| Stone Age
| | The Stone Age is term for the period about 12.000 BC to 1800 BC.
This long period is often divided into the older and younger Stone Age.
Flint was the most common work tool and weapon
The flint axe finds are mostly from the younger Stone Age. Photo: Fotevik Museum.
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Early Stone Age
| | The Early Stone Age spreads over about 12.000 BC until about 4.000 BC.
Characteristic for the period is that relatively few people lived in the Sound region and that these people had not settled in the sense that they cultivated the soil. |
Summary
The first hunters´ families met an Arctic climate with a tundra-like landscape, while the families, during the latter part of the period, lived in large and dense forests full of wild animals.
Some of the oldest traces after human beings in the Sound region are the Stone Age finds, which were found at Mölleröd close to the Finja Lake in northern Scania. Reindeer hunters here left worked up flint especially in the form of arrowheads.
Another find from our oldest ancestors comes from Segebro in Malmo´s northern edge. This settlement is dated to about 8. 300 BC.
Segebro
Segebro is situated in Malmo´s northern outskirts. For a short period of time one or more reindeer families about 8000 BC settled here to hunt. They left a large amount of worked up flint, which were used as different tools. It wasn’t a big settlement, but traces after a large tent has been found.
We have also found to places, where the reindeer hunters have sat splitting flint stones for scrapers, knives and arrowheads. Here were heaps of half-finished tools. With round stones they hammered chips and splinters from larger flint blocks. These oblong chips they then worked up further. A number of them became strong points, which were used for weapons. Others had a sharp edge and they were used for scrapers
These first Malmo residents were nomads. The animals were their foundation of life. From reindeer and moose they had meat, but also skin for clothes, tents, transport packing and much more. The animals´ tendons were used for sewing thread, the bones and the horns became work tools. The tents were made from animals´ skins, the women cooked the meat, which the men after successful hunts brought home to the camp. With the flint tools they could work up skins, wood and the animals´ horns and bones.
Segebro |
Settlements under the Water
In the older Hunter Stone Age, the water level in southern Scandinavia was considerably lower than today. This explains why there is a large amount of pine stumps deep down on the bottom of the Baltic. Fishermen from Bornholm have through the 18th century drawn in tree stumps from 30 and 80 metres depth in their nets; clear proof of how low the water level was back then. The Sound was, during most of the older Stone Age just a narrow water area with a number of larger and smaller islands.
The Temperature Rises and the Ice Melts:
In connection with the rise in temperature globally, large masses of ice melted and the surface of the oceans rose. In the period 7.500 BC until about 6.000 BC the surface of the Sound rose to almost 3 metres over the level of today. Gradually the water drew back and formed the coast line we know today.
On the bottom of the Sound we therefore find numerous Stone Age hunters´ settlements. Most of the ones we know are 7.000 years old.
The Find at Limhamn:
One example of such a Stone Age hunters´ settlement is the find at Limhamn. When they dug up mud at Limhamn´s harbour in 1891, they also found turf and worked up flint. Among other things from 13 stone axes.
The find came from a settlement from 5000 BC in two or three metres depth under the surface of today´s Sound.
The find at Hven:
Another ”subterranean” settlement in the Sound has been found near the island, Hven. On the nearby mainland just south of the island, is the town of Landskrona, where the small river, Saxåen, today ends in the Sound. When the water in the Sound was much lower than today, the river ended at Hven. From this former river there is deep groove on the bottom of the Sound today.
By examining the river ravine´s sides, divers have been able to trace several hidden settlements. One of these lies on the Pilhaken ground.
From a bottom level seven metres under the surface the former river ravine reaches steeply downwards to a depth of 14 metres. On the edges of the racvine the archaeologists found remnants of a settlement. The different traces were inside a thick layer of mud. There were large amounts of flint tools, bones from aurochs, red deer and roe deer and they showed that our early ancestors did not live by fishing alone.
