Knutsson et al./Technology of Early Settlement, 9. Transmission of Knowledge, Crafting and Cultural Traditions, Interregional Contact and Interaction, 7300 Cal BC

The new site of Norje Sunnansund, located in South Eastern Sweden, Blekinge, was chosen for its large potential within the research frame on psycho-socio-cultural transmission throughout know-how and how they diffuse in Mesolithic Europe. Indeed, on the one hand, it provides industrial products made from lithic and bone that participate in the same way to characterizing manufacturing traditions dated to the Early Holocene and, on the other hand, it also provides several ornamented pieces, whose blank-products are similar to those at the basis of the definition of the considered Mesolithic cultural groups. Moreover, the archaeological site is geographically situated in the border zone region between the Maglemosian stricto sensu, located in Denmark, and the northeastern tradition (Kunda-Butovo-Oka-Volga or Post-Swiderian related groups) in regions around and east of the Baltic Sea. The overview of similarities and differences in the archaeological material of Norje Sunnansund and its neighbourhood, where aspects of the two traditions seem to interact, yields this way an interesting methodological framework for characterizing the transmission, and make possible its modeling from the point of view of prehistoric human productions, insofar these are technologically defined. As a result, vertical transmission is displaying here in know-how related to the making of the most important part of the equipment (hunting gear), as traditionally encountered in the Northeastern tradition, and conversely the diffusion of adorned inset forms with a Norje Sunnansund art style into the Maglemosian 2 indicates direct contacts between specific social groups, probably craftsman hunters, belonging to both traditions in the Southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. This coincides to the introduction of new knapping techniques in Denmark, from 7500 Cal. BC onwards.