Early pottery among hunter-horticulturalists and hunter-gatherers in central Fenno-Scandinavia

The hunter-gatherers of Malardalen (eastern central Sweden) adopted ceramic technology at the same time as they adopted aspects of farming around 3900 cal. BC. The region thus appears to be a classic case of “Neolithisation”, with hunter-gatherers turning hunter-horticulturalists, adopting cereal cultivation and cattle herding along with the characteristic pottery of the Funnel Beaker Culture (albeit with local and regional peculiarities). Immediately to the north of the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) of Malardalen, there lived hunter-gatherers of the northern Scandinavian Slate Culture that did not adopt either agriculture or pottery during the period in question. Thus, in central Scandinavia, there was formed a border between part-time farmers with pottery to the south, and hunter-gatherers without pottery to the north. However, while pottery was absent in Malardalen before 3900 cal. BC, ceramics appeared already 5000 cal. BC immediately to the east, on Aland, a group of islands in the middle of the Baltic Sea. The oldest pottery along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, including the Aland archipelago, appeared in hunter-gatherer contexts, the centuries before 5000 cal. BC. During this time we have a contrast between hunter-gatherers with pottery to the east, and hunter-gatherers without pottery to the west. The Early Neolithic funnel-beaker pottery of Malardalen display several peculiarities reminiscent of Comb Ware designs. Around 3300 cal. BC the eastern traits are accentuated with the introduction of pointed bottomed vessels and pits arranged in “chessmanner”, a pottery that is known as the Pitted Ware tradition. Parallel to these changes in the design of pottery, the settlement pattern was rearranged with a larger focus on aquatic resources and a diminishing role for agricultural practices.