The Jortveit farm wetland: A Neolithic fishing site on the Skagerrak coast, Norway

ABSTRACT

In 1931, several osseous and lithic artefacts, as well as fish and whalebones, were discovered in the wetland at the Jortveit farm in Southern Norway. In 2018–19, a small-scale excavation at the original find location took place and a series of AMS-dates were produced. The excavation identified a mud profile with exceptional preservation conditions. At ∼125–130 cm depth, the mud contained unburnt fish and whale bones, burnt wooden sticks and lithic artefacts. AMS-dates of stray finds and samples retrieved during the excavation date to the period roughly between 3700–2500 cal BCE, i.e. Scandinavian Early and Middle Neolithic Periods. Nearly all bones belong to the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus). The results are compared to local climate and landscape reconstructions, and the question of marine adaptation in the Neolithic is discussed. We find that the Jortveit site represented a patch in the landscape for specialized marine adaptation in the Neolithic.

KEYWORDS:

• Atlantic bluefin tuna
• Orcinus orca
• toggling harpoon
• barbed harpoon
• fishhook
• excavation
• wetland
• Neolithic

Acknowledgements

Particular thanks is due Norsk Arkeologisk Selskaps Arkeologiske fond for financial support in post-excavation analyses of the 2018–19 field seasons. We would also like to thank Dr. Theis Zetner Trolle Jensen for providing a steady hand during sample extractions from archaeological artefacts in Oslo. The organizers of the student field course at the Institute for archaeology, conservation and history at the University of Oslo, and the students who participated in the 2018–19-excavations, are also thanked. Thanks also to Prof. Hans Arne Nakrem at the Museum of Natural History, University of Oslo, for locating and providing access to the Jortveit zoological material. Finally, a particular thank to the owner of the Jortveit farm for kindly welcoming us, and for his true devotion to local history.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. V. Nielsen

S. V. Nielsen is a PhD candidate in archaeology at the Department of archaeology, Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway. He has worked with archaeological excavations and surveys in the Nordic countries, but particularly in the Oslo fjord area. His main research interests for the moment is the study of demographic processes in prehistoric Northern Europe, and the application of novel computational methods. Currently he is also conducting excavations at the Skagerrak coast, south Norway.

P. Persson

P. Persson is an associate professor in archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway. He has extensive experience with archaeological excavations in the Nordic countries, and published his doctoral dissertation on the Neolithic transition in northern Europe in 1999. His research interest is in the formation of Mesolithic and Neolithic societies, and particularly the application of aDNA and computational models of prehistoric ecology.