Papers by Mikael Fauvelle
PLOS One, 2025
The Hjortspring boat is the only intact example of a prehistoric sewn plank boat ever found in Sc... more The Hjortspring boat is the only intact example of a prehistoric sewn plank boat ever found in Scandinavia. Built from lime wood planks lashed together with cordage, the boat represents the maritime technology used by some of Northern Europe's earliest seafarers. This article reports new analysis of the cordage and caulking material used in the construction of the Hjortspring boat. We provide the first ever direct date for the
npj Heritage Science, 2025
Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is commonly used in the conservation of wooden artifacts, but its prese... more Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is commonly used in the conservation of wooden artifacts, but its presence adversely affects the accuracy of radiocarbon dating. It is therefore critical to have robust methods for the removal of PEG from heritage materials. This paper presents the results of an experiment designed to test a protocol for the removal of low molecular-weight PEG-400 from conserved wood. We conducted a known-age test using PEG-400 impregnated materials from the excavation of the medieval royal shipwreck, Gribshunden, built in 1484 CE and sunk in 1495 CE. We test our results by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) to show that no PEG is detectable in our samples after a three-step pretreatment protocol. Furthermore, radiocarbon dates of our pretreated samples returned dates that match the known age of the wood. Our results indicate that our pretreatment protocol can be used to successfully remove PEG-400 from conserved wood, allowing for accurate 14 C dating.
Archaeologia Austriaca, 2025
Ancient DNA has revolutionized the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Nowhere is this more a... more Ancient DNA has revolutionized the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of kinship studies. This report provides a reflection on a recent workshop focused on exploring non-biological kinship in light of recent aDNA research. It presents a summary of reflections by workshop participants that emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for future research on ancient kinship.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2025
This paper presents a snapshot of a neolithic maritime exchange network centred on the Pitted War... more This paper presents a snapshot of a neolithic maritime exchange network centred on the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) site of Tråsättra (circa 2630 to 2470 BCE), located northeast of modern-day Stockholm, Sweden. We used a combination of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-MA/ES) and thin section analysis to study and source the clays used to produce 19 potsherds and 39 ceramic figurines from the site. Our results showed that while all potsherds were made with local clays, 10 of the figurines were made with non-local clays sourced from across the Baltic Sea region, including the island of Gotland and the Åland archipelago. Furthermore, most of the non-local figurines were anthropomorphs, while all animal figurines were made with local clays. We suggest that this striking pattern indicates that the PWC people of Tråsättra were participating in a long-distance trading network comparable to the ritual and prestige focused exchange systems found in many anthropologically known maritime societies. Similar results were also received from the analysis of 14 potsherds and 3 figurines from the nearby Early Neolithic (circa 3620 to 3360 BCE) site of Lappdal, suggesting that the exchange of ceramics was a long-standing practice for fisher-forager cultures in the Baltic Sea region. Our cluster analysis of clay composition also indicates that some figurines may have been traded on the local level, pointing to multiple spheres of economic interaction. We argue that these results highlight the considerable economic complexity that was present in this neolithic fisher-forager society.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2025
The transition to the Nordic Bronze Age included new technological innovations, social institutio... more The transition to the Nordic Bronze Age included new technological innovations, social institutions and sociopolitical structures pushed by extensive long-distance exchange of metals and other exotica. However, traditional views often oversimplify this as a simple two-way trade system, failing to adequately explain the complex interactions in and between the regions like Scandinavia in which the societies organised themselves based on varied strategies tied to local resource potentials. Recent research, involving methods such as isotopic analysis and genomic sequencing, has provided solid evidence of movement and interaction. Despite this progress, the evidence at hand often lacks well-founded interpretations grounded in thorough theoretical frameworks. This study addresses interpretive challenges by employing an innovative framework grounded in collective action theory, integrating other aspects of social complexity and supported by regional datasets to achieve a more nuanced understanding of social dynamics. This approach informs us about the complex and contrasting organizational strategies and trade networks across northwestern Scandinavia (i.e. modern-day Norway up to the borders of Troms), illustrating further how local societies contributed to broader European networks. The study aims to offer a nuanced understanding of the region's social dynamics, highlighting the interplay between coercive and cooperative strategies within the overarching Nordic Bronze Age system.
