Trollesgave: Hunter-Gatherer Social Organisation during the Late Glacial in Northwest Europe

Summary

Microwear analysis in combination with refitting and lithic reduction is applied to reconstruct the function and social organisation at the Late Glacial site of Trollesgave, Denmark. Analyses of the flint knapping and the spatial distribution of its products reveal the traces of at least three individuals: expert, medium competent, and inexperienced. Based on the quality of craftsmanship and the aberrant habits of disposing their products of the latter, there is evidence for one and possibly two children. As with Bromme Culture sites in general, the assemblage consists of primarily three types of tools. There is a strong association between these types and their use: end scrapers for dry hide scraping; burins for working hard material, primarily bone; and tanged points primarily for projectile tips. Nearly all divergence from this pattern can be referred to the activities of the children. The site appears to be occupied by a single family hunting (and fishing) unit and provides hypotheses about the social organisation of other kinds of Bromme Culture sites in northern Europe.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Innovative Interpretive Approaches in Microwear and Residue Analyses

Keywords

Spatial Coverage