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<< Our Photo Pages >> Alby Mesolithic Village - Ancient Village or Settlement in Sweden in Öland
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Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Wednesday, 28 November 2007 Page Views: 19242
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Scandinavia
Site Name: Alby Mesolithic Village Alternative Name: Alby, Alby People
Country: Sweden Landskap: Öland Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Kalmar Nearest Village: Alby
Latitude: 56.490230N Longitude: 16.573780E
Condition:| 5 | Perfect | | 4 | Almost Perfect | | 3 | Reasonable but with some damage | | 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site | | 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks | | 0 | No data. | | -1 | Completely destroyed |
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Ambience:| 5 | Superb | | 4 | Good | | 3 | Ordinary | | 2 | Not Good | | 1 | Awful | | 0 | No data. |
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Access:| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access | | 4 | Short walk on a footpath | | 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk | | 2 | A long walk | | 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find | | 0 | No data. |
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Accuracy:| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates | | 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map | | 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map | | 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village | | 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town | | 0 | no data |
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Internal Links:     
External Links:         Image: Alby Mesolithic Village submitted by C_Michael_Hogan
Mesolithic settlers in Alby on the island of Öland in Sweden built some of the earliest recognisable villages in Northern Europe. The earliest of these peoples likely traversed the Kalmar Strait via an ice bridge from the Swedish mainland at the terminus of the most recent Ice Age, (Sandbring, 1997) before the complete melting of the glacial cap.
These Mesolithic inhabitants chose the perimeter of a prehistoric tidal lagoon to construct wooden dwellings circa 6000 BC. (Hogan, 2006)
VILLAGE DETAILS. The residential structures themselves were made with wooden poles covered with hides from large mammals. The Mesolithic settlement uncovered by archaeological excavations lies at the northern edge of the present day village of Alby. These huts are positioned at the perimeter of a prehistoric lagoon. Although the lagoon no longer exists, Karolina Creek, which fed the lagoon, traverses the bed of the now dessicated estuary on its way to the Baltic Sea. The lifestyle of these Alby People was that of hunter-gatherers, evidence of marten, deer and bear being found in the settlement middens. Supporting the hunting technology argument are finds of bone spears and other worked flints. In addition these Mesolithic hunters were adept at sea in taking seal and porpoise, evidenced by the bones of such prey and the finds of antler harpoons.
MESOLITHIC MIGRATION. Conventional theory holds that a land migration from the mainland occurred as glaciers melted, but still formed an ice bridge across the Kalmar Strait. This migration took place in the eleventh or tenth millennium BC; however, other researchers hold that this land migration to Öland was augmented by seafarers as early as 6000 to 8000 BC. McGrail posits that Mesolithic seafarers were active in populating northern islands such as Öland and the Orkneys. (McGrail, 2002)
Öland was a particularly attractive target of Mesolithic settlers since it held abundant game and rich sea resources; in addition, the fertile soil would prove useful as the settlers gradually engaged in some farming. In fact the fine clay and fluvial soils are considerably less coarse than most of the Swedish mainland, even though the inland portion of Öland has an extremely thin soil mantle over the limestone pavement. (Helle, 2003) As sea levels rose in Pre-Boreal and Boreal periods (8300 to 6000 BC) humans in many parts of Northern Europe moved away from dependence on inland resources and began adapting more to the sea, epitomising the Alby People. Ancillary research on early settlers in various parts of Öland indicate the use of unusually sophisticated net structures for fishing. Archaeological investigations have shown the Öland Meso-neolithic nets were made of open twining for construction of weirs, whereas elsewhere in Northern Europe such co-temporaneous weirs were made more crudely of twigs.(Zvelebil, 1998)
LATER TIMES. Gradually the Alby People evolved into successful Neolithic farmers and thence into Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking civilisations connected to other village cultures around the sandy beach portions of Öland. Alby appears to conform to early Iron Age stable settlement patterns of farmsteads and villages similar to those evolving on Gotland and at Dankirke, Denmark. Considerable evidence of Viking prowess has been found in nearby Hulterstad, including a complex undulating gravefield, which has yielded significant finds from the Nordic Bronze Age to Viking eras. Gettlinge, another proximate Viking settlement, contains an unusually well formed Viking Stone Ship burial monument, which is considered a sign of a very rich and sucessful Viking settlement. These finds along with the propitious Alby beach formation imply that Alby may have held a role as a Viking base.
