Umeå universitets logga

Pits and mounds in pebble: A study of archaeological remains in ancient pebble beaches inthe county of Västerbotten.

Pits (Sw. boplatsgropar) and mounds (Sw. boplatsvallar) in ancient pebble beaches are two types of archaeological remains that are common under the highest coastline in the county of Västerbotten, Sweden. Although common, knowledge of these archaeological remains is limited. Organic materials left in pebble formations rapidly break down and degrade due to high exposure to moisture and weather, making dating by traditional archaeological methods such as 14C or dendrochronology impossible. The data for this study consists of two parts. One part has been collected through field surveys by the author and the other part is collected from National Heritage Board´s database of archaeological sites (Sw. Riksantikvarieämbetets kulturmiljöregister). The result of this study suggests that the majority of smaller pits and mounds in ancient pebble beaches have been used for storage and that larger pits and mounds are big enough to have functioned as foundations for simple dwellings. It also suggests there is some spatial coherence between the type of archaeological remains known as hut foundations (Sw.tomtningar) and pits in ancient pebble beaches. Albeit this coherence is slight and may be a coincidence. Furthermore, the study suggests there is a spatial coherence between quartz and quartzite handled by humans and pits in ancient pebble beaches that is not a coincidence. Suggestively, some pits in ancient pebble beaches that can be found today have been made and used in prehistoric times, by people who used quartz and quartzite in their daily lives.