STONE AGE LIFE IN THE HIGH COAST AREA - … AGE LIFE IN THE HIGH COAST AREA STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA...

S T E N Å L D E R S L I V I H Ö G A K U S T E N2 8 a p r i l — 1 4 o k t o b e r 2 0 0 7

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STONE AGE LIFE

IN THE HIGH COAST AREA


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Would you like to: work 3-4 hours a day?have more time with your family and friends? eat nutritious and well prepared food? have a sea view? live in a beautiful natural environment? live in a house that is warm and safe?listen to a good story?

WELCOME TO THE STONE AGE!


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THE ICE

The ice sheet retreated from the area about 10 000 years ago.The High Coasts ice sheet was up to 3 km thick.The weight of the ice pressed down the land beneath it.With the ices departure the land rose up again and is continuing to rise.These days by 9 mm a year.We are still under the ice sheets influence!

In the track of the shrinking ice followed animals and human beings in to the new land.To this area came those from east and north, south and west. 5 000 years ago,the period this exhibition deals with,the climate was milder as it is in Mälardalen, in the south of Sweden. That resulted in a different type of vegetation. More deciduous forests for example.


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WHO WERE THEY?

Who were these stone age people?How did they really live?What did they talk about?

They were like you and me.5000 years is a pinprick in the evolution of mankind.They talked and they laughed,fell in love, got angry, sad, disappointed, happy, excited.It was important to them to have a good place to live, where they could feel safe from the weathers powers.

And it was nice to relax after diner and listen to a good story.a true one or an invented one,daily events or tales about mythology new or old.That is a question of taste,the main thing is that it is a good story.

Some things are different,like technology and social structure.There were fewer of them than we are todayThat is rather significant with regard to the way we look upon each other.It is more important to have functioning relationshipswhen people are reliant upon each other.

They neither had our tools nor our houses,but that does not mean they weren’t intelligent or lived a bad life.It is a custom to say that the amount of knowledge throughout time is constant,but it’s the things that are worth knowing that change.


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For the Bushman in the Kalahari the fellow ship in the group is a uestion of survival.It is important that every one in the group shares equally. A capable hunter carries arrows that belong to others. The prey goes to the arrows owner, not to the one that took the shot. The arrows owner divides the meat and strengthens thus his bonds with the other group members. The hunter himself benefits also from this, for example when he shows his generosity in handing over the prey. When a hunter has been lucky during a certain period he likes to stay in the camp so others get a chance to come home with some meat.

It is important to solve conflicts in a peaceful way. Willingness to work together and to be generous are good qualities. Aggression is improper. War heroes are an unknown genre in the Bushman mythology, a fight is a failure. The hero in the folktales is the cunning one, who comes up with a solution.


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CONTACTS They lived together in smaller groups. Perhaps around 25 persons,depending on the season and access of food.But they were all but isolated!The small group was part of a larger group of perhaps 2000 people.In addition travelled folk,for the purpose of trade, news and adventure,just like today.

Flint originates from Skåne, in the southern part of Sweden. Amber probably from the Baltic StatesThe larger type of houses were common in Finland.The sea has not been a boundary – on the contrary.


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THE DWELLING-PLACE

”Mon” was used by a group of people during about 700 years.This period can be dated between 2800 and 2100 B.C. But the place can have been abandoned periodically.

It was a relatively stationary dwelling-place.Bones and seeds show thatthe place has been used the whole year round.But despite permanent housing they led a mobile life.They made use of good hunting and berry territories nearby.Not every one was needed on the dwelling-place the whole time.Hunting expeditions, trade journeys and larger social gatheringsdrew away parts of or the entire group. The dwelling-place was during all this time organised in a similar way.Small changes occurred certainly during those 700 yearsyet the structure was the same.


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Working areas50 to 100 meters away from the central dwelling area, there was a zone for more specialized activities. Workshops and the sort of things that demanded a larger fire for example. The grave was also discovered in such area. Is it possible that other ritual activities took place here?

The yard50 to 100 meters from the beach was the house. On the south side, towards the water, was the actual yard. This was the place for most activities, as usual at a yard. But it was carefully organized. Food was stored close to the house. Larger hearths were at least 10 meters away from the walls and trash was put in special places.

Seashore activitiesHere they took care of the catch, cut it up and cleaned it. Boats, canoes and fishing tackle was kept at the beach. Hearths indicate that they prepared seal and also ceramics for storage and cooking.


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THE HOUSE

Houses are exciting.We find they say a great deal about our lifestyle.