The Holocene, 2025
The Gullåkra wetland is located around 5 km south of the modern city of Lund and around 2.7 km ea... more The Gullåkra wetland is located around 5 km south of the modern city of Lund and around 2.7 km east of the important Iron Age settlement of Uppåkra in Scania, southern Sweden. In the 1840s, a remarkable discovery was made in the wetland: a bronze lur dated to c. 1300 BCE, along with a boat and the bones of a large animal offering. As Bronze Age boats are exceedingly rare, this discovery makes the site highly significant for early Scandinavian maritime history. In 2023, excavations were carried out with the goal of relocating the boat discovered in the 19th century and assessing any additional remains within the wetland. Unfortunately, peat mining in the early 20th century drastically altered the landscape, obscuring its pre-industrial form and limiting further study. Although the boat could not be found, interdisciplinary methods, including dendrochronology, carbon dating, and sediment analysis, enabled the reconstruction of the wetland's trans-Holocene history. Evidence of significant human and natural events was identified spanning the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and early modern periods. The investigation underscores the enduring importance of wetlands as sites of human activity and ritual throughout prehistory. While the boat remains elusive, the Gullåkra wetland continues to demonstrate its potential for future discoveries relevant to the early history of southern Sweden. The study also highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches in reconstructing long-term human and environmental histories.
Presenting Counterpoints to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory, 2025
Introduction and Front Matter
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2025
For over a century, scholars have debated the merits of two competing theories for the origins of... more For over a century, scholars have debated the merits of two competing theories for the origins of money. The commodity theory of money has traditionally held that money developed as a medium of exchange in order to increase the economic efficiency of barter economies. Alternatively, chartalist explanations have given causal primacy to the role of state taxation in standardizing money as a unit of account. Recently, skepticism over the existence of barter economies in either contemporary societies or ancient history has led to the increased popularity of the state-centric chartalist approach. Evidence from many pre-state societies around the world, however, shows that commodity money was often used in long-distance trade networks where systems of debt and reciprocity would have been impractical. This paper draws on evidence from two such exchange systems, the "interior world" of pre-Columbian western North America and the Bronze Age of western Europe, to argue that money can come about to facilitate exchange between strangers and across borders. As such, I suggest that the commodity theory of money is more accurately explained by the importance of exchange in external rather than internal economic systems. I propose that a trade theory of money can explain the origins of money in pre-state societies without relying on the "myth of barter". Keywords Origins of money • Shell beads • Bronze Age • Economic anthropology • Trade and exchange * Mikael Fauvelle
Journal of Maritime Archaeology, 2024
The Early and Middle Neolithic (3500-2300 [Before Current Era] BCE) Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was... more The Early and Middle Neolithic (3500-2300 [Before Current Era] BCE) Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) was a critical component of the historical trajectory of Scandinavia's maritime history. The hunter-gatherer societies of the PWC were highly adapted to maritime environments, and they fished, hunted, travelled, and traded across great distances over water. Exactly what boat types they used, however, is still an open question. Understanding the maritime technologies used by the PWC is a critical research area as they had an important impact on subsequent maritime adaptations in Scandinavian prehistory. Unfortunately, finding intact boats from Neolithic contexts is extremely difficult. Here, we present indirect evidence for the use of skin boats by PWC people as a first step towards building a dialog on the types of boats that would have been used during this period. We argue that multiple lines of evidence suggest that skin boats were widely used for everyday activities and long-distance voyages by PWC peoples and will discuss the implications of possible complex boat use by Neolithic peoples for our understanding of early Scandinavian maritime societies.
Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2024
The boat stands out as a prominent symbol of
the Nordic Bronze Age, depicted at thousands of rock... more The boat stands out as a prominent symbol of
the Nordic Bronze Age, depicted at thousands of rock art
sites and on several metal objects throughout Scandinavia.
