Korsnäs is the name of an open air archaeological sites located on the northwestern part of the Södertörn peninsula in Sweden. The site is one of several Pitted Ware Culture sites in the region; the earliest occupation noted at the site is Mesolithic in nature, and there is a small Iron Age occupation as well. The PWC component dates approximately 3350-2640 cal BC.
Korsnäs is quite large, about 95,000 square meters in area, representing a small village of hunter-gatherer-fishers. Artifacts including pottery and stone tools, and a wide variety of bone and antler tools, including chisels, harpoons, points, figurings, and tooth beads. Three human graves, pits and hearths were identified, although the hearths appear to be dated to the Iron Age occupation. Animal bone from the site is dominated by seal, fish, moose, and wild boar.
Korsnäs was discovered and first excavated in the 1920s and again in the 1960s. Gravel mining has severely damaged the site since its excavation; the most recent investigations have been archival, led by Elin Fornander.
Sources
Fornander, Elin, Gunilla Eriksson, and Kerstin Lidén in press Wild at heart: Approaching Pitted Ware identity, economy and cosmology through stable isotopes in skeletal material from the Neolithic site Korsnäs in Eastern Central Sweden. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology in press.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