About these dwelling-places can for the sake of simplicity be statedthat there were two types of houses.One was larger and oval, almost rectangular,while the other one was round. The round form occurs mostly in our region.The construction reminds presumably of the Sami tent.The larger house type has not been seen in the area beforeduring the stone age.That makes them extra exciting.Both types seem to have existed at the same time. We have made a model based on the excavationsof the large dwelling banks on Bjästamon.It is difficult to reconstruct a building.Darker areas in the soil where posts, walls and floor have beenmust show us the entire 3-dimensional construction.The ideas on how it was built are many.The house seems to have had two parts. A part they lived in and a part for storage.The house resembles a type that has been found in Finland.


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TEXTS WITH THE DISPLAY CASES

KNIFESlateThis type is called bent knife and is excellent to flay with

PART OF T-SHAPED TOOLSlateThere exist a lot of theories on what this mystical object was used for. Skin preparation? To stretch the thread when sewing a boat? To decorate the ceramics? Whole T-formed tools can be seen on the 4th floor.

KNOCKING STONE RockA knocking stone is a kind of hammer

KNIFEFlintPerhaps not the first thing we think of when we say knife, rather scalpel?

ARROW SHAFT POLISHERSandstoneFor an arrow to hit its target the shaft is at least as important as the point

WHETSTONESandstoneIs used to whet a knife or an axe. This was an axe before it became a whetstone

SCRAPESQuartzite, flint, quartzScrapes are used for a lot of things, to carve, to scrape the hides clean, to get plant fibres for thread. They had different kind of shafts or handles depending on their purpose.


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SPEAR POINTSlateThe spear point has small resin rests on the tongs. The resin was used to attach it to the shaft.

ARROW POINTSlate

NET SINKER Rock Net for fishing and seal hunting made of plant fibres

ARROW POINTSSlate and quartz (in the middle)Arrow points with a pinched base

AXE Rock Axe with a whole in the shaft

ARROW POINTSlateWith barbs

ARROW POINTFlintThis kind of arrow points is typical for a culture that is called“gropkeramisk”. When the point broke on the one on the right it was turned into a scraper.


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SPEAR POINT Quartzite

PENDANTSlateLook at the beautiful decoration! Does it resemble a woman?

ARTSlateThe elk head has presumably been the top of a slate knife. Are there any reasons other than decoration to choose the elk as a motif?

PEARL AND PENDANTAmberOn which beach has the amber been picked? Through which hands has it wandered on its way to Bjästamon?

ARROW POINTSlate

NORRLANDS TOOL, ORIGINATING FROM THE NORTHERN PART OF THE GULF OF BOTHNIAQuartz sandstoneWhat was its use? Preparation of hides? Cultivation? We don’t know the answer. They have in most cases been discovered along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia


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STONE FORGING

Stone forging is one of all the handicraftsstone age people mastered.The really fine thing with this skill isthat we can find traces of it,unlike woodcrafts for example.But to produce the perfect, straight wooden shaft for the arrowis more demanding compared to shaping the stone arrow point itself.

The smithies lay a little bit away from the house.The splinters that are formed when one strikes the tools are sharp,one does not want them lying around.Presumably they had a wind shelteror a simple hut as a workshop.

Slate tools are typical for this periodand for the area.Slate is a soft quality of stone.It can not be struck but must be sawed or ground.One can create totally different shapesThan with quartz and flintBut slate does not become equally sharp.


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WOOD FOR THE HUNT, THE HOMES, THE KITCHEN

The number of wooden objects from this period is small.There are no heaps of wood chips we can studyand ponder on the technical handcraft skills.Wood rots so unbelievably well.But to be able to work with woodwas and is enormously essential.Just think about everything we can make out of wood:houses, arrows, storage containers, shafts for tools.Everything you can imagine can be made out of this fasci-nating material.

Do not underestimate the handicraft skills of stone age peoplejust because you thinkstone tools feel clumsy.That’s just us, not being used to handling them.

A tool we often use must be functional,if it doesn’t function like it should we try to think of a better solution,at that time as we do now.The form has to be appealing and serve its purpose.Handles have to be comfortable to grab hold of.And as cherry on the cakeit’s nice when the object is beautiful on top of that.Delight in beauty, vanityand the inclination to have the prettiest thingis probably typical human.

On the fourth floor of this buildingare two prehistoric wooden objectsmanufactured with stone tools.One is a 3000 year old skiand the other one is part of a 4600 year old sleigh.


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The Inuit sea-mother gives us an idea on how the relation with the most important prey could have been.There is a tale about an Inuit women who was murdered, or drowned.When she died she turned into a godlike creature, that was half women, half seal. After that event it became considerably more difficult to hunt seals. The Inuit woman, the sea-mother, began to reign over the seals and protected them and their souls.

