Project: Innovation Processes and Knowledge-Transfer Systems within South Scandinavian Stone Age Mobility

Project information

Project manager
Anders Högberg
Other project members
Kristian Brink, Sydsvensk Arkeologi
Helena Malmström, Malmström Lab at Uppsala University
Torbjörn Brorsson, Ceramic Studies
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University, Uppsala University, Sydsvensk Arkeologi AB, Ceramic Studies
Financier
Vetenskapsrådet
Timetable
2022-2024
Subject
Archaeology

More about the project

The aim of this research project is to generate new understanding of the role played by innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems within south Scandinavian Stone Age mobility. From archaeological data, we know of numerous migration events from c. 4.100 to 1.700 BCE (Before Common Era) that impacted on and effected humans and their material lives. They occurred in specific situations that varied at multiple spatio-temporal scales with different rhythms in various contexts.

The purpose is to create new knowledge about transformation processes involved in these events, as interpreted from large-scale contract archaeological excavation records and archaeogenetic data. Especially, we will:

1. analyse extensive large-scale archaeological excavation records to infer innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems at different spatio-temporal scales
2. generate new and use existing archaeogenetic data to investigate population change
3. explore how spatio-temporal variation in mobility, population change and changes in human’s material lives correlate with each other
4. re-theorize and test various models on Stone Age migration against our results
5. build a conceptual framework to interpret transformation processes related to innovation and knowledge-transfer within south Scandinavian Stone Age mobility Importantly, we do not just correlate archaeogenetic data with existing archaeological evidence, but use a transdisciplinary approach to generate new data to explore, analyse and interpret aspects of the role played by innovation processes and knowledge-transfer systems. To do so, we combine competences within Archaeology, Genomics, Science and Technology Studies and Migration Studies.

Our results will help us to understand in what ways mobility, population change, knowledge and innovations depend on and influenced each other. We expect our result to stimulate new ways to understand mobility in long-term perspective, migration in other (pre)historic periods and, tentatively also in modern society.