Paradoxically, direct evidence of these boats is scarce, and
the locations where boats were constructed remain largely
elusive. In this paper, we put forth the proposition that
many ostensibly mislabelled cooking pits along the coast
might actually be remnants of steaming pits employed in
boat building. By drawing on analogous parallels from ethnography
and examining three Bronze Age cases from the
western coast of Sweden and Eastern Norway, we hypothesize
that sizable pits near the sea, characterized by firecracked
stones and charcoal, are indicative of prehistoric
boat building sites. Additionally, these results align with
a broader objective of our paper, aiming to challenge the
prevailing terrestrial narrative in archaeology, which has
impeded the interpretive potential for comprehending maritime
societies throughout prehistory.
Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity, 2024
Complex watercraft were central to the functioning of many Indigenous coastal and island communit... more Complex watercraft were central to the functioning of many Indigenous coastal and island communities around the world. These communities, however, are often assumed to be small-scale bounded social entities adapted to local ecosystems, especially in comparison to land-based agricultural societies, states, and empires. In this paper we seek to understand how regional interactions helped create and sustain systems of Indigenous social and cultural diversity by taking a fresh and comparative look at the "active" role played by local boatbuilding traditions in the networks and social dynamics of Indigenous coastal communities. We argue that one critical yet often overlooked aspect of the use of watercraft is the capacity for advanced boat technologies to have "transformative" impacts on local communities by creating new kinds of social relations and networking opportunities. In this paper we undertake a comparative analysis of two Indigenous boat-building traditions, one in southern California and the other in Northeast Asia. We examine how innovation in maritime watercraft technology contributed to the formation of wide-ranging interaction spheres where participation by Indigenous communities helped shape the history of the wider region. We suggest that innovations in boat technologies led to positive-feedback loops of social intensification which significantly contributed to the historical trajectories of both world regions.
The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2024
What constraints and conditions are conducive to the innovation of more advanced watercraft techn... more What constraints and conditions are conducive to the innovation of more advanced watercraft technology? This paper explores this question by modeling ancient voyages in the Channel Island region of southern California. The Chumash and Tongva cultures of this region invented an advanced form of boat, the sewn plank canoe, around 500 CE. This new technology led to a rapid increase in maritime travel and transformed the maritime political economy of the region. In this paper we use agent-based ocean voyage modeling to examine the capacities of a range of indigenous boat types to travel important routes in the Channel Region at different times of the year. Our results indicate that while several different boat types would have been conducive for voyaging from the mainland coast to adjacent islands such as Limuw (Santa Cruz) and Pimu (Catalina), voyages to outlying islands, including Tuqan (San Miguel) and especially Haraasnga (San Nicolas), would have been difficult for much of the year in dugout or reed boats. We argue that early mariners plying these routes would have been under strong pressure to innovate faster and more seaworthy craft, possibly leading to the eventual development of the sewn plank canoe.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2024
How different were the lives of elites and commoners in early complex societies? This paper exami... more How different were the lives of elites and commoners in early complex societies? This paper examines this question using data from three fisher-hunter-gatherer sites in southern California. Using shell bead counts from burials as proxies for social status and previously published human stable isotope values as indicators of dietary practices, we examine the relationship between diet and status across a period of major sociopolitical change. Our results found no significant relationships between the quantity of beads and stable isotope values, indicating that differential access to foods was not a significant way in which status was manifested in these communities. Instead, we suggest that activities including ownership of seagoing canoes, access to imported goods, and the provisioning of community feasts were likely venues for elite status signaling.
life at the margins of the state: comparative landscapes from the old and new worlds, 2022
An Archaeology of Abundance
Due to their isolation, insularity, and lower biodiversity, the islands of Alta and Baja Californ... more Due to their isolation, insularity, and lower biodiversity, the islands of Alta and Baja California have often been perceived as marginal habitat for humans compared to the adjacent mainland. Recent archaeological work, however, has revealed a deep history of sustained human settlement on many of the islands from the Terminal Pleistocene to the present, where large Native American populations had complex economies, sophisticated maritime technologies, and elaborate material cultures. With modern restoration efforts, the native vegetation, fisheries, and hydrology of the islands is recovering, raising questions about the marginality of the islands prior to European contact. This chapter draws from archaeological and ecological data to argue that the California Islands were optimal habitat for humans, with ample resources, both marine and terrestrial.
