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Hamburg culture

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This article is about the prehistoric culture. For the culture of the city of Hamburg, see Hamburg § Culture and contemporary life.
Shouldered point from Bjerlev Hede in central Jutland. Dated around 12,500 BC and considered the oldest hunting tool from Denmark

The Hamburg culture or Hamburgian (15,500-13,100 BP) is a Late Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherer archaeological culture in northern Europe that existed during the final stages of the Last Glacial Period, beginning during the Bölling interstadial.[1] Sites are found close to the ice caps of the time.[2] They extend as far north as the Pomeranian ice margin.[3]

The Hamburgian culture is known from sites across the North European plain, including Netherlands, the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark, Northern Germany and Poland.[4] The culture reached as far northwest as Scotland, as evidenced by the stone tools found at the Howburn Farm site in South Lanarkshire, dating to 14,700 to 14,000 years ago.[5] In 1994 remains were also reported from Skane in southern Sweden.[6]

The peoples who produced the Hamburgian culture are generally interpreted as specialist hunters of reindeer, following their migrations across the northern European landscape.[5]ix

The culture is characterized by shouldered points and zinken tools, which were used as chisels when working with antler. In later periods tanged Havelte-type points appear, sometimes described as most of all a northwestern phenomenon. Notwithstanding the spread over a large geographical area in which a homogeneous development is not to be expected, the definition of the Hamburgian as a technological complex of its own has not recently been questioned.[2]

A Hamburg culture shouldered point

The distribution of the finds in the settlements show that the settlements were small and only inhabited by a small group of people. At a few settlements, archaeologists have discovered circles of stones, interpreted as weights for a teepee covering.[7]

The Paleolithic
↑ Pliocene (before Homo)
Lower Paleolithic
 (c. 3.3 Ma – 300 ka)
Middle Paleolithic
 (c. 300–50 ka)
Upper Paleolithic
 (c. 50–12 ka)

Fertile Crescent:

Europe:

Africa:

Siberia:

↓ Mesolithic

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ It is obvious, for instance, that the Hamburgian culture cannot be related to a so-called 'Meiendorf interstadial' which was distinguished erroneously and which attributed too high an age to the culture. Burdukiewicz, Jan Michał (1986) The late Pleistocene shouldered point assemblages in western Europe (originally published in Polish in 1982) E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Nederlands, page 108, ISBN 978-90-04-08100-0
  2. ^ a b From the First Humans to the Mesolithic Hunters in the Northern German Lowlands, Current Results and Trends - THOMAS TERBERGER. From: Across the western Baltic, edited by: Keld Møller Hansen & Kristoffer Buck Pedersen, 2006, ISBN 87-983097-5-7, Sydsjællands Museums Publikationer Vol. 1 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2008-10-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080911072452/http://www.uni-greifswald.de/~histor/~ufg/mitarbeiter/terberger/Terberger1_LoRes.pdf " Taking the distribution pattern of the Hamburgian sites into consideration, it stands out that the sites with shouldered points reach as far north as the Pomeranian ice margin"
  4. ^ Mugaj, Jakub (2022-04-03). "Seasonal Aggregation Site in Late Paleolithic – Intrasite Analysis of Large Hamburgian Encampment in Myszęcin, Western Poland". Lithic Technology. 47 (2): 106–116. doi:10.1080/01977261.2021.1967580. ISSN 0197-7261.
  5. ^ a b Ballin, Torben Bjarke; Tipping, Richard M. (2018). Reindeer hunters at Howburn Farm, South Lanarkshire: a late Hamburgian settlement in Southern Scotland - its lithic artefacts and natural environment. Summertown, Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78491-902-3.
  6. ^ Larsson, Lars (1994-12-28). "The Earliest Settlement in Southern Sweden - Late Paleolithic Settlement Remains at Finjasjön, in the North of Scania". Current Swedish Archaeology. 2 (1): 159–177. doi:10.37718/CSA.1994.09. ISSN 2002-3901.
  7. ^ Jim Grant; Sam Gorin; Neil Fleming (27 March 2015). The Archaeology Coursebook: An Introduction to Themes, Sites, Methods and Skills. Routledge. pp. 299–. ISBN 978-1-317-54111-0.
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