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This paper presents a study of past coastline dynamics and their consequences for prehistoric societies living in the glacio‐isostatically uplifted central Limfjord area, northern Denmark. The consequences of the gradual relative sea level (RSL) changes have been investigated to develop a local RSL curve, study settlement patterns on newly exposed marine foreland, and estimate changes in the area and quality of grazing and forage for livestock. This was achieved by a multidisciplinary approach involving existing regional and local beach ridges dated by optically stimulated luminescence, a comprehensive database of archaeological finds, and extrapolation based on a digital elevation model. The beach‐ridge dates suggested a near‐linear local RSL change in the study area of ~1.2±0.2 m per 1000 years for the last 3000 years. Based on this, a palaeo‐coastline development model was produced that correlated well with a comprehensive database of archaeological finds. The model indicates that (i) few human settlements moved to the newly exposed marine foreland prior to modern times, though clusters of burial mounds (barrows) suggest that some of the new lands were colonized during the Late Roman Iron Age until 400 CE, (ii) winter‐flooded marine foreland with high‐quality livestock grazing increased steadily until c. 750 CE and then remained stable at approximately 150 km2, and (iii) due to high salinity of the inundating water, the palaeo‐Limfjord probably had Wadden Sea‐like fertile saltmarshes until c. 1 CE. The improved chronologies yield a better understanding of the spatial and temporal prehistoric human–nature interactions in the study area. The findings highlight the need for accurate local RSL curves in order to interpret concomitant terrestrial environment drivers and trajectories, and thereby understand causal relationships and consequences for prehistoric human–environment interactions in coastal areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new core drilled at Nørrekær Enge, Løgstør, Denmark, shows terrestrial lake and bog sediments lying beneath 10 m of marine sediments. Pollen analysis, 14C dating and sedimentary observations show that these sediments relate to an ancient lake basin that was flooded when the rising sea levels reached 8.0 m b.s.l. This new study has allowed a review of previous data relating to shoreline displacement from the Limfjord region of northern Jutland, Denmark. Here we present a new shoreline displacement curve spanning the period between c. 11 700 and 7700 cal. a BP and built upon the Nørrekær Enge data and data from seven other boreholes and excavations from the Limfjord region. A previous shoreline displacement curve for this region suggested a very rapid relative sea‐level rise of 3 to 5 m 100 a−1 whereas this new curve suggests a much slower rise of around 1 m 100 a−1, similar to global rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]