Smakkerup Huse is a European Mesolithic Ertebølle site located at the headwaters of a former fjord called the Saltbaek Vig on the island of Zealand, Denmark.
The site dates between 5000 and 3900 BC and is important for the preservation of wooden objects and subsistence remains. Although living floors or habitations were not preserved, archaeological evidence in the form of faunal remains suggests that the coastal settlement was occupied year round, with fluctuating dependence on seals, fish and shellfish, terrestrial fauna such as red and roe deer and hawthorn fruit.
Tools at Smakkerup Huse
Wood and bone tools at the site include a fish trap, an elm bow and pieces of a dugout canoe along with wood chips suggesting canoes were manufactured on site. Personal items found at Smakkerup Huse include an amber pendant, a painted pebble, small cups, lamp bowls, and perforated teeth.
Evidence of an Early Neolithic (3900-2800 BC) use of the site is marked by the bones of domesticated cattle; but they appear to represent an addition to the Mesolithic subsistence, rather than replacement population.
Identified in the first decade of the twentieth century, Smakkerup Huse was excavated during the 1990s by the Saltbaek Vig Archaeological Project.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the European Mesolithic, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
The monograph on Smakkerup Huse contains much more detail.
Price, T. D., et al. 2001 Smakkerup Huse: A Mesolithic Settlement in NW Zealand, Denmark. Journal of Field Archaeology 28(1/2):45-67.
