Untangling Social,Ritual and Cosmological Aspects of Fishhook Manufacture in the Middle Mesolithic Coastal Communities of NE Skagerrak

This article investigates the entanglement of environment, materiality, technology and cosmology in the Middle Mesolithic Stone Age (8300–6300 cal. BC), of the NE Skagerrak area of Eastern Norway and Western Sweden, by focusing on the manufacture of bone fishhooks. The argument made is that fishhooks are key objects for exploring the world‐views of Middle Mesolithic coastal groups. Fishhooks were linked with daily subsistence, invested with much labour, and their manufacture was entwined with the hunting of ungulates that provided their raw material. This process involved the transformation of living bodies into artefacts. Thus, it is argued that these mundane objects were considered active agents in mediating the dangers and insecurities of an unpredictable maritime life.