Pitted Ware culture

Pitted Ware culture

Geographical range	Southern Scandinavia
Period	Mesolithic, Neolithic
Dates	circa 3500 BCE – circa 2300 BCE
Preceded by	Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers
Followed by	Battle Axe culture, Nordic Bronze Age

The Pitted Ware culture (c. 3500 BC–c. 2300 BC) was a hunter-gatherer culture in southern Scandinavia, mainly along the coasts of Svealand, Götaland, Åland, north-eastern Denmark and southern Norway. Despite its Mesolithic economy, it is by convention classed as Neolithic, since it falls within the period in which farming reached Scandinavia. The Pitted Ware people were largely maritime hunters, and were engaged in lively trade with both the agricultural communities of the Scandinavian interior and other hunter-gatherers of the Baltic Sea.^[1]

The people of the Pitted Ware culture were a genetically homogeneous and distinct population descended from earlier Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers (SHGs).^[1] The culture emerged in east-central Sweden around 3,500 BC, gradually replacing the Funnelbeaker culture throughout the coastal areas of southern Scandinavia. It subsequently co-existed with the Funnelbeaker culture for several centuries.^[1]

From about 2,800 BC, the Pitted Ware culture co-existed with the Battle Axe culture, which was the successor of the Funnelbeaker culture in southern Scandinavia.^[2][a] By 2,300 BC, the Pitted Ware culture had been absorbed by the Battle Axe culture. The subsequent Nordic Bronze Age represents a fusion of elements from the Pitted Ware culture and the Battle Axe culture.^[2] Modern Scandinavians, unlike the Sami,^[b] display partial genetic origins from the Pitted Ware people.^[4]

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