Central European farmers, but also Danish "hunter-gatherers" had domestic pigs

It's often difficult to discern in the archaeological record wild boar remains from those of domestic pigs. Luckily archaeogenetics can solve the problem, sometimes producing striking results.

Ben Krause-Kyora et al., Use of domesticated pigs by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in northwestern Europe. Nature Communications 2013. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1038/ncomms3348]

Abstract

Mesolithic populations throughout Europe used diverse resource exploitation strategies that focused heavily on collecting and hunting wild prey. Between 5500 and 4200 cal BC, agriculturalists migrated into northwestern Europe bringing a suite of Neolithic technologies including domesticated animals. Here we investigate to what extent Mesolithic Ertebølle communities in northern Germany had access to domestic pigs, possibly through contact with neighbouring Neolithic agricultural groups. We employ a multidisciplinary approach, applying sequencing of ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA (coat colour-coding gene MC1R) as well as traditional and geometric morphometric (molar size and shape) analyses in Sus specimens from 17 Neolithic and Ertebølle sites. Our data from 63 ancient pig specimens show that Ertebølle hunter-gatherers acquired domestic pigs of varying size and coat colour that had both Near Eastern and European mitochondrial DNA ancestry. Our results also reveal that domestic pigs were present in the region ~500 years earlier than previously demonstrated.

The most striking result is surely not the demonstration of pigs being in Central Europe a few centuries than previously confirmed but that Ertebølle hunter-gatherers of Denmark had them as well, quite radically casting doubt on their status as hunter-gatherers and placing them fully in the Neolithic context, even still rather marginal and peripheral. 

Figure 1: Map depicting the location of the archaeological Sus samples from which mtDNA haplotypes were obtained.
Samples were recovered from Neolithic LBK, post-LBK and Mesolithic Ertebølle sites dated between 5500 and 4000 cal BC. Each symbol corresponds to a single sample (triangle, square and circle). Domestic (triangle) and wild (square) pigs discussed in the text are labelled; circles represent Sus specimens of unknown domestication status. The red colour indicates the European haplotypes C and A, and yellow the Near Eastern haplotypes Y1 and Y2.

Epipaleolithic paddles found in Danish waters

Paddles are only part of the hoard of objects made of organic materials rescued from what once was an Epipaleolithic settlement of the Ertebølle culture (c. 5400-3900 BCE): undamaged antler axes (right), wooden knife handles and the skull of a dog had also been preserved underwater at that location, with low oxygen levels, just off the coast.

A quite spectacularly preserved paddle:

Video of cleaning a piece of wood at the Moesgård Museum (no sound):

Source: Science Nordic.


Update (Nov 2012):

A new article also at Science Nordic discusses the paddles and how they have marks (three bars at the side) that are similar in concept but different in the detail of the execution. The shape of the paddles is also different.

My intuition wanted to see in this the execution by people connected by culture and maybe even direct family relationship but separated in time. Although not too much, maybe just one century... Just speculating a bit - other interpretations are perfectly possible, of course.