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J. T Roel S-Smith J. TROELS-SMITH THEERTEB0LLECULTU REANDITSBACKGROUND (Figs. 1-7) The Danish kitchen middens, refuse heaps from the Older Stone Age of the Danish sequence (i.e. the Mesolithic), or the Ertebølle culture, have been investigated and interpreted in different ways for more than a hundred years (Troels-Smith, 1953). Japetus Steenstrup was of the opinion that kitchen middens were contemporane­ ous with the Megalithic tombs and were the actual settlements of the Megalithic culture. Worsaae held them to be ol der and belonging to a hunter people, in contrast to the younger Megalithic people, who cultivated grain and kept cattle. Otto Rydbeck (1928) believed that the hunters and fishermen of the Ertebølle culture had lived at the same time as, but relatively uninfluenced by, the contem­ porary Megalithic farmers; while C. A. Nordman (1927) pictured the Ertebølle culture as a secondary N eolithic culture of hunters and fishermen, who were gradually and increasingly influencedby the peasant cultures which existed to the south-west and south of Denmark, so that the Ertebølle culture developped into the Megalithic culture. Iversen (1937) could show that the Stone Age Sea, the Tapes Sea, 01' the period of the Littorina Sea in Denmark, comprised several transgressions and regressions (3, Ol'possibly 4), and at the same time the author (Troels-Smith, 1937a and b) pre­ sented pollen-analytical and stratigraphical material, which seemed to show that the Ertebølle culture was tied to the last two transgressions, of which the YOlmger (the Sub-boreal) was presumed to be contemporaneous with the Dolmen Period and the Passage Grave Period. These investigations thus seemed to show that Otto Rydbeck was right in his view that the hunters and fishermen of the Ertebølle cul­ ture had lived fairly undisturbed by the contemporary Megalithic people. In the course of the last 25 years \ovehave got to know settlements and individual finds,which partly supplement our knowledge of the Ertebølle culture, partly throw it into relief by giving it chronological depth. To this must be added that an inten­ sificationof the pollenanalytical method has enabled us to obtain substantially more exact relative datings than before, and by means of the Carbon-I4 method it is 506 J. Troels-Smith TABLE r. INDICATING THE PRESENCE OF CERTAIN CHARACTERISTIC TYPES OF ARTEF ACTS FROM 24 SETTLEMENTS m ... m C Q) <1) 'i:: m 00 m <1) � "O .... - a O <1) Ol m m m 00 a m .... Q) <1) <1) .... Ol 00 m .... :<: Ol .... � ..c: "O "O o. ....., ....Ol O � ... <1) (j) .... O <t: ...<1) m � <t: � .... .... ... <1) .... .... <1) � "O . "O m "O .... <1) � �.... m ;j <1) <1) Ol "O <t: m m m ... Q) �... � U <t: .... <1) <1) >:Q � 00 +'''0 >:Q � :>. :<: C C , .... Q) <1) '''O "O <1) (;j (;j <1) ;j :> � "O Q) � <t: <t: o. m "O ... 13 m <t: � <1) ... �.� <1) B..c: , , , Ol o. ... � El . S' C <1) <1) ... .... �U O O .... .... U � C <1) <1)......c: C C ....Ol <1) Ol .9 1l m El p.. ..c: :!i O O O O <1) <1) , Ol '0 il il , p::: O E-< U U � � p.. o. � O O E-< ....:l p.. E-< E-< <t: I. K�ol1ge1l1osel1 2,5°0 ? - 5° - I - X X - - - - - - - - - - - 2,. Gislinge Lam- 2,7 2, 2,6 3 X - - - - - mefjord 3. Amager, 32, - I 65 - 4 - X ;< - - - - - - Nivea'.l I 4. Vedbæk 445 58 69 391 - IO - X X - - - - - - Boldbaner 5. Amager, - - -'- 66 - 4 - - - - - - - - - Niveau II 6. Bloksbjerg 2,(?) 102, 9° 2,48 - 13 - X ( ?) - - - - - - (lower part) 7. Hendriksholm - 99 108 82, X 34 - - - - - - - - - - - 8. Bloksbjerg - lIS 2,2,5 163 (x) 84 (?) X X X X X - (up per part) 9. Dyrholm I - - 16 2,8 - 2,4 - - X (X ?) - - ( ?) - - IO. Nivaagaard - 2,94 455 152, (?) 159 - X - - - - X ( ?) - - - II. Amager, - - 7 X 13 - - - - - - - - Niveau III - 12,. Ertebølle - 56 3°9 2,36 X 337 X X X X X X X ( ?) - - 13. Dyrhobll II - ? 198 93 X 571 X X X X X X - 14. Amager, - ? 2, 39 X 2,48 - - - - - - - - - Niveau IV - - 15. Godsted I - 2,92, 1694 45 X 2,80 - - X X X X ( ?) - 16. Brabrand - ? 12,9 49 X 467 - X X X X X X ( ?) (19°3-°4), (1944-45) 17. Klintesø - ? 7 37 X 158 - - X ( ?) X X X X - 18. Alstrup II - ? 5 15 X 117 - - - - - - - - - 19. Vester Ulslev - 153 1068 II X 2,75 - - - - X X X - - 2,o. Kassemose - 52, 2,15 4 ( ?) 411 - (x ?) - - - - X X - 2,J. Ordrup Næs - 32,5 1796 2, - 2,01 - - - - X X X X ( ?) 2,2,. l\IIuldbjerg I - 6 2,6 - (?) 