STONE AGE LIFE
IN THE HIGH COAST AREA
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
plira
KULTURTEKNIK
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
plira
KULTURTEKNIK
Would you like to:
work 3-4 hours a day?
have more time with your family and friends?
eat nutritious and well prepared food?
have a sea view?
live in a beautiful natural environment?
live in a house that is warm and safe?
listen to a good story?
WELCOME TO THE STONE AGE!
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
plira
KULTURTEKNIK
THE ICE
The ice sheet retreated from the area
about 10 000 years ago.
The High Coasts ice sheet was up to 3 km thick.
The weight of the ice pressed down the land beneath it.
With the ices departure the land rose up again
and is continuing to rise.
These days by 9 mm a year.
We are still under the ice sheets influence!
In the track of the shrinking ice
followed animals and human beings
in to the new land.
To this area came those
from east and north, south and west.
5 000 years ago,
the period this exhibition deals with,
the climate was milder as it is in Mälardalen,
in the south of Sweden.
That resulted in a different type of vegetation.
More deciduous forests for example.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
WHO WERE THEY?
Who were these stone age people?
How did they really live?
What did they talk about?
They were like you and me.
5000 years is a pinprick in the evolution of mankind.
They talked and they laughed,
fell in love, got angry, sad, disappointed, happy, excited.
It was important to them to have a good place to live,
where they could feel safe from the weathers powers.
And it was nice to relax after diner
and listen to a good story.
a true one or an invented one,
daily events or tales about mythology
new or old.
That is a question of taste,
the main thing is that it is a good story.
Some things are different,
like technology and social structure.
There were fewer of them than we are today
That is rather significant with regard to the way we look
upon each other.
It is more important to have functioning relationships
when people are reliant upon each other.
They neither had our tools nor our houses,
but that does not mean they weren’t intelligent
or lived a bad life.
It is a custom to say that the amount of knowledge
throughout time is constant,
but it’s the things that are worth knowing that change.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
For the Bushman in the Kalahari
the fellow ship in the group is a uestion of survival.
It is important that every one in the group shares equally.
A capable hunter carries arrows that belong to others.
The prey goes to the arrows owner,
not to the one that took the shot.
The arrows owner divides the meat
and strengthens thus his bonds
with the other group members.
The hunter himself benefits also from this,
for example when he shows his generosity
in handing over the prey.
When a hunter has been lucky during a certain period
he likes to stay in the camp
so others get a chance to come home with some meat.
It is important to solve conflicts in a peaceful way.
Willingness to work together
and to be generous are good qualities.
Aggression is improper.
War heroes are an unknown genre
in the Bushman mythology, a fight is a failure.
The hero in the folktales is the cunning one,
who comes up with a solution.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
CONTACTS
They lived together in smaller groups.
Perhaps around 25 persons,
depending on the season and access of food.
But they were all but isolated!
The small group was part of a larger group
of perhaps 2000 people.
In addition travelled folk,
for the purpose of trade, news and adventure,
just like today.
Flint originates from Skåne, in the southern part of Sweden.
Amber probably from the Baltic States
The larger type of houses were common in Finland.
The sea has not been a boundary – on the contrary.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
THE DWELLING-PLACE
”Mon” was used by a group of people
during about 700 years.
This period can be dated between 2800 and 2100 B.C.
But the place can have been abandoned periodically.
It was a relatively stationary dwelling-place.
Bones and seeds show that
the place has been used the whole year round.
But despite permanent housing they led a mobile life.
They made use of good hunting and berry territories nearby.
Not every one was needed
on the dwelling-place the whole time.
Hunting expeditions, trade journeys
and larger social gatherings
drew away parts of or the entire group.
The dwelling-place was during all this time
organised in a similar way.
Small changes occurred certainly during those 700 years
yet the structure was the same.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
Working areas
50 to 100 meters away from the central dwelling area, there
was a zone for more specialized activities. Workshops and
the sort of things that demanded a larger fire for example.
