Nordic Stone Age

During the Weichselian glaciation (115,000 – 11,700 years ago), almost all of Scandinavia was buried beneath a thick permanent ice cover, thus, the Stone Age came rather late to this region.

As the climate slowly warmed up by the end of the ice age, nomadic hunters from central Europe sporadically visited the region.

This was the era of the Hamburg culture, tribes who hunted in vast territories that spanned over 100,000 km2, and lived as nomads in teepees, following the reindeer seasonal migrations across the barren tundra.

Initially, a thousand-year-long climate cool-down replaced the taiga with tundra and the local culture reverted to former traditions, focusing on reindeer hunting.

To the north, in Norway and along the coast of western Sweden, the Fosna-Hensbacka culture was living mostly in changing seasonal camps along the shores and close to the now thriving forests.

During the 6th millennium BCE, the climate of Scandinavia was generally warmer and more humid than today and the southern regions were clad in lush temperate broadleaf and mixed forests.

Large animals like aurochs, wisent, moose and red deer roamed freely in the forests and were game for tribes of what is now called the Kongemose culture.

In the north and west, Eastern Hunter-Gatherers, related to people from the Upper Volga region in modern-day Russia, settled and moved southwards.

The Nøstvet and Lihult tribes learned new technology from the advancing farmers, but not agriculture, and became the Pitted Ware cultures, towards the end of the 4th millennium BCE.

[11] After c. 2000 BC large 'chiefly' houses similar to those found in the Unetice culture appear in south Scandinavia, indicating the development of a more ranked social organization.