Nordic Stone Age
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177379875
2007-12-12T05:51:45Z
Shawnc47
5994616
For all the dates with BC, I changed to BCE which stands for Before Common Era rather than Before Christ. This gives historical dates a more nuetral approach rather than a Christian byas.
'''The Nordic Stone Age''' refers to the [[Stone Age]] of [[Scandinavia]].
{{History of Scandinavia}}
==Late Upper Paleolithic==
{{Main|Upper Paleolithic}}
As the ice receded reindeer grazed on the plains of Denmark and southernmost Sweden, while along the coast of western Sweden, marine resources were exploited. This was the land of the [[Ahrensburg culture]], tribes who hunted over territories 100 000 km² vast and lived in [[teepee]]s on the [[tundra]]. On this land there was little forest but [[white birch|arctic white birch]] and [[rowan]], but the [[taiga]] slowly appeared.
==Mesolithic==
{{Main|Mesolithic}}
In the [[7th millennium BCE]], when the reindeer and their hunters had moved for northern Scandinavia, forests had been established in the land. A culture called the [[Maglemosian culture]] lived in Denmark and southern Sweden, and north of them, in Norway and along the coast of western Sweden, the [[Fosna-Hensbacka culture]], who lived mostly along the shores of the thriving forests. Utilizing fire, boats and stone tools enabled these [[Stone Age]] inhabitants to survive life in northern [[Europe]]. The northern hunter/gatherers followed the herds and the [[salmon run]]s, moving south during the winters, moving north again during the summers. These early peoples followed cultural traditions similar to those practised throughout other regions in the far north – areas including modern [[Finland]], [[Russia]], and across the [[Bering Strait]] into the northernmost strip of [[North America]] (comprising portions of today's [[Alaska]] and [[Canada]]).
During the [[6th millennium BCE]], southern Scandinavia was clad in lush forests of [[temperate broadleaf and mixed forests]]. In these forests roamed animals such as [[aurochs]], [[wisent]], [[moose]] and [[red deer]]. Now, tribes that we call the [[Kongemose culture]] lived off these animals. Like their predecessors, they also hunted seals and fished in the rich waters. North of the Kongemose people, lived other [[hunter-gatherers]] in most of southern Norway and Sweden, called the [[Nøstvet and Lihult cultures]], descendants of the Fosna and Hensbacka cultures. These cultures still hunted, in the end of the [[6th millennium BCE]] when the Kongemose culture was replaced by the [[Ertebølle culture]] in the south.
==Neolithic==
[[Image:tjocknackigyxa.JPG|thumb|120px|"Thick-neck axe" from [[Närke]], a [[flintstone]] axe characteristic of both the [[Funnelbeaker culture|Funnelbeaker]] and the [[Pitted Ware culture]]s.]]
{{Main|Neolithic}}
During the [[5th millennium BCE]], the Ertebølle people learned pottery from neighbouring tribes in the south, who had begun to cultivate the land and keep animals. Soon, they too started to cultivate the land and, ca [[4000 BCE]], they became part of the [[megalith]]ic [[Funnelbeaker culture]]. During the [[4th millennium BCE]], these Funnelbeaker tribes expanded into Sweden up to [[Uppland]]. The Nøstvet and Lihult tribes learnt new technology from the advancing farmers, but not agriculture, and became the [[Pitted Ware culture]]s, towards the end of the [[4th millennium BCE]]. These Pitted Ware tribes halted the advance of the farmers and pushed them south into south-western Sweden, but some say that the farmers were not killed or chased away, but that they voluntarily joined the Pitted Ware culture and became part of them. At least one settlement appears to be mixed, the [[Alvastra pile-dwelling]].
It is not known what language these early Scandinavians spoke, but towards the end of the [[3rd millennium BCE]], they were overrun by new tribes who many scholars think spoke [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], the [[Battle-Axe culture]]. This new people advanced up to Uppland and the [[Oslofjord]], and they probably provided the language that was the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages. These new tribes were individualistic and clearly patriarchal with the battle axe as a [[status symbol]]. They were cattle herders and with them most of southern Scandinavia entered the Neolithic. However, soon a new invention would arrive, that would usher in a time of cultural advance in Scandinavia, the Bronze Age.
{{Timeline of Prehistoric Sweden}}
[[Category:Ancient peoples]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures]]
[[Category:European archaeology]]
[[Category:History of the Germanic peoples]]
[[Category:Nordic Stone Age|*]]
[[Category:Stone Age Europe]]