Northern Europe, Scandinavia: Introduction

The Nordic Region, or Norden, comprises Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Åland (autonomous Finnish archipelago). 

The Scandinavian peninsula comprises Sweden, Norway and the northwestern area of Finland. The term ‘Scandinavia’ is used here to cover Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. 

In the Pleistocene Ice Age (2580-11.7 kya) the repeated growth and contraction of ice sheets due to eustatic sea-level changes and isostatic land depression followed by post-glacial rebound made lasting changes to land and sea configurations.

As much of human activity in prehistoric Scandinavia has been along its coast the dating of the sites can be found by using shoreline displacement, i.e. comparing a site’s rate of land rebound over time with its height above sea level can reveal its date to within a few hundred years.

During the Last Glacial Maximum (23-19 kya) the ice covered Norway, Sweden, Finland and all of Denmark except for western Jutland. Sea-levels were lower because more of Earth’s water was locked in the ice. Doggerland, an area of land (now submerged beneath the North Sea) between the east coast of Britain and the Jutland peninsula, was inhabited by hunter-gatherers.

When the ice began to retreat, conditions of the ground close to the boundaries of the retreating ice varied between tundra (incomplete cover by low shrubs, dwarf trees and herbaceous plants) during the coldest stadials, open treeless vegetation dominated by grasses and shrubs during ice-free interstadials, and open woodland with birch and pine during the mildest periods.

The final deglaciation of the ice sheet started c.19 kya and after several stops and retreats Denmark became the first Scandinavian country to be finally free of ice c.16 kya.

The barren tundra areas were soon inhabited by reindeer and elk. The earliest evidence of human presence in Scandinavia is artefacts of the Late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburgian culture (15.5-13.1 kya). Centred on the hunting of reindeer, the culture had sites in northern France, northern Germany, Denmark and Poland. As the climate eased the culture spread northwards along the Norwegian coast warmed by the Gulf Stream. The remains they left indicate small and temporary settlements as they followed the reindeer herds.

As the Hamburgian peoples followed the reindeer herds slowly moving northwards, they in turn were followed by the Federmesser culture (14.0-12.8 kya). These people hunted elk, red deer, and aurochs (wild cattle); reindeer were largely absent at the time.

The territory covered by the Bromme culture (13.5-12.5 kya) comprised Denmark, the southernmost part of Sweden and the northern parts of the countries located south of the Baltic. This culture is usually taken as the first complete adaptation to, and year-round presence in, the recently deglaciated landscape of southern Scandinavia

The Ahrensburg culture (12.9-11.7 kya) had sites in northern Germany, Holland, Denmark and southernmost Sweden, and was in many ways similar to the Hamburgian.

Overhunting and human encroachment put increasing pressure on the movement and feeding habits on the lives of animals. Eventually, there were no more mammoths to hunt and as spears were less effective against smaller animals the bow and arrow became the weapon of choice.