This article presents baseline isotope values for plant and animal samples collected from across ... more This article presents baseline isotope values for plant and animal samples collected from across southern California. A total of 80 samples representing 50 species were collected and analyzed for this project. This original dataset includes 31 plant species, 13 finfish species, 3 mollusk species, 2 crustacean species, and 1 echinoderm. Plant samples were collected by the authors and an undergraduate research assistant in San Diego and Santa Barbara counties. Animal samples were procured from local fishers in San Diego and Santa Barbara. All samples were subjected to stable isotope analysis at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In this paper we present our new δ 13 C and δ 15 N data alongside previously published values from three other studies [1-3]. The previously published values reproduced here were derived from a mix of modern and archaeological samples. Together, these data represent the most complete dataset currently available for southern California baseline stable isotope values. The full combined dataset can be found in the Supplemental Data included with this paper, while Table 1 presents a comparison of defatted and untreated faunal specimens. These data will be of use to archaeologists and ecologists conducting future isotope studies on the Pacific Coast of North America.
Quaternary International, 2021
Understanding how maritime hunter-gatherer diets changed through time in response to increasing s... more Understanding how maritime hunter-gatherer diets changed through time in response to increasing social complexity can help us understand important transitions in early human history. This paper presents new baseline stable isotope values for southern California with an emphasis on marine plant and animal species. We use our baseline database to reevaluate human stable isotope values from the region using Bayesian mixing models to interpret dietary patterns across time and geographic space. Our analysis compares categories of foods consumed between island, coastal, and interior populations across the Middle and Late Holocene (circa 8000 to 168 cal BP) occupational history of precolonial southern California. Our results show a clear increase in the importance of high trophic marine foods, such as finfish, relative to low trophic level food, such as shellfish through time, paralleling increases in population size, economic intensification, and village aggregation in the Channel Region. This case study displays the capacity of Bayesian modeling to infer patterns of dietary change in the past when applied to human isotope values and adds to previous studies on the relationship between population growth, technological innovation, and the intensification of resource extraction in the region.
A popular model for social evolution in the Santa Barbara Channel region holds that, during times... more A popular model for social evolution in the Santa Barbara Channel region holds that, during times of resource stress, islanders would trade with mainlanders for plant foods in order to supplement island diets. Recently, western sea-purslane (Sesuvium verrucosum) has been suggested as a primary food product involved in this exchange. This report presents new caloric values for Sesuvium verrucosum and other plant foods that have been indicated as possible cross-channel trade goods. We argue that western sea-purslane is unlikely to have been a major trade item and suggest an alternate possibility for the presence of sea-purslane seeds in archaeological middens on Santa Cruz Island. While climate change may indeed have impacted social histories in the Channel Region, we argue that current data do not support the transportation of plant foods as having been a major component in this process.
Uploads
Papers by Mikael Fauvelle
the Nordic Bronze Age, depicted at thousands of rock art
sites and on several metal objects throughout Scandinavia.
Paradoxically, direct evidence of these boats is scarce, and
the locations where boats were constructed remain largely
elusive. In this paper, we put forth the proposition that
many ostensibly mislabelled cooking pits along the coast
might actually be remnants of steaming pits employed in
boat building. By drawing on analogous parallels from ethnography
and examining three Bronze Age cases from the
western coast of Sweden and Eastern Norway, we hypothesize
that sizable pits near the sea, characterized by firecracked
stones and charcoal, are indicative of prehistoric
boat building sites. Additionally, these results align with
a broader objective of our paper, aiming to challenge the
prevailing terrestrial narrative in archaeology, which has
impeded the interpretive potential for comprehending maritime
societies throughout prehistory.