Gardening Life

Reconsidering the Early Neolithic of East Central Sweden

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present an understanding of the Early Neolithic of east central Sweden that does not take the concept of "Funnel Beaker Culture" as its point of departure. By beginning to consider the meaning of places rather than the contents of "cultures", new ways of understanding the Neolithic can be presented. Sites where Funnel Beaker pottery was used are argued to have been places ascribed specific cultural meanings during the Early Neolithic. The two concepts gardens and beaches are introduced in an attempt to construe places where funnel beakers were used in other ways than at settlements. Gardens and beaches are presented as contexts facilitating other ways of understanding place. Gardens, localized in inland areas, were places where cereals were cultivated and also places for episodic social gatherings during which cattle consumption appears to have been of great importance. Beaches are liminal zones in berween land and sea, places beyond the world of the living where the dead were handled and sometimes deposited.