The grave was also discovered in such area. Is it possible that
other ritual activities took place here?
The yard
50 to 100 meters from the beach was the house. On the
south side, towards the water, was the actual yard. This was
the place for most activities, as usual at a yard. But it was
carefully organized. Food was stored close to the house.
Larger hearths were at least 10 meters away from the walls
and trash was put in special places.
Seashore activities
Here they took care of the catch, cut it up and cleaned
it. Boats, canoes and fishing tackle was kept at the beach.
Hearths indicate that they prepared seal and also ceramics
for storage and cooking.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
THE HOUSE
Houses are exciting.
We find they say a great deal about our lifestyle.
About these dwelling-places can
for the sake of simplicity be stated
that there were two types of houses.
One was larger and oval, almost rectangular,
while the other one was round. The round form
occurs mostly in our region.
The construction reminds presumably
of the Sami tent.
The larger house type has not been seen in the area before
during the stone age.
That makes them extra exciting.
Both types seem
to have existed at the same time.
We have made a model based on the excavations
of the large dwelling banks on Bjästamon.
It is difficult to reconstruct a building.
Darker areas in the soil where
posts, walls and floor have been
must show us the entire 3-dimensional
construction.
The ideas on how it was built are many.
The house seems to have had two parts.
A part they lived in and a part for storage.
The house resembles a type that has been found in Finland.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
TEXTS WITH THE DISPLAY CASES
KNIFE
Slate
This type is called bent knife and is excellent to flay with
PART OF T-SHAPED TOOL
Slate
There exist a lot of theories on what this mystical object was used
for. Skin preparation? To stretch the thread when sewing a boat? To
decorate the ceramics? Whole T-formed tools can be seen on the
4th floor.
KNOCKING STONE
Rock
A knocking stone is a kind of hammer
KNIFE
Flint
Perhaps not the first thing we think of when we say knife, rather
scalpel?
ARROW SHAFT POLISHER
Sandstone
For an arrow to hit its target the shaft is at least as important as
the point
WHETSTONE
Sandstone
Is used to whet a knife or an axe. This was an axe before it became
a whetstone
SCRAPES
Quartzite, flint, quartz
Scrapes are used for a lot of things, to carve, to scrape the hides
clean, to get plant fibres for thread. They had different kind of
shafts or handles depending on their purpose.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
SPEAR POINT
Slate
The spear point has small resin rests on the tongs.
The resin was used to attach it to the shaft.
ARROW POINT
Slate
NET SINKER
Rock
Net for fishing and seal hunting made of plant fibres
ARROW POINTS
Slate and quartz (in the middle)
Arrow points with a pinched base
AXE
Rock
Axe with a whole in the shaft
ARROW POINT
Slate
With barbs
ARROW POINT
Flint
This kind of arrow points is typical for a culture that is called
“gropkeramisk”. When the point broke on the one on the right it was
turned into a scraper.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
SPEAR POINT
Quartzite
PENDANT
Slate
Look at the beautiful decoration! Does it resemble a woman?
ART
Slate
The elk head has presumably been the top of a slate knife. Are there
any reasons other than decoration to choose the elk as a motif?
PEARL AND PENDANT
Amber
On which beach has the amber been picked? Through which hands
has it wandered on its way to Bjästamon?
ARROW POINT
Slate
NORRLANDS TOOL, ORIGINATING FROM THE NORTHERN PART OF THE
GULF OF BOTHNIA
Quartz sandstone
What was its use? Preparation of hides? Cultivation? We don’t know
the answer. They have in most cases been discovered along the coast
of the Gulf of Bothnia
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
STONE FORGING
Stone forging is one of all the handicrafts
stone age people mastered.
The really fine thing with this skill is
that we can find traces of it,
unlike woodcrafts for example.
But to produce the perfect,
straight wooden shaft for the arrow
is more demanding compared to shaping the stone arrow
point itself.
The smithies lay a little bit away from the house.
The splinters that are formed
when one strikes the tools are sharp,
one does not want them lying around.
