Scandinavian prehistory 2067514 213923228 2008-05-21T11:03:42Z Tassedethe 7098284 /* Ice age */ link repair ([[Wikipedia:WikiProject Red Link Recovery|You can help!]]) {{History of Sweden}} The '''Scandinavian prehistory''' began when the area became free of ice around 11000 BC, with the [[Ahrensburg culture]] and hunters living in near proximity to the ice. It took until the 7th millennium BC for forest, wildlife and [[Mesolithic]] [[hunter-gatherers]] to settle. In southern Scandinavia, a [[Maglemosian culture]] (ca 7500 BC–6000 BC) developed. The Maglemosian people lived in forest and wetland environments using fishing and hunting tools made from wood, bone and flint [[microliths]]. A characteristic of the culture are the sharply edged microliths of flintstone which were used for spear heads and arrow heads. [[Microliths]] finds are more sparse from ca 6000 BC and the period is said to transist into the [[Kongemose culture]] (ca 6000 BC–ca 5200 BC). The finds from this period are characterised by long [[flintstone]] flakes which were used for making the characteristic rhombic arrowheads, scrapers, drills, awls and toothed blades. The [[Ertebølle culture]] (ca 5300 BC-3950 BC) is the name of a hunter-gatherer and fisher culture dating to the end of the [[Mesolithic]] period. It was followed by the [[Funnelbeaker culture]] (4000–2700 BC) a culture that originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through todays [[Uppland]]. Tribes along the coasts of [[Svealand]], [[Götaland]], [[Åland]], north-eastern [[Denmark]] and southern [[Norway]] learnt new technologies that became the [[Pitted Ware culture]] (3200 BC to 2300 BC). Around 2800 BC, metal was introduced in Scandinavia in the [[Corded Ware culture]]. In much of Scandinavia, a [[Corded Ware culture#Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture|Battle Axe culture]] became prominent, known from some 3,000 graves. The period 2500 BC–500 BC also left many visible remains to modern times, namely the many thousands rock carvings ([[petroglyph]]) in west Sweden ([[Tanumshede]]) and Norway ([[Rock carvings at Alta|Alta]]). A more advanced culture came with the [[Nordic Bronze Age]] (ca 1800 BC – 500 BC). It was followed by the [[Pre-Roman Iron Age]] (5th/4th century BC–1st century BC) and the [[Roman Iron Age]] (ca 1–400 AD). ==Ice age== The pre-history of Sweden begins at the end of the [[Pleistocene]] epoch at the beginning of [[Holocene]] epoch, following the last [[ice age]], the [[Wisconsin glaciation|Weichselian glaciation]]. At the end of the ice age, large parts of south and middle Sweden was covered by water. Parts of [[Denmark]], [[Skåne|Scania]] and the [[History of Norway|Norwegian]] coast line were free from ice around 13000 BC, and around 10000 BC the rim of ice was around [[Dalsland]], [[Västergötland]] and [[Östergötland]]. It wasn't until 7000 BC that all of [[Svealand]] and the modern coastal regions of North-eastern Sweden were free of ice, although the land was by then deeply pressed underwater. In Scandinavia, the time following the ice age begins at circa 9500 BC and is called at first the [[Yoldia Stage]] (after the [[Yoldia Sea]], then the [[Ancylus Stage]], after the [[Ancylus Lake]] in turn named after ''[[Ancylus fluviatilis]]'', a small fresh-water[[gastropod]] from this time. By this time, Denmark and Sweden were joined and the "[[Baltic Sea]]" of the age was a [[fresh water]] lake called the [[Ancylus Lake]]. The Ancylus age is followed by formation of the [[Littorina Sea]] and the [[Litorina Stage]] (named after the ''[[Littorina littorea]]'' mollusc) at around 6200 BC. With the first human colonization of this new land (the territory of modern Sweden was largely under water though, and with radically different coastlines) during the Ancylus and Litorina ages begins the [[Nordic Stone Age]]. In recent years there have been archaeological finds in caves which strongly suggest human inhabitation of Scandinavia ''before'' the Weichsel glaciation, at least 50.000 years ago, presumably by [[Neanderthal]]s. ==Stone age== {{see also|Nordic Stone Age}} ====Upper Paleolithic==== {{Main|Upper Paleolithic}} As the ice receded reindeer grazed on the plains of Denmark and southernmost Sweden. 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 BC, 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 most of southern 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 runs, 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]] (containing portions of today's [[Alaska]] and [[Canada]]). [[Image:Skivyxa, Nordisk familjebok.