According to the Inuit, the souls of the seals stayed in their dead bodies for three days. Then they could return to the sea-mothers dwelling on the sea bed. There were several rules that had to be followed during these three days in order not to harm the Seals soul. If these taboos weren’t respected dirt gathered in the sea-mothers hair and nostrils. It was the Shamans task to travel to the seabed in order to clean her hair and nostrils.


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RESIN GLUE AND COLOURING SUBSTANCE The archaeological notion doesn’t alwayscorrespond with reality.Resin is actually manufactured from the substanceof spruce or pine,but the material we find on the dwelling sitesand call resin is often birch tar.

Birch tar is extracted when heating the barks outer layer. The temperature most be fairly highand no oxygen may be supplied.The first substance obtained is called ”ryssolja”,This oil becomes increasingly firm with continued heating.The result is a leathery tough material that can be melted again and worked up.

On the sites resin is mainly discovered in small lumps, sometimes with tooth marks on it.Resin remains occur also on spear points for example.These are the remains of the glue on the shaft.

A more unusual discovery are stones with resin rests.A certain theory says that these stones have been used to heatbits of resin to provide a tool with a shaft.


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RED OCHRE

Red is considered to be the colour of life.Graves from that period contain usually red ochre.In one of the houses in the areathe floor was completely covered with this colour.

Red ochre was used to paint with:rock paintings, wooden objects, clothesand perhaps also skin on special occasions.Ochre is an iron compoundthat is found naturally in the soil.Yellow ochre can be found in these parts.It takes a burning process to become the red colour.This combustion must take place in an area with as little oxygen as possible.To produce this red paint is a handicraftwith some almost magical elements.

Red ochre in the grave


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GRAVES

Only one grave has been found.There should perhaps be more of them,but we have not been able to come across any.Unburnt bones preserve badly in our acid soils.

There are on the whole very few graves from this period in Mellannorrland (the middle part of north Sweden). At least, few that have been found. The graves are not clearly marked on the surface, like the bronze age cairns or iron age barrows.Could it be possible that they had other customs,that they didn’t bury the deceased?Is it possible that the existing graves were exceptions ordo we just miss the graves simply because they are so indis-tinct?

In this grave occurred fragments of an adults cervical vertebra and a long legbone.Furthermore a seal footbone.

The darker coloured places in the soil showed that the person who was buried laid on their side with their legs pulled up. The sand was coloured red of ochre.She had been given a slate spear to accompany her in her grave.


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RELIGION

It begins at the age of six.The big questions emerge. Parents are expected to explain how the world really works.

We are expected to assume, for the sake of simplicity, that a quarter of all the peoplehave a strong need of faith.For half the people it doesn’t matter, they either believe or they don’t.A quarter lack all religious faith.We could take that view when we think about the Stone age population.

On our northerly latitude prevailed shamanismamong all latter-day known hunting and nomadic cultures. Mythological differences exist of course betweenInuit, Indians, Sami and the Siberian people, but yet shamanism is the basis.

The shaman is a key figure in these societiesand looks after the important contact between the people and the supernatural world.

Some of their tasks are to:cure the sickpredict the futurelead ceremoniesact as the group leadermake important decisions at critical timescommunicate with ancestors or mythological figuresaccompany the deceased to the spiritual worldhunters magicnegotiate with the animal spirits


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ANIMAL SYMBOLISM

The elk is the most depicted animal.Paintings, carvings and sculptures.

It is usual that the most powerful animalbecomes protector of all the mammals, birds and fish.Maybe the elk is depicted in most cases because of that.

The slate elk from the excavation near Kornsjövägenis exhibited at the Västerbottens museum in Umeå.


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Older religions often give the mother and fertility a central meaning.The house goddess in the Sami tradition is Maderakka and her daughters: Sarakka, Uksakka and Juksakka. They live together with the people in the tent.Maderakka is the matriarch and origin of each human life. Sarakka protects the entire family and their home.She has her place in the fireplace and she receives sacrifices of food and drink. She protects women during their pregnancy and helps with the delivery. Sarakka creates the female sex whereas her sister Juksakka creates the male sex.

Juksakka is the mother of the bow and can help the boys to become good hunters. She lives in the back of the cot, where the drums and the hunting weapons are kept. When the child is born the third daughter Uksakka takes over and protects the child during its development. She lives beneath the cots door. From there she watches over the people when they enter and leave.


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STONE AGE FOOD

Stone age food – that’s trendy!Why?Well, it is a varied that’s good for us.It is the food evolution devised for us.

Before we became farmerswe never ate corn and diary-products.To prepare a High Coast stone age mealyou must stick to the food that was available in the area.But that’s not so bad, if you know your pantryand how to store and prepare the food.

HUNTING AND FISHING

Seal was the most common prey.The ringed seal makes breathing holes in the ice layerand is therefore easiest to hunt during winter and early spring.In second position, but far behind,lie small furred animals like marten.