Presumably they had a wind shelter
or a simple hut as a workshop.
Slate tools are typical for this period
and for the area.
Slate is a soft quality of stone.
It can not be struck but must be sawed or ground.
One can create totally different shapes
Than with quartz and flint
But slate does not become equally sharp.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
WOOD
FOR THE HUNT, THE HOMES, THE KITCHEN
The number of wooden objects from this period is small.
There are no heaps of wood chips we can study
and ponder on the technical handcraft skills.
Wood rots so unbelievably well.
But to be able to work with wood
was and is enormously essential.
Just think about everything we can make out of wood:
houses, arrows, storage containers, shafts for tools.
Everything you can imagine can be made out of this fascinating material.
Do not underestimate the handicraft skills
of stone age people
just because you think
stone tools feel clumsy.
That’s just us, not being used to handling them.
A tool we often use must be functional,
if it doesn’t function like it should
we try to think of a better solution,
at that time as we do now.
The form has to be appealing and serve its purpose.
Handles have to be comfortable to grab hold of.
And as cherry on the cake
it’s nice when the object is beautiful on top of that.
Delight in beauty, vanity
and the inclination to have the prettiest thing
is probably typical human.
On the fourth floor of this building
are two prehistoric wooden objects
manufactured with stone tools.
One is a 3000 year old ski
and the other one is part of a 4600 year old sleigh.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
The Inuit sea-mother gives us an idea
on how the relation with the most important
prey could have been.
There is a tale about an Inuit women
who was murdered, or drowned.
When she died she turned into a godlike creature,
that was half women, half seal.
After that event it became considerably
more difficult to hunt seals.
The Inuit woman, the sea-mother,
began to reign over the seals
and protected them and their souls.
According to the Inuit,
the souls of the seals
stayed in their dead bodies for three days.
Then they could return to the sea-mothers dwelling
on the sea bed.
There were several rules that had to be followed
during these three days in order not to harm the Seals soul.
If these taboos weren’t respected
dirt gathered in the sea-mothers hair and nostrils.
It was the Shamans task to travel to the seabed
in order to clean her hair and nostrils.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
RESIN
GLUE AND COLOURING SUBSTANCE
The archaeological notion doesn’t always
correspond with reality.
Resin is actually manufactured from the substance
of spruce or pine,
but the material we find on the dwelling sites
and call resin is often birch tar.
Birch tar is extracted when heating the barks outer layer.
The temperature most be fairly high
and no oxygen may be supplied.
The first substance obtained is called ”ryssolja”,
This oil becomes increasingly firm
with continued heating.
The result is a leathery tough material
that can be melted again and worked up.
On the sites resin is mainly discovered in small lumps,
sometimes with tooth marks on it.
Resin remains occur also
on spear points for example.
These are the remains of the glue on the shaft.
A more unusual discovery are stones with resin rests.
A certain theory says that these stones
have been used to heat
bits of resin to provide a tool with a shaft.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
RED OCHRE
Red is considered to be the colour of life.
Graves from that period contain usually red ochre.
In one of the houses in the area
the floor was completely covered with this colour.
Red ochre was used to paint with:
rock paintings, wooden objects, clothes
and perhaps also skin on special occasions.
Ochre is an iron compound
that is found naturally in the soil.
Yellow ochre can be found in these parts.
It takes a burning process to become the red colour.
This combustion must take place
in an area with as little oxygen as possible.
To produce this red paint is a handicraft
with some almost magical elements.
Red ochre in the grave
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
GRAVES
Only one grave has been found.
There should perhaps be more of them,
but we have not been able to come across any.
Unburnt bones preserve badly in our acid soils.
There are on the whole very few graves
from this period in Mellannorrland (the middle part of
north Sweden).
At least, few that have been found.
The graves are not clearly marked on the surface,
like the bronze age cairns or iron age barrows.
Could it be possible that they had other customs,
that they didn’t bury the deceased?
Is it possible that the existing graves were exceptions or
do we just miss the graves simply because they are so indistinct?
