The study was part of PhD thesis funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and the Graduate School 'Human Development in the Landscapes', Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. I would like to thank the staff of the Archaeological State Museum Schloss-Gottorf in Germany for hosting me and supporting my work in many different ways. Special thanks are due to U. Schmölcke for the fish identification, to W. Lage for helping me to increase my knowledge of mammal bones identification, to S. Hartz for fruitful discussions and I. Ulbricht for supporting my work and providing access to archaeological material. The project 'Pottery Use among late Foragers and early Farmers in the Baltic' was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (ARCH) and I would like to thank all the researchers involved in this project. O. Craig is owed special thanks for his support and his valuable comments on this article. Many thanks to S. Harris and E. Dimitriadi who improved the English. My gratitude to two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped me to improve this article.