CURRENT SITUATION. The Alby site along with a large portion of the island of Öland is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site termed the ‘'Stora Alvaret'‘. This classification is based upon cultural resources as well as the biodiversity features of numerous rare and endemic plants.. Although the prehistoric lagoon is heavily silted up and no longer has tidal flooding, its landform perimeter is evident as a depression of the otherwise level limestone barren; presently it is a vernal pool. . There is also a prominent raised beach along which the ancient and modern Alby people have developed their homes, with that deeper soil substrate offering the best foundation as well as garden area. The raised beach (which actually contains fertile clays and fluvial fines) finds less hospitable sand on its sea side; moreover, the inland side is largely limestone barren with no accommodation of topsoil. Inland of the raised beach there is an unusually broad arable zone, unlike most parts of Öland; such an inviting area no doubt encouraged the Alby People in their transition to Neolithic farming. There is no direct marking of the Alby Mesolithic site, although approximately 700 metres south of the Mesolithic village there is prominent public signage in a public park describing the finds. Visitor access to the excavation area is not marked or facilitated.
REFERENCES.- Hakan Sandbring and Martin Borg (1997) ''Öland: Island of Stone and Green''
- C. Michael Hogan (2006) ‘'Prehistory of the Alby People, Öland, Sweden'‘
- Sean McGrail (2002) ‘'Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to Medieval Times'‘, Oxford University Press, 498 pages ISBN 0199271860
- Knut Helle (2003) ‘'Cambridge History of Scandinavia'‘, Cambridge University Press. 892 pages
ISBN 0521472997 - Marek Zvelebil, Lucyna Doman'ska, Robin Dennell (1998) ‘'Harvesting the Sea, Farming the Forest: The Emergence of Neolithic Societies'‘, Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 1850756481
- Archaeological Records of Europe: Dankirke, Denmark (2005)
(The above content is original work of C. Michael Hogan prepared for the Megalithic Portal)
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3.0km W 270° Grösslunda Rör* Chambered Cairn
5.3km W 259° Tingstad Flisor* Standing Stones
5.6km S 191° Hulterstad* Standing Stones
6.8km NE 34° Flösslunda* Standing Stones
7.5km W 265° Stra Darby* Standing Stones
9.2km W 285° Mysinge Hög* Barrow Cemetery
9.4km W 288° Gynge Hög* Barrow Cemetery
10.6km N 4° Dröstorps* Chambered Cairn
13.4km NW 314° Karlevi Stenkvarn* Stone Circle
14.2km SW 235° Gettlinge* Stone Circle
15.0km NW 326° Skogsby dolmen* Burial Chamber (Dolmen)
15.1km NW 327° Skogsby four-poster standing stones* Standing Stones
15.7km S 197° Seby (Öland)* Standing Stones
16.5km N 348° Degerrörsbacken* Cairn
19.6km N 10° Gråborg* Stone Fort or Dun
20.6km N 358° Jordtorpsåsen* Standing Stones
22.3km SW 205° Eketorps borg* Stone Fort or Dun
23.0km NE 32° Lopperstad* Standing Stones
27.6km SW 215° Parboäng* Standing Stones
27.9km NE 33° Folkeslunda* Standing Stones
28.7km N 16° Ismantorps fornborg* Stone Fort or Dun
29.3km SW 215° Ottenby* Standing Stones
30.8km N 10° Odens Flisor* Standing Stones
31.0km N 5° Höghäll* Standing Stones
31.8km N 11° Karums Alvar* Stone Circle
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 Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
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