In this grave occurred fragments of an adults
cervical vertebra and a long legbone.
Furthermore a seal footbone.
The darker coloured places in the soil showed
that the person who was buried laid on their side with their
legs pulled up.
The sand was coloured red of ochre.
She had been given a slate spear to accompany her in her
grave.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
RELIGION
It begins at the age of six.
The big questions emerge.
Parents are expected to explain
how the world really works.
We are expected to assume, for the sake of simplicity,
that a quarter of all the people
have a strong need of faith.
For half the people it doesn’t matter, they either believe or
they don’t.
A quarter lack all religious faith.
We could take that view
when we think about the Stone age population.
On our northerly latitude prevailed shamanism
among all latter-day known hunting and nomadic cultures.
Mythological differences exist of course between
Inuit, Indians, Sami and the Siberian people,
but yet shamanism is the basis.
The shaman is a key figure in these societies
and looks after the important contact
between the people and the supernatural world.
Some of their tasks are to:
cure the sick
predict the future
lead ceremonies
act as the group leader
make important decisions at critical times
communicate with ancestors or mythological figures
accompany the deceased to the spiritual world
hunters magic
negotiate with the animal spirits
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
ANIMAL SYMBOLISM
The elk is the most depicted animal.
Paintings, carvings and sculptures.
It is usual that the most powerful animal
becomes protector of all the mammals, birds and fish.
Maybe the elk is depicted in most cases because of that.
The slate elk from the excavation near Kornsjövägen
is exhibited at the Västerbottens museum in Umeå.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
Older religions often give the mother
and fertility a central meaning.
The house goddess in the Sami tradition
is Maderakka and her daughters:
Sarakka, Uksakka and Juksakka.
They live together with the people in the tent.
Maderakka is the matriarch and origin of each human life.
Sarakka protects the entire family and their home.
She has her place in the fireplace
and she receives sacrifices of food and drink.
She protects women during their pregnancy
and helps with the delivery.
Sarakka creates the female sex
whereas her sister Juksakka creates the male sex.
Juksakka is the mother of the bow and can help the boys
to become good hunters. She lives in the back of the cot,
where the drums and the hunting weapons are kept.
When the child is born
the third daughter Uksakka takes over
and protects the child during its development.
She lives beneath the cots door. From there she watches
over the people when they enter and leave.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
STONE AGE FOOD
Stone age food – that’s trendy!
Why?
Well, it is a varied that’s good for us.
It is the food evolution devised for us.
Before we became farmers
we never ate corn and diary-products.
To prepare a High Coast stone age meal
you must stick to the food that was available in the area.
But that’s not so bad,
if you know your pantry
and how to store and prepare the food.
HUNTING AND FISHING
Seal was the most common prey.
The ringed seal makes breathing holes in the ice layer
and is therefore easiest to hunt
during winter and early spring.
In second position, but far behind,
lie small furred animals like marten.
Fishing represented a big part of provisions.
Particularly fish-bones of
small or medium-sized fish have been found.
The size and the species indicate beachside fishing.
Ordinary fishing nets and hoop nets
have undoubtedly been used.
The amount of bones doesn’t necessarily give a correct picture.
The bones that were preserved are burnt.
Perhaps all bones were not treated in the same way.
Slaughtering could have taken place somewhere else for
example.
Seeds and bones from the dwelling sites
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
CERAMICS
A ceramic pot
can be used to cook, serve and also store with.
On these dwelling sites occurred two types.
The clay had been made thinner in different ways
and the pots did not look alike.
There has not been a lot of ceramic ware found
on the stone age dwellings in the neighbourhood.
Because of that reason these
ancient finds are extra important.
Decoration and shape of ceramic pots
have often been used by archaeologists to try and
subdivide stone age people into culture groups.
The more finds we have the more comparative material
to analyse in relation to other areas.
The ceramics seem to be manufactured on the spot.
Clay is available in the surrounding area.
It is not possible to instantly match the pots
with one of the already known styles.