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Flake axe typical of the [[Ertebølle culture]].]] During the 6th millennium BC, 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 BC when the Kongemose culture was replaced by the [[Ertebølle culture]] in the south. ===Neolithic=== {{Main|Neolithic}} During the 5th millennium BC, 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 BC, they became part of the [[megalith]]ic [[Funnelbeaker culture]]. During the 4th millennium BC, 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 BC. 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. It might have been similar to basque, due to the distribution of the monuments by early megalith builders. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, 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. ==Bronze Age== [[Image:Haljesta.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Petroglyphs from Scandinavia (Häljesta, [[Västmanland]] in Sweden). Composite image.]] {{seealso|Nordic Bronze Age}} During the [[Nordic Bronze Age]], an advanced civilization manufacturing bronze weapons and bronze and gold jewellery appears in Denmark, Sweden and parts of Norway. It has been assumed that this civilization was founded in [[amber]] trade, through contacts with [[Central Europe]]an and [[Mediterranean]] cultures. The period 2300-500 BC was the most intensive petroglyph carving period, consisting of carvings of an agricultural nature and depicting warfare, ships, domesticated animals, etc. There has also been found petroglyphs with themes of sexual nature in Bohuslän; these are dated from 800-500 BC. == Iron Age == :''See also the separate articles on the [[Pre-Roman Iron Age]], the [[Vendel Age]], and the [[Roman Iron Age]]'' [[Tacitus]] (about 98 AD) described a nation called "[[Suiones]]" living on an island in Sea. These Suiones had ships that were peculiar because they had a prow in both ends (the shape we recognise as Viking ships). This word ''Suiones'' is the same name as [[Anglo-Saxon language|Anglo-Saxon]] ''Sweon'' whose country was called ''Sweoland'' ([[Svealand]]). In ''[[Beowulf]]'', this tribe is also called ''[[Sweoðeod]]'', from which the name ''Sweden'' is derived, and the country has the name '''Sweorice''' which is an old Anglo-Saxon form of the present Swedish name for Sweden. In the 6th century the [[Ostrogoth]] [[Jordanes]] mentioned a tribe named ''Suehans'' which is the same name as Tacitus' ''Suiones''. He also unwittingly described the same tribe by a different name, the ''Suetidi'' which is the same as an old name for Sweden, ''Svíþjóð'' and the English ''Sweoðeod''. Several sources, such as ''[[Beowulf]]'', ''[[Ynglingatal]]'', ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'', [[Saxo Grammaticus]] and ''[[Historia Norvegiæ|Historia Norwegiae]]'', mention a number of Swedish kings who lived in the 6th century, such as [[Eadgils]], [[Ohthere]] and [[Onela]], as well as a number of [[Geatish kings]]. Some of these kings were in all likelihood historic kings, although the sources sometimes give contradictory information, such as the death of [[Ottar (king)|Ottar]]. See [[Mythological kings of Sweden]] and [[Swedish semi-legendary kings|Semi-legendary kings of Sweden]]. In those days the kings were [[warlord]]s rather than kings as we understand that title today, and what was to become [[Sweden]], [[Norway]] and [[Denmark]] in a ''modern'' sense, were a number of petty kingdoms whose borders changed constantly as the kings killed each other, and had the local assemblies accept them as kings. The politics of these early kingdoms are retold in ''[[Beowulf]]'' (see e.g. the semi-legendary [[Swedish-Geatish wars]]) and the [[Norse sagas]]. One of the most powerful kings was the Swedish king who according to early sources only ruled what is today eastern [[Svealand]]. It is unknown when it happened and it probably happened several times, but when sources become more reliable the territories of the Swedish kings include [[Västergötland]] and other parts of [[Götaland]]. This stage is by some considered to be the beginning of Sweden, as we know it today. {{Timeline of Prehistoric Sweden}} == See also == * [[Sami history]] == Notes == {{Unreferenced|date=May 2007}} == References == * [[Curt Weibull|Weibull, Curt]], 1922: ''Sveriges och Danmarks äldsta historia - en orientering'', CWK Gleerups förlag, Lund. [[Category:Archaeology of Sweden]] [[Category:History of Sweden|1]] [[Category:Nordic Stone Age]] [[pt:Pré-História da Suécia]] [[sv:Sveriges förhistoria]]