The Danish Evidence for Marine Resource Exploitation during the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic

The Danish Evidence for Marine Resource Exploitation (DEMRE) archive is a thorough open-access resource that collates all available stable isotopic data, radiocarbon dates, organic residue data, zooarchaeological evidence as well as the distribution and composition of shell middens focussing on the 6th-4th millennium cal BC, and representing the Late Mesolithic to Early Neolithic periods in Denmark. This spans the Ertebølle culture (c. 5400–4000 BCE), marine-focussed foragers whose lifeways have been intensely studied since the 19th century, especially the world renowned kitchen middens, and the Funnel Beaker culture (c. 4000–3300 BCE), marking the start of crop cultivation and animal domestication in the region. The vast numbers of artefacts and ecofacts that have been studied from these periods throughout Denmark have resulted in a key dataset for understanding Mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers and the transition to agriculture. Drawing on over 300 primary sources, we have synthesised this evidence and present it here as a tool to stimulate research.