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Woodland management at the Swedish middle Neolithic site of Alvastra? A new perspective

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Abstract

It is often argued that the repetitive removal of branches to improve the quantity and the quality of wood, i.e. woodland management, has been practiced in Europe from the Mesolithic and/or Neolithic onwards. The Neolithic pile dwelling of Alvastra in Sweden has been mentioned in textbooks as a classical example of this practice. The conclusion about woodland management at Alvastra was primarily based on palynological data, which do not provide any direct evidence. Is it correct to conclude that woodland management was practiced at Alvastra? To investigate that, this paper reviews the previous arguments and interpretations, focusing on wood data, and by comparing archaeological data with modern wood data. First, the assemblage of vertical posts from the latest excavations at Alvastra include a wide range of taxa, showing opportunistic use of the woody vegetation. Second, while the dendrochronological analysis of Quercus and Ulmus carried out in the 80 s has clearly indicated that the trees used for the posts grew under highly similar conditions and that particularly many Quercus trees started to grow more or less at the same time, the reason for the partially simultaneous start of growth remains unknown, and the posts used for the construction of the site do not provide evidence of repetitive removal of trunks from stools. Finally, analysis of the age/diameter data of the Corylus wood indicates the use of branches from unmanaged vegetation, while age data of Salix do not support management either. In conclusion, the data do not support the hypothesis of woodland management at Neolithic Alvastra, and it is most likely that people did not practice woodland management. This outcome corresponds to the conclusions in some of the previous publications about the site.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

reproduced with permission from The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. M is the mean curve of all the trunks. The other letters indicate groups consisting of one or multiple trunks that were cut in the same year. A: N = 16, B: N = 4, C: N = 1; D: N = 5, E: N = 4; F: N = 1, G: N = 10; H: N = 3; I: N = 3

Fig. 3

Reproduced with permission from The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA). N = number

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Acknowledgements

This paper is in memory of T.S. Bartholin who passed away in 2021. We are very grateful to the National Historical Museums and J. Taffinder for the invitation to participate in the Alvastra seminar at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm, which has been a big help for the realization of this paper, the Kroager fund for supporting a meeting about woodland management at Moesgaard Museum in 2019 that brought all the authors together, R. Grabowski for help about woody taxa in Sweden, F. Verbruggen and P. de Klerk for discussion of Cerealia-type pollen, the Moesgaard Museum Graphics Department and J. Porck, Geodesigns, for the figures, and E. Fornander from the National Historical Museums and three anonymous reviewers for generous sharing of knowledge and much-appreciated comments that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeological Science and Conservation, Moesgaard Museum, Moesgaard Allé 20, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark

    Welmoed A. Out

  2. BIAX Consult, Symon Spiersweg 7d2, 1506 RZ, Zaandam, The Netherlands

    Kirsti Hänninen & Caroline Vermeeren

  3. Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, I.C. Modewegs Vej, Brede, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Claudia Baittinger

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  1. Welmoed A. Out
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  2. Kirsti Hänninen
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  3. Claudia Baittinger
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  4. Caroline Vermeeren
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Contributions

The original pollen and wood data were collected by H. Göransson, T. Bartholin and the Alvastra excavation team. WO designed the paper and carried out the literature study. CB provided the Corylus age/diameter data that formed the start of the paper. CV, KH and CB prepared and interpreted the Corylus data. CV and KH prepared and interpreted the Salix data. The first draft of the manuscript was written by WO. All authors edited previous versions of the manuscript and read and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Welmoed A. Out.

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Communicated by K.-E. Behre.

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Out, W.A., Hänninen, K., Baittinger, C. et al. Woodland management at the Swedish middle Neolithic site of Alvastra? A new perspective. Veget Hist Archaeobot 31, 643–659 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-022-00869-y

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