Rebooting the Study of Forager Plant Economies: The Potential of Submerged Archaeological Sites

The contribution of plants to the diets and wider economies of most prehistoric foragers is inadequately studied and poorly understood, also in comparison with other aspects of their economies and with prehistoric plant economies from the Neolithic onwards. This situation even applies to the Mesolithic of southern Scandinavia, which is a particularly intensely studied prehistoric forager sequence. In this paper we consider taphonomic, methodological and ideological reasons for the relative lack of research focus, after which we discuss the potential of strategic bulk sampling for plant macroremains at submerged sites. We then briefly present a pilot study of such macroremains obtained from the submerged site Hjarnø Sund, Denmark, and discuss next steps, including methodological initiatives to improve the distinction between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic material. We conclude that the potential of this type of site in the effort to understand the dietary and wider economic roles of plants in the Mesolithic far exceeds the general level of attention that they have received so far. Accordingly, we argue for increased focus, strategic sampling and a sustained, longer-term research effort in order to improve our understanding of this central aspect of prehistoric forager life and culture.