We focus on three major global environmental events, with different longevity and impact:

• the 8200 cal BP cold event in the Mesolithic
• the 4200 cal BP aridification event in the Neolithic and
• the 536 AD dust-veil event in the Migration Period.

These have been associated with cultural shifts worldwide, but not previously in the Baltic Sea Region. By integrating studies on archaeology, bioarchaeology, marine mammal ecology and environment, we will show how the prehistoric environment entangled with both human culture and marine mammal ecology, affecting each other both ways.

Grey seals lying on a sandy beach on the island of Helgoland in North Sea, Germany. Credit: Aikaterini Glykou.

Our main questions are: (1) How did humans deal culturally with environmental/climatic change? (2) How do marine mammal populations in the Baltic Sea fluctuate under the impact of both human hunting pressure and major environmental changes?

To answer these, we will study dietary shifts, mobility and changes in material culture and technology in coastal populations to infer how they dealt with different environmental/climatic change, as well as study demography in seals. To detect detailed temperature fluctuations caused by such events we will analyse skeletal remains of both humans and seals.

Funded by Vetenskapsrådet

Project leader: Kerstin Lidén