4 X - - - - - X X X 2,3. Store Valby - - I - - 6 - - - - - - - X X 2,4·0 xie - 5 43 6 - 32,3 X - - - - - X X X The Ertebølle Culture and its Background now possibie to obtain absolute chronological datings with an accuracy of ± 100 years. Increased knowledge of the pollen of cultivated plants has, furthermore, made it possibie to establish the introdu ctio n of agriculture and animal husbandry in relation both to the vegetation al history and to the sequence of cultures, in so far as the culture periods are pollen-analytical dated. My idea here is to give a short outline of my interpretation of the Ertebølle cul­ ture and its background, based on the material at hand. WHAT DOES THE CONCEPT "ERTEBØLLE CULTURE" IMPLY? The authors mentioned above have all mainly based their studies on the kitchen middens or refuse heaps "from the Older Stone Age, as they are to be found in the shape of accumulations of salt water mussels and other shelIs (chiefly oysters), mixed up with culture remains of stone, bone, antlers and ceramics, situated on the uppermost shore lines of the Littorina Sea. In other words; the concept "Ertebølle culture" covers the contents of the Ertebølle kitchen midden (facils classicus) and the other refuse heaps form the Older Stone Age, as described by Sophus Muller a.o. in the monograph "Affaldsdynger fra Stenalderen i Danmark", published in 1900. Westerby (1920 and 1927) published the Bloksbjerg-find, and separated the older part of this find, where no ceramic objects were found, as a separate culture, the "Bloksbjerg culture". In the surveys written by Brøndsted (1938), Mathiassen (1942), and Brøndsted (1957) on the Ertebølle culture, only sites in which pottery is found are, on principle, included in the term "Ertebølle culture". Opposed to this stands Becker (1939), who suggested a distinction between three Information on the settlements given in the table: l. Svend Jørgensen 1956; 2. Westerby 1933, Mathi.'i:3Sen1942; 3. Troels-Smith 1939; 4. Ma­ thiassen 1946; 5. Troels-Smith 1939; 6. Westerby 1920 and 1927; 7. Nationalmuseet I J.Nr. 181/24, Mus. Nr.A.33003, unpublished. 8. Westerby 1920 and 1927; 9. Mathiassen 1942; IO. Nationalmuseet I J.Nr. 798/II, Mus.Nr.A 27236, 26923-64, 37806, 43065 and 44256, unpublished; I l. Troels-Smith 1939; 12. Sophus MUller et al. 1900; 13. Mathiassen 1942; 14. Troels- Smith 1939; 15. Nationalmuseet I J. Nr. 310/06, J\I[us. Nr. A 21200, unpublished; 16. Thomsen 1906, Troels-Smith 1937b, Gabrielsen 1947; 17. Sophus MUller et al. 1900; 18. Troels-Smith 1937a; 19. Nationalmuseet I, Mus. Nr. A 1888-197°, unpublished; 20. Nationalmuseet I J.Nr.564/08, Mus. Nr.A 23082, unpublished; 21. Becker 1939; 22. Troels-Smith 1953, 1956, 1960b, and Tauber 1956 and 1960; 23 . Becker 1955; 24. Forssander 1938, Althin 1954. The numbers of arrows and axes given in the tab le for the settlements: 7, IO, 12, 15, 19, 20 and 21 are according to Becker 1939, e�cept for settlement 12 where the numbers of the axes are according to Troels-Smith 1938. 508 J. Troels-Smith periods inside the Ertebølle culture, partly based on the classification of core axes and ftakeaxes given by the present author(Troels- Smith, 1938), and partly supported by a division of differenttypes of arrowheads. In the oldest group, Period I, are count­ ed findslike Carstensminde, Gislinge Lammefjord,and the older part of Bloksbjerg­ in other words, finds in which no ceramic objects were found. In 1953 the author particularly called attention to the faet that there seems to be a fundamental difference between the younger settlements where pottery, ftat­ trimmed ftakeaxes, core axes with specially treated edges, and T -shaped stag antler axes (as well as shell-heaps) are found, and the older settlements where these items (including shell heaps) are not found. To avoid any kind of misunderstanding the author therefore used the term (( Classical Ertebølle culture" for the younger finds, in view of the faet that the above mentioned objects are all found in the Ertebølle midden (locus classicus). As the name Ertebølle eulture has been used for a long period of time, and is still by most scholars used as a term for a series of settlement-finds, which include kit­ chen middens from the Older Stone Age, and contain ftake axes, pottery, etc., it would be inadvisable to make the term cover more than what ean be found in the Ertebølle middens itself. THE ERTEBØLLE CULTURE IN RELATION TO OL DER FINDS In the table (p. 506) is indicated the presence of certain characteristic types of arte­ facts from 24 settlements. For the sake of simplicity we will chose 5 settlements: I. Kongemosen, 4. Vedbaek Boldbaner, 6. Bloksbjerg (lower part), 13. Dyrholm II, 22. Muldbjerg r. Of these five settlements, each shows a characteristic artefaet assemblage, and they all presumably represent relatively short periods of settlement, which ean with reasonable accuracy be geologieally dated inside a sequence of time, I being the oldest and 22 the youngest.
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