Early Neolithic fint mining at Södra Sallerup, Scania, Sweden Åsa Berggren a , Anders Högberg b , Deborah Olausson c and Elisabeth Rudebeck d Te area around the villages of Kvarnby and Södra Sallerup in south-west Scania is the only known fint-mining site in Sweden. Radiocarbon dates show that the fint was mined mainly during the earliest phase of the Early Neolithic, between c. 4000 and 3600 BC, thus coinciding with the earliest evidence of the Funnel Beaker Culture in the region. Te type of fint, the size of the fint nodules, production debris in the mining area and the concentration of point-butted axes to south-west Scania all suggest that the mining was related to the extraction of fint for the production of point-butted axes. However, considering the abundance of easily available fint elsewhere in the region, it seems clear that the mining was not motivated purely by economic reasons. We suggest that the very extraction of fint from pits and shafts in the chalk was socially and symbolically signifcant in itself. KEY-WORDS: Early Neolithic, fint mining, southern Sweden, point-butted axes INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF RESEARCH Te area around the villages of Kvarnby and Södra Sallerup, located two kilometres apart and about ten kilometres east of the city of Malmö in south-west Scania (Fig. 1a), is the only known location of prehistoric fint-mining in Sweden (Olausson et al., 1980). It was in connection with chalk quarrying that the fint mines were frst discovered in 1904 (Holst 1906). Tis led to a limited number of excavations during the frst part of the 20th century (Schnittger 1910; Althin 1951). During the latter part of the 20th century the area experienced escalating rescue archaeological activity and systematic documentation and Archaeologia Polona, vol. 54: 2016, 167 – 180 PL ISSN 0066 - 5924 a Sydsvensk Arkeologi, Erlandsrovägen 5, SE-21845 Vintrie, Sweden, e-mail: asa.berggren@sydsvenskarkeologi.se b Linnaeus University, Facultyof Art and Humanities, 391 82 Kalmar, Sweden, e-mail: anders.hogberg@lnu.se, and Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa c Department of Archaeology and Ancient History LUX, Lund University, Box 192, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden, e-mail: Deborah.Olausson@ark.lu.se d Sydsvensk Arkeologi, Erlandsrovägen 5, SE-21845 Vintrie, Sweden, e-mail: elisabeth.rudebeck@sydsvenskarkeologi.se