Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
Beavers shaped human lives and environments in the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic of Northern Europe.
A 🧵
New paper out by Shumon Hussain and myself: https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231200444
@universiteitleiden @mscactions
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2023/10/beavers-had-a-big-influence-on-how-people-in-the-stone-age-lived
#scicomm #beavers #science
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
We analysed faunal data from over 100 Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites from across Northern Europe: from the Netherlands and South Scandinavia in the west to the Baltic and West Russia in the east 2/
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
We think that this multispecies approach provides new perspectives for studying past #ecosystems and human co-habitation in them. And we hope to contribute new insights to current #rewilding schemes 8/8
Read our paper here for more!
https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231200444
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
We argue that beavers shaped human lives and environments. Much of human prehistory in the Mid-Holocene can be reframed as the result of these developing human-beaver convivialities 7/
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
The positive effects of beavers on fish communities is also visible in the ichtyho-faunal record 🐟. Beavers provided fishing affordances for foragers, that continued long after other cultural changes had occurred 6/
📷 Dutch National Museum of Antiquities
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
Beavers co-occur in the archaeological record with mammals that thrive in beaver environments, such as otters 🦦, wild boar 🐗, and muskrats. We propose that foragers purposefully sought out beaver landscapes to benefit from these interspecies relationships 5/
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
Beaver teeth and mandibles were also used as tools and teeth as pendants. Perhaps people imitated beaver woodworking and the use of these artefacts brought beaver and human perspectives closer together 4/
Dr Nathalie Brusgaard
1st major finding: beavers are everywhere! They were a large component of forager subsistence. But where they all but disappear from the Southern Scandinavian record, their presence remains strong in the Netherlands and NE Europe 3/
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