It is in other words impossible to say
if those who lived on Bjästamon were part of any
of the stone age groups formed by archaeologists.
But there are similarities to both
south Scandinavian and easterly Finnish ceramics.
It was perhaps as during most other ages;
a local distinctive character existed
with influences from all possible directions.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
Ötzi or the Iceman, as he is also called,
is a snapshot from Stone Age in the Alps.
3200 B.C. a 50 year old man died in the Alps.
A glacier caught him and froze in his body and equipment.
He defrosts in 1991 and comes to the surface.
The man becomes an archaeological sensation.
He was taking a walk when he died,
no one has buried him
and everything he had with him at that time is preserved.
We can even see what he had for dinner.
He found himself so to speak in the middle of life,
though it ended.
We get a snapshot.
All the things that usually decompose
have been saved by the ice.
Clothing: a loin-cloth of calfskin, a fur coat,
a cloak of twined grass, a bearskin cap with chinstrap,
shoes with soles, leather upper
and a net of twined grass on the inside.
Instead of a pair of trousers
the man wore hoses of deer hide that covered his legs.
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
CLOTHES
Clothes are necessary, it gets cold otherwise.
They have to be practical, flexible with every movement
and protect from all kinds of weather.
The people on ”mon” didn’t have any sheep
and couldn’t therefore manufacture wool clothes.
The materials they used came from hunting.
Seal, elk and fish are not only food
but also hides for clothes.
Well tanned elk skin is soft and comfortable.
Chamois leather is obtained by scraping off
all hair and veins so both sides of the hide get soft.
Perfect for someone who doesn’t want to be hindered
during his daily work.
Seal fur is both warm and water resistant.
You can even make shoes out of their skins.
The soft fur from martens, beavers and foxes
is warm, pleasant and makes beautiful embellishments.
Clothes are sewed with bone needles
Thread is made of sliced hides,
strings or threads out of plant fibres.
If the hair is scraped off a hide but it isn’t worked up
you get something that is called raw skin.
When heated the skin sticks together.
It gets hard, watertight and endures heating.
Doesn’t this sound like a good cooking pot?
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
TEXTS INSIDE THE CLOTH CASES
STONES
SLATE WITH CARVINGS
What was it supposed to become?
Was it an exercise?
THE INCEPTION TO A SPEAR
Slate
SPLINTERS
Slate
Traces from the stone smithy
SPLINTERS
Quartz
Traces from the stone smithy
SPLINTERS
Quartzite
Traces from the stone smithy
MILLSTONE
Kind of rock
A millstone before we began to grow grain, how can we fit that in?
There are many wild plants that benefit from being ground
in order to become an exquisite meal
WHETSTONE
Gneiss
In order to get a knife or an axe a lot of whetting is required
KNOCKING STONE
Flint
At first this was a flat and whetted axe
then they took sharp flint material out of it
and in the end it became a hammer
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
RED OCHRE
SPEAR POINT
Slate
Painted with red ochre and found in the grave
STONE WITH RED OCHRE STROKE
STONE WITH RESIN
Kind of rock
The stone has presumably been heated
it warmed the thick birch tar so it could be used as glue
or to seal birch bark boxes
OCHRE
Ochre is yellow before burning
OCHRE
Burnt ochre becomes red
RESIN WITH TOOTH PRINTS
Resin was used as glue and sealing material
A good way to soften the harts is to chew on it;
probably a good way to clean your teeth as well!
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
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KULTURTEKNIK
FOOD
GRAIN OF CORN
OLD SORT OF WHEAT
Did they grow wheat or was it a merchandise?
BURNT BONES
The burnt remainders of cooking and meals provide knowledge
on which animals they hunted and ate.
CERAMIC
CERAMIC POTS
Inspired by the potsherds from Bjästamon.
Eleonor Sellin Hälle pottery
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK
STENÅLDERSLIV I HÖGA KUSTEN
28 april—14 oktober 2007
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KULTURTEKNIK