Persson et al./Ecology of Early Settlement, 2. Marine and Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna

The end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Holocene was very dynamic. The climate fluctuated; new land became available due to melting ice and isostatic land uplift. The vegetation changed rapidly. During a single lifetime great changes could be observed. From the Late Glacial / Holocene transition to the middle of the Preboreal, great changes occurred in the climate, vegetation and fauna both on land and in the sea. Different natural resources became accessible. Today, there are no straight analogies to these Early Holocene ecosystems in southern Scandinavia. The earliest bone finds from a coastal settlement site is from Huseby klev, dated from 8300 to 5700 BC. Changes in the species composition there has been interpreted as result of a "marine mammal collapse". Here it is argued that these differences is due to taphonomy and that the major shift in subsistence strategy did take place before 8300 BC.