Found at Espergærde, North Zealand:
Just in front of Egebæksvang Church on the coast road, divers have recently observed a settlement under the water.
Oak trunk |
Skateholm and Vedbæk
In Skateholm at the south coast of Scania, just east of Trelleborg, is one of the largest known settlements in southern Scandinavia from the youngest part of the older Stone Age, about 5. 600 BC to 4. 700 BC.
Apart from traces after simple huts, a large number of graves have been found. The settlement is fairly contemporary with the settlement, which Danish archaeologists unearthed in Vedbæk on the Danish side of the Sound. Together these two settlements give us invaluable information of the people of that time and their living conditions.
The Vedbæk find is exhibited in G. Holtegård, Zealand, while the Skateholm find can be seen in Trelleborg Museum, Scania.
Skateholm I | 
Skateholm II | 
Reconstruction of hut |
Bergmandsdal
In 1955 a house owner on the coastal road found traces after the many settlements in the Sound region from around 5.000 BC.
Archaeological excavations at the site uncovered three human skeletons, five dog skeletons and a number of flint axes, antler axes and handles for these. The antler axes as well as the handles were ornamented in geometric patterns, which were common to the hunter groups of South Scandinavia.
From the find we can see that the Stone Age hunters at the place have lived off fishing and hunting in the forests. Here they hunted deer, pigs, fur animals and birds.
Antler Axe | 
Ornament on the Axe | 
Antler Handle |
Late Stone Age
| | This period of our Nordic past spreads over about 4.000 BC until about 1.800 BC.
Agriculture was far more common and the settlements more per
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Summary
This period in our Nordic past covers 4.000 BC until 1.800 BC.
It is characteristic that agriculture spread and the population thus became more settled than before. This also changed the way people lived together. The tools, the flint axes, changed and new ways of storage became necessary, for example pottery. Instead of a population, which mainly lived off hunting and fishing, it was now the crops from the increasing agriculture, which became principal basis of existence. This is also why the period is called The Peasant Stone Age.
The Peasant Stone Age is normally divided into three periods referred to by the archaeologists as:
Eolithic
Paleolithic
Neolithic
The Megalith Graves
The burial customs of the period means that there are still distinct traces in the cultural landscape of the Sound region after these early and enterprising peasants in the form of large stone graves. The so-called dolmen and passage graves. They are commonly called megaliths
In current Denmark we know about 6000 dolmen and 700 passage graves, but it is often only remnants, which can be seen.
Calculations estimate that there have been 20-25.000 of these megaliths in the period 3.500-3.200 BC. (See Odense Museum) A very interesting social historical phenomenon.
Traditionally the dolmens are dated the Eolithic period and the passage graves to the Paleolithic period, but the two megaliths are inextricably linked.
The large stone graves were for several hundred years used as single graves (chieftains?) and later as the common burial ground for the local area.
Long Mounds
A special type of graves, the so-called ”long mounds” was a kind of forerunner for the dolmens. They have been dated to the oldest part of the Peasant Stone Age – i.e. the part, which is referred to as Eolithic.
The long mounds can seem very impressive even though the height often is a few metres. The width is less than 10 metres, but the length can be considerable. The long mounds are the first known monumental graves from the past above the soil.
Unlike the later long dolmens the burial chamber itself is not built of stone, but of wood. What characterizes a long mound from outside is that the oblong, rectangular grave area has a border marking made of upright stones.
An example of such a long mound is the so-called ”Jättegrav” by Trelleborg in Scania. Here are about 60 stones left around the grave area, but in the Stone Age there have been more than twice as many. The grave is only about 5 metres wide, but on the other hand all of 64 metres long. This makes it the largest of its kind in Sweden.
Round Dolmens and Long Dolmens
Dolmens are stone chamber graves, where large stone blocks are placed on supporting stones. Among the dolmens we distinguish – according to shape - between round dolmens and long dolmens. The spaces between the large stones have been filled out with smaller stones on top of each other.
