Riksantikvarieämbetet

This study focuses on the long-term land-use and settlement dynamics in two adjacent but very different landscape types in Scania, southern Sweden – a forested upland area (the Linderödsåsen ridge) and a flat low-lying agricultural area (the Kristianstadslätten plain). The ridge and the plain differ in natural conditions as well as in prehistoric remains and in archaeological research history. The main empirical basis for the study is radiocarbon dates from numerous archaeological sites together with two pollen diagrams. Periods of expansion and abandonment are identified, and their character and timing are discussed. The results reveal several phases of chronological correlation between the ridge and the plain, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, indicating societal connections between the two landscape types. The results are discussed in a wider context of colonisation and societal crisis, particularly during the Iron Age.