Northern Scandinavia

Abstract

Northern Scandinavia in this chapter comprises Norway, the northern half of Sweden, and Finland. The attempt to follow large-scale cultural processes transcending national borders 10,000 cal bc—c. 4,000 cal bc as the last part of the Weichelian ice slowly melted in this area, illustrates the importance of an over-regional perspective. Evaluating the archaeological evidence from three main periods, Early, Middle, and Late Mesolithic shows that the cultural change related to these generalized periods happened more or less simultaneously over this vast area, indicating communication between hunter-gatherers in large scale networks including southern Scandinavia and areas far east of Fennoscandia. It is also shown that the spatial structure and change of the different cultural traditions related to spatial arrangements shaped during the pioneer settlement. The change was partly the result of adaptation to variation in climate but also processes of large-scale migrations and historical circumstances. In the chapter, we will follow pioneers migrating into virgin land, adapting to the gradual introduction of new flora and fauna from an initial postglacial reindeer dominance and open tundra-like environment, to the development of a forested landscape and whereby fauna becomes more varied as the post glacial warming continued.