Pink Noise Primal Sound: Mesolithic Wetland Places (d) at Dagsmosse, Sweden
Paulina Blaesild is defending her doctoral thesis in the field of archaeology.
Examination committee:
Professor Anneli Ekblom, Uppsala universitet
Professor Christina Fredengren, Stockholms universitet
Professor Andrew Jones, Stockholms universitet
Substitute member of the examination committee in the event of absence: Docent Karl-Göran Sjögren, Göteborgs universitet
Opponent: Professor Thóra Pétursdóttir, Oslo universitet
Chair: Professor Christian Isendahl, Göteborgs universitet
More info
This thesis examines Mesolithic wetland sites located within the peat extraction zone of the Dagsmosse bog in south-central Sweden. During the early Holocene (11,650–7,000 cal BP), small post-glacial lake basins gradually became overgrown, generating highly variable freshwater environments. Within the middle-Swedish end moraine area, hunter-gatherer-fishers (HGF) dwelled in such environments throughout this overgrowth process. At Dagsmosse, isolation events, land upheaval, gradual overgrowth, and fluctuations in nutrient availability and acidity produced locally distinct and rapid ecosystemic successions. These fluctuations intensified during periods of low water levels, coinciding with the most frequent HGF visits to the basin (9,500–8,200 cal BP).
The compilation thesis explores the role and meaning of these environments and places within cross-generationally transmitted systems of cultural knowledge among Mesolithic groups inhabiting present-day south-central Sweden. Drawing on feminist principles of situating the researcher in relation to the subject of study, the thesis also elaborates on the subjective and co-creative dimensions of analytical and narrational processes. The empirical studies draw on palaeoecological reconstructions of the Dagsmosse basin and its margins between 11,200 and 7,000 cal BP. In addition to these publications, the thesis explores multispectral epistemological approaches ranging from experimental to creative textual production, focusing on feminist theory, ecological theory, and decolonial perspectives within Mesolithic research.
The studies indicate that HGF activities within and around the basin affected arboreal and low-growing vegetation, possibly through controlled fires and the burning of telmatic vegetation such as reeds and sedges. These results are discussed from the perspective of placemaking, elaborating on Mesolithic wetland sites as places of anchoring and as nodes within networks of ‘home’. The thesis ultimately considers how wetland archaeology might differently understand relations between people, places, and changing environments, both in the present and the Mesolithic past.
Open to the public. Welcome!
