Animal Teeth and Mesolithic Society

Abstract

In several graves from the Mesolithic sites of Skateholm, South Sweden, animal teeth were found. Some of these teeth were used as beads in clothing. The strontium isotope analysis of 11 animal teeth is reported and discussed in comparison with human values from burials at the sites and baseline values from South Sweden. Roughly half of the animal teeth are nonlocal and from different places of origin. The beads themselves appear to carry symbolic information that may be related to the physical or social attributes of the wearer. This study involved a detailed investigation of the use-wear around the perforation and its relation to the local and nonlocal origin of the teeth.

Keywords

• mesolithic
• animal tooth beads
• use-wear studies
• strontium isotope analysis
• sweden
• skateholm