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.

丹麦海洋资源开发证据（Danish Evidence for Marine Resource Exploitation，简称DEMRE）档案库是一套全面的开放获取资源，整合了所有可获取的稳定同位素数据、放射性碳测年数据、有机残留物数据、动物考古学证据，以及聚焦于丹麦地区公元前6千纪至前4千纪校准纪年时段的贝丘分布与组成信息，涵盖该地区晚中石器时代至新石器时代早期。该时段包含埃特博莱文化（Ertebølle culture，约公元前5400–前4000年）——以海洋资源为核心的觅食人群，其生活方式自19世纪以来便广受深入研究，尤以举世闻名的贝丘遗址为代表；以及漏斗杯文化（Funnel Beaker culture，约公元前4000–前3300年），该文化标志着该地区作物种植与动物驯化的开端。丹麦全境上述时期出土的海量人工制品与生态遗存研究，为理解中全新世狩猎采集人群及其向农业社会的转型提供了关键数据集。本档案库依托300余份原始文献，整合所有相关证据并公开发布，旨在推动相关研究发展。