2.5.1 Norden in prehistoric times
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This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
2.5.1 Norden in prehistoric times
Ice has covered almost all of Norden most of the last 500,000 years.
Exceptionally there have been four inter glacial periods, each
extending 10,000-15,000 years. The latest period of ice-withdrawal
started some 13,000 years ago. (And hence we can expect most of Norden
to again become covered with ice within some 2,000 years.)
The pre-history of Norden literally starts when the ice withdrew. Very
little has been found from earlier interglacial periods. (Actually a
piece of south eastern Jutland never got covered by the ice during the
last ice-time, and there traces of human living have been found and
dated to an approximate age of a hundred thousand years - but that was
The Exception until a recent finding of a cave in Finland used as a
human dwelling some 100,000 years ago.) Iceland seems not to have been
populated before Viking time - but mind you! The first colonizer then
arrived from Ireland and not from Scandinavia.
13,000 years ago hunting and fishing people left traces along rivers
and lakes in Denmark and Scania. And from around 8,000 B.C. hunters
have dwelled also in western and northern Scandinavia; and in Finland
which started to pop up through the sea.
Up to this time there had been a continuous land connection from
Britain to Scania, but now (5,500 B.C.) Norden develops into a huge
archipelago. Finland emerged as the archipelago on the coast of
northern Russia and keeps culturally connected with Russia.
Like-wisely Denmark and the southern Scandinavian peninsula keeps
connected with western and central Europe. Along the coast of Norway
hunters persist more or less isolated.
Around 5,000 B.C. pottery came into use, indicating new methods to
store food (Ertebølle culture); and marks of wheat in the pottery
suggest the beginning of agriculture, however established archaeology
defines the Ertebølle culture as a hunter/gatherer culture which came
to persist for centuries beside the agricultural villages of the
Pit-pottery (trattbägar) culture.
Agriculture is believed to have reached Denmark and the southern
Scandinavian peninsula approximately 4,200 B.C. with wood-burning
technique, wheat, barley, sheep, goats, pigs and cows. [ This, and
many other datings, is disputed. A recent Danish scholarly work says
4,000 B.C. while a recent Swedish work says agriculture was introduced
in southernmost Scandinavia around 3,000 B.C. ]
The megalithe graves are the most visible trace of our prehistoric
ancestors, erected 3,700-2,300 B.C. in Denmark and on the southern
Scandinavian peninsula. During this period of over a thousand years
the agricultural megalithe societies seem to have co-existed with
coastal hunters and fishers; obvious at least in Denmark, Scania,
along the Swedish west coast, and at lake Mälaren west of Stockholm.
These hunters/fishers stood in contact with Gotland and Eastern
Europe, agriculture was not entirely unknown to them and they had
domesticated swine. In other words: It is important not to take these
classifications and datings too literally. [ A large recent Swedish
work dates the megalithe graves to 2,500-1,500 B.C. ]
Agriculture was introduced along the fjords of southern Norway about
year 2,500 B.C. At the same time a new mode for burying was introduced
in southern Scandinavia and southern Finland. Unburned corpses in
sleeping position, always followed by the battle-axe, and without
stones or similar signs on the ground above. The battle-axe culture
followed rivers and lakes, where before the Ertebølle and the
Pit-pottery people had dwelled.
We do not take a position in the dispute whether a change of pottery
type or burying technique indicate a migration of people or only of
ideas.
The battle-axes of stone were initially made after the model of bronze
axes, very true imitation indeed including the seam of the mould in
which the bronze axe was cast. The agricultural districts preserved
their megalithe culture for some time, and then it seems as the
cultures merged. It is believed that this change in the archaeological
findings more likely represents a true immigration of people instead
of a diffusion of ideas and beliefs. If so, it also seems plausible
that horses and the wheel were introduced by these battle-axe people.
Around year 2,000 B.C. trade increased. Copper and bronze items
followed dead chieftains into their graves. With increasing trade it
didn't last long until bronze (the alloy of copper and tin) was
produced in Denmark and on the Scandinavian peninsula. The metals
themselves must however be imported. In exchange for the imported
copper and tin export of amber and furs and maybe slaves must be
assumed.
The Bronze age is dated to the years 1,800-500 B.C. in Denmark, and
1,500-500 B.C. in Sweden and Finland. Bronze age did barely reach
Norway or the central parts of Scandinavia and Finland, where the life
seems to have continued as before.
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