Fishing represented a big part of provisions.Particularly fish-bones of small or medium-sized fish have been found.The size and the species indicate beachside fishing.Ordinary fishing nets and hoop nets have undoubtedly been used.

The amount of bones doesn’t necessarily give a correct pic-ture.The bones that were preserved are burnt.Perhaps all bones were not treated in the same way.Slaughtering could have taken place somewhere else for example.

Seeds and bones from the dwelling sites


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CERAMICS

A ceramic potcan be used to cook, serve and also store with.On these dwelling sites occurred two types.The clay had been made thinner in different waysand the pots did not look alike.There has not been a lot of ceramic ware foundon the stone age dwellings in the neighbourhood.Because of that reason these ancient finds are extra important.Decoration and shape of ceramic potshave often been used by archaeologists to try and subdivide stone age people into culture groups.The more finds we have the more comparative material to analyse in relation to other areas.

The ceramics seem to be manufactured on the spot.Clay is available in the surrounding area.It is not possible to instantly match the pots with one of the already known styles. It is in other words impossible to say if those who lived on Bjästamon were part of any of the stone age groups formed by archaeologists.But there are similarities to bothsouth Scandinavian and easterly Finnish ceramics.It was perhaps as during most other ages;a local distinctive character existed with influences from all possible directions.


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Ötzi or the Iceman, as he is also called, is a snapshot from Stone Age in the Alps.3200 B.C. a 50 year old man died in the Alps. A glacier caught him and froze in his body and equipment. He defrosts in 1991 and comes to the surface. The man becomes an archaeological sensation. He was taking a walk when he died, no one has buried him and everything he had with him at that time is preserved. We can even see what he had for dinner. He found himself so to speak in the middle of life, though it ended. We get a snapshot. All the things that usually decompose have been saved by the ice. Clothing: a loin-cloth of calfskin, a fur coat, a cloak of twined grass, a bearskin cap with chinstrap, shoes with soles, leather upper and a net of twined grass on the inside. Instead of a pair of trousers the man wore hoses of deer hide that covered his legs.


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CLOTHES

Clothes are necessary, it gets cold otherwise.They have to be practical, flexible with every movementand protect from all kinds of weather.The people on ”mon” didn’t have any sheepand couldn’t therefore manufacture wool clothes.The materials they used came from hunting.Seal, elk and fish are not only foodbut also hides for clothes.Well tanned elk skin is soft and comfortable.Chamois leather is obtained by scraping off all hair and veins so both sides of the hide get soft. Perfect for someone who doesn’t want to be hinderedduring his daily work.Seal fur is both warm and water resistant.You can even make shoes out of their skins.The soft fur from martens, beavers and foxesis warm, pleasant and makes beautiful embellishments.Clothes are sewed with bone needlesThread is made of sliced hides,strings or threads out of plant fibres.

If the hair is scraped off a hide but it isn’t worked upyou get something that is called raw skin. When heated the skin sticks together.It gets hard, watertight and endures heating.Doesn’t this sound like a good cooking pot?


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TEXTS INSIDE THE CLOTH CASES

STONESSLATE WITH CARVINGSWhat was it supposed to become?Was it an exercise? THE INCEPTION TO A SPEARSlate

SPLINTERSSlate Traces from the stone smithy

SPLINTERSQuartzTraces from the stone smithy

SPLINTERSQuartziteTraces from the stone smithy

MILLSTONEKind of rockA millstone before we began to grow grain, how can we fit that in?There are many wild plants that benefit from being ground in order to become an exquisite meal

WHETSTONE GneissIn order to get a knife or an axe a lot of whetting is required

KNOCKING STONEFlintAt first this was a flat and whetted axethen they took sharp flint material out of itand in the end it became a hammer


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RED OCHRE

SPEAR POINTSlatePainted with red ochre and found in the grave

STONE WITH RED OCHRE STROKE

STONE WITH RESINKind of rockThe stone has presumably been heated it warmed the thick birch tar so it could be used as glue or to seal birch bark boxes

OCHREOchre is yellow before burning

OCHRE Burnt ochre becomes red

RESIN WITH TOOTH PRINTSResin was used as glue and sealing materialA good way to soften the harts is to chew on it;probably a good way to clean your teeth as well!


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FOOD

GRAIN OF CORN

OLD SORT OF WHEATDid they grow wheat or was it a merchandise?

BURNT BONESThe burnt remainders of cooking and meals provide knowledge on which animals they hunted and ate.

CERAMIC

CERAMIC POTSInspired by the potsherds from Bjästamon.Eleonor Sellin Hälle pottery


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STONE AGE LIFE IN THE HIGH COAST AREA - … AGE LIFE IN THE HIGH COAST AREA STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA...

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