Tracing the early dispersal of reindeer in southern Sweden: Chronology, habitat, and human interaction (c. 12,000-7000 BCE).

Abstract

After the wider deglaciation of Northern Europe, pioneer reindeer populations started to move into southern Scandinavia; however, this process is poorly understood. In this paper we aim to reconstruct dispersal processes of reindeer into southern and western Sweden from the Late Palaeolithic through to the Early Mesolithic, when reindeer disappear from the record. Has presence of reindeer in southern Sweden changed over time, were there changes in habitat and was the hunt of reindeer a possible driving factor to their disappearance? We have assembled and analysed a dataset of 220 unburnt reindeer skeletal elements from wetlands, earthen finds and shell middens from southern and western Sweden. Additional ¹⁴C-analysis have been performed to set the chronological frame. The results demonstrate that reindeer were present in southern and western Sweden from 12,066 to 7079 cal BCE and that the number of reindeer was highest during the Early Holocene. Stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N), provided information on changes in reindeer habitat. The marked variation in δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values suggests that reindeer grazed in different habitats or that the habitat change over time. We suggest that the decrease and final disappearance of reindeer in the Late Palaeolithic/Early Mesolithic was caused by changes in climate and habitat rather than anthropogenically induced.