From 2013-2022 the largest Stone Age excavation ever undertaken in Denmark, uncovered an entire fjord landscape beneath marine sediments at Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland. Based on the excavations, Museum Lolland-Falster, in collaboration with Aarhus University and the Danish National Museum, organised an international conference on the topic of "LOST 2022 – Changing Identity in a Changing World" on 16 and 17 June 2022 to discuss the time around 4000 BCE in Denmark and beyond from different angles. This book summarizes the conference and presents its main outcomes. It also gives an overview of the current state of research within the Femern project and sets them into context with the wider area. By including contributions from the Netherlands to Finland, the central position of Lolland as a corridor in the Stone Age is highlighted and discussed. The topics covered in this book deal with technological change, archaeological analyses of identity, aspects of landscape interaction and perception in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. This book is aimed at specialists, students and the interested public alike, as it provides the first complete overview of the excavations of the Femern project and places them in context. At the same time, it serves as a basis for further studies on the material and highlights the challenges and possibilities of the archaeological record from the period around 4000 BCE.

Table of Contents:
Forword Ulla Schaltz and Kasper Høhling Søsted   Introduction: Changing Identity in a Changing World Daniel Gross and Mikael Rothstein   PART 1: Changing worlds   The Femern project: a large-scale excavation of a Stone Age landscape Bjørnar Måge, Daniel Gross and Marie Kanstrup   Environmental changes after the last deglaciation, southern Lolland, Denmark Ole Bennike and Catherine Jessen   Niche construction: Hard-working settlers and a neglected principle in understanding the early Neolithic of southern Scandinavia Niels Nørkjær Johannsen   Estuary and lacustrine fishing with stationary wooden structures in Neolithic Finland: Evidence from waterlogged sites Satu Koivisto   How to build a Neolithic? Perspectives on megalith building practices and landscape perception during the Funnel Beaker period in northern Germany Maria Wunderlich   Tombs and Settlements, Bog and Sea – the possible influence of landscape change on Neolithic life in the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor, Germany Moritz Mennenga, Anja Behrens, Martina Karle and Steffen Wolters   PART 2: Losing Boundaries   Duality in the Early Neolithic on Lolland-Falster and in south Scandinavia Theis Zetner Trolle Jensen and Lasse Sørensen   Long-term perspectives on Neolithisation: Pottery use in the Ertebølle Culture and its connection to the development of settlement patterns and hunter-gatherer complexity Ann-Katrin Meyer   Changing diet in a changing world Bente Philippsen   Mesolithic persistence and Neolithic emergence at Syltholm II (MLF00906-III). Osseous artefacts before and after 4000 BCE on the coast of Lolland, Denmark Solveig Chaudesaigues-Clausen   Neolithisation in Denmark from a depositional perspective Søren Anker Sørensen   Lola’s people hunted wild boar; their neighbours kept domestic pigs: analysis of the Syltholm pigs Peter Rowley-Conwey   Neolithic farming in forager-resource systems: A case from southern Norway Svein Vatsvåg Nielsen and Jo-Simon Frøshaug Stokke   PART 3: Identities of Change   Mesolithic hunters in mixed oak forests: Differences in hunting strategy and hunting behaviour Ulrich Schmölcke   Changing diet during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition: An examination of the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of late Mesolithic and early Neolithic humans in Denmark Rikke Maring, Jesper Olsen and Marcello A. Mannino   Going against the grain? The transition to farming in the Dutch wetlands re-examined (5000–4000 BCE) Daan C. M. Raemaekers, Nathalie Ø. Brusgaard, Merita Dreshaj, Jolijn Erven, Michael W. Dee and J. Hans M. Peeters   Stone Age Fishing in the prehistoric Syltholm Fjord Terje Stafseth and Daniel Gross   The Unbeknownst Pottery Craft at the Alvastra Pile Dwelling Nathalie Hinders   Evidence of a base model for Neolithic depositions in Central and Northern Europe Michael Müller   People, contacts and identities: the sixth-fifth millennium south of the western Baltic Sea Thomas Terberger, Andreas Kotula and Henny Piezonka   Perceptions of Stone Age Landscapes? A note on how humans of the Stone Age may have experienced their surroundings Mikael Rothstein