Bronsåldersliv vid en våtmark – Profana och rituella aktiviteter i Borstahusen, Skåne, under mellersta bronsålder

In 2020 an excavation at Borstahusen, Scania, southern Sweden, revealed rich archaeological remains from prehistoric wetland activities. The wetland had been visited during many different periods, from the Mesolithic onwards, but particularly during the Bronze Age, 1200–800 BC. A large part of the wetland was investigated with a multidisciplinary approach, which provided a complex picture of human activities in and close by the wetland. The preservation of bones and plant remains was relatively good, and there was a rich find material of flint, stone, and ceramics. Numerous cooking pits, together with animal bones, charred cereal grain and other plant macrofossils, indicate cooking activities by the edge of the wetland. Both microwear on flint tools and cutmarks on bones show that butchering and consumption, particularly of cattle, took place on the site. Microwear also indicates that the flint tools were used for working hides and for producing craft items of bone/antler. In addition to domestic animals, bones of wild game, seals and fish indicate hunting, sealing and fishing. Some depositions in the wetland and particularly in the cooking pits indicate ritual practices, but the overall impression is that most of the remains originate from domestic, practical activities, possibly associated with social gatherings and feasting. This conclusion deviates from several earlier studies of the Bronze Age, where wetlands are pictured first and foremost as environments for offerings and other rituals.