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Peter Moe Astrup: Sea-Level Change in Mesolithic Southern Scandinavia: Long- and Short-term Effects on Society and the Environment Aarhus University Press, 2018, 206 pp Ashley Lemke1 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Submerged prehistoric landscapes are significant portions of the archaeological record that are just coming to light for many archaeologists. Researchers in Europe have largely led this wave, and Sea-Level Change in Mesolithic Southern Scandinavia: Long- and ShortTerm Effects on Society and the Environment by Peter Moe Astrup builds on these earlier investigations. It is a well-written, detailed study of a particular time and place—partially now submerged—which considers human responses to fluctuating water levels. This book is a serious investigation into sea-level changes across southern Scandinavia and their potential impacts on human populations during the Mesolithic time period. It is an edited version of Astrup’s Ph.D. dissertation from Aarhus University, organized into eight chapters, including a theoretical orientation, culture historical background, new data and analyses. Perhaps more than any other geographic area or archaeological time period, our understanding of the Scandinavian Mesolithic has been transformed by the addition of underwater archaeology. Given the shallow nature of waters in the Baltic Sea and surrounding wetlands, even small changes in eustatic sea level would have radically altered the landscape, in some cases causing rapid flooding. Despite dynamic changes between 9500 and 4000 cal BC, Astrup points out that these fluctuating coastlines were more densely inhabited than inland areas. One of the book’s direct contributions is the state-of-art review of Mesolithic Scandinavia. It builds on the long history of research in the area to examine how Mesolithic societies adapted to changing coastal environments and to explore how vulnerable people were to sea-level change in the past. The first figure in the book shows the study area which includes the locations of over 100 sites—most remarkable for its seamless inclusion of submerged sites. Incorporating data from both terrestrial and inundated sources allows for a holistic study of the ancient landscape. The central problems driving the research address the traditional model of the Scandinavian Mesolithic. Prior research presented a dramatic shift and strict difference between inland, big-game hunters in the Early Mesolithic to fully coastal-adapted hunter-gatherer-fishers in the Late Mesolithic.

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Ashley Lemke [email protected] University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, USA

123

Journal of Maritime Archaeology

Astrup questions assumptions built into this simple model and instead focuses on reconstructing primary variables in the environment, specifically sea-level changes, to ultimately explore issues of economy, sedentism, and complexity among foragers. The book’s central methodological contribution is the creation of eight, high-resolution coastline models from 8000 to 4000 BC,