MEGALITHS, AGRICULTURE, AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY - A DIET STUDY OF 2 SWEDISH MEGALITH POPULATIONS

This paper tests the relationship between the erection of megaliths an d agriculture in Neolithic Scandinavia. A dietary change in two Swedis h megalith populations was tested by analyses of stable carbon and nit rogen isotopes extracted from human bone collagen. Carbon isotopes sho w that marine resources still were utilized in the coastal area and ni trogen isotope indicates that the major part of the protein came from a high trophic level, i.e., animals. It is concluded that a change in diet, and hence subsistence, took place from a hunter-gatherer-based s ubsistence toward one based on pastoralism, not horticulturalism. The prerequisite for social complexity is discussed and the author favors sedentism as the major determinant. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.