventories sensu strictu, whereas it corresponds
well with that of the Tanged Point Complex sensu lato. Accordingly, this
more general term may represent a more suitable frame of cultural
reference for the reindeer antler artefacts (clubs, mattocks, axes) in
question. |
| Mesolithic Burials |
|
During the rescue excavation in 2001 of an Iron Age village at Hammelev in
Southern Jutland, Danish archaeologists unexpectedly uncovered a
well-preserved ochre grave and various settlement remains from the Early
Mesolithic. The ochre grave contained the cremated remains of an adult
individual accompanied by unburned grave goods belonging to the Maglemose
culture. Radiocarbon analysis confirms an age of approximately 8000 cal
BC. From this period human remains, with or without a burial context, are
very rare, and cremation graves even more so. Previously, this was thought
to be a simple reflection of the fact that these people were highly mobile
hunter-gatherers with little or no need for complex burial practices.
Accordingly, this is a truly unique find with far-reaching
interpretational implications concerning both the living and the dead in
the Early Mesolithic of Northern Europe. A thorough publication of the
find is being prepared in collaboration with Hans Christian Andersen
(Museum Sønderjylland). The following short article gives a basic
introduction: B.V. Eriksen & H.C.H. Andersen, 2016: Hammelev. An Early Mesolithic cremation grave from Southern Jutland, Denmark. In: J. Grünberg et al. (eds), Mesolithic Burials – Rites, symbols and social organization of early postglacial communities. Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle, Band 13/1, pp. 73-80. |
 |
Home |