Persson et al./Ecology of Early Settlement, 9. A Small Preboreal Settlement Site at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden

Recent archaeological excavations at the site Kanaljorden, Motala, in the province of Östergötland, Sweden have unearthed a settlement site dated to a time just a couple of hundred years after deglaciation. A small assemblage of knapped stone have been found on the edge and bottom of a wetland, in layers dated to c. 9200 BC (dates on terrestrial macro fossils). The region around Motala was released from the grip of the glaciers c. 11,800 years ago (corrected clay-varve years). At the time of the first human habitation c. 9200 BC, the ice margin had retreated 100 km further, and was situated just north of the Närke Strait that connected the Yoldia Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Vättern was then a bay of the Yoldia Sea. The small wetland at Kanaljorden was first part of this a bay, then a small lake. Östergötland along with the rest of southern Sweden was still connected to the continent in the south. The land bridge was utilised by the first terrestrial fauna to colonize the region: reindeer, aurochs and European bison as evidenced by subfossils from Östergötland. The first human may have used the same route, although travelling by boat along coasts and ice margin is also a possibility. The small Preboreal assemblage from Kanaljorden include flakes and blades of flint, quartz and mylonite. The find bearing strata are sealed by layers deposited during a transgression of Ancient Lake Vättern during the early Boreal period.