Seeking the First Farmers in Western Sjælland, Denmark

A personal account chronicling over 30 years of excavation and survey projects investigating the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Denmark and demonstrating the process of research.

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This volume summarizes 30 years of fieldwork in Denmark, some of the evidence for the spread of agriculture and the Neolithic into Scandinavia and some opinions about the origins of agriculture. It is intended to be both academic and personal and to describe the actual process of research, because most projects involve elements of both. Each chapter will deal with one of the components of the project – survey, testing and excavations. Eight sites were excavated from the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic and these are discussed in this volume. The concluding chapter summarizes research in the area and proffers opinions on a variety of archaeological subjects, with visits to climate change, seasonality and sedentism, hunter-gatherer complexity, aDNA, inequality and the origins and spread of agriculture.