Nowadays we often see dolmens, which are completely free-standing. It was not like that in the past. At that time these grave chambers were almost hidden under a layer of earth.
The Skegri dolmen | 
The Gantofte dolmen | 
Dolmen from Höör in Scania | 
Dolmen at Klosterris in North Zealand |
Long Dolmens
Nowadays we often see dolmens, which are completely free-standing. It was not like that in the past. At that time these grave chambers were almost hidden under a layer of earth.
Often the edges of the mound formed a square platform marked with border stones. The remnants of a long dolmen has been excavated in Fosie outside Malmø. It was reconstructed in Scania´s Animal Park close to Höör in the middle Of Scania.
Long Barrows
Often the edges of the hill formed a square platform marked with border stones. The remains of a long barrow have been excavated in Fosie outside Malmø. In the 1980´s it was reconstructed in Scania´s Animal Park close to Höör in the middle of Scania.
In North Zealand, at Trollesminde close to Hillerød, one of Denmark´s biggest long barrows: ”Rokkestenen” was found in 1855. The long barrow is 40 metres long and 25 metres wide and consists of a coffin shaped burial chamber, which is encircled by a number of border stones – some of the to metres in height. The roof of the pang barrow, the cover stone measures two times three metres and weighs approximately 12-14 tons.
During the excavation of the enormous cover stone they discovered that the stone could be rocked to and fro. Hence the name ”Rokkestenen”.
Hillerød Municipality has in collaboration with the National Museum cleared the area around the relic in 2007, so we are able to enjoy the sight in the field between Peder Oxes Allé and the motorway.
Long barrow at Hillerød |
Passage Graves
The passage grave is a rectangular or oval grave chamber, which was often used as a collective burial place. They have been built inside a relatively short period of time and belong to the Paleolithic period about 3.200 BC.
The passage graves are an architectural further development of the dolmens in the way that the grave chamber itself – sometimes there are two - is rather big and has several cover stones. In order to enter the grave chamber one must go through a 4-6 metres long and narrow corridor.
On the Scanian side of the Sound there are two well preserved passage graves, one at Barsebäck, and one at Ålabodarna. You can crawl into both of these Stone Age graves. Remember to bring a flashlight!
On the Danish side of the Sound there is a well preserved passage grave in Roskilde, with admittance all year round. And in the woods and fields in Elsinore municipality there are many more or less well-preserved traces after dolmens as well as passages graves.
The Passage Grave in Gillhög |
Flint Axes
The flint axe is a tool, which is connected to the Peasant Stone Age. It took strong axes to cut down the big trees, first and foremost hardwood, which formed large and dense woods in the landscape 3.000 years BC.
The Core Axes
They knew flint axes well in the hunters´ Stone Age, but they were light and could not be used for cutting down large trees. The hunters´ flint axes were the so-called ”core axes”, which were rather crudely formed and cut from a smaller, oblong flint. They also had the so-called ”flake axes”, which was made by splitting a larger flint block.
The Pointed-Butted Axes
During the Eolithic period about 3.900 BC – 3.300 BC the sharpened flint axes began to surface in southern Scandinavia. First came the so-called “pointed-butted axes. The axe type has been found in large amounts in Scania and in Zealand. As early as the end of the 19th century the legendary Swedish archaeologist Montelius pointed out that this type was the oldest sharpened flint axes. The pointed-butted axe was grinded thoroughly and sharpened towards the butt. It has no narrow sides; the two vaulted sides join in a sharp edge.
The Thin-Butted Axes
In the Paleolithic period an entirely new type of flint axes surface. They are often much bigger and longer. They are called “thin-butted”. They are flat and narrower towards the neck. The length varies from 15 to 40 centimetres.
The change of the flint axe from the pointed-butted to the tin-butted must have served a specific purpose – forest clearing. With the bigger axes they now had an efficient tool to clear the forests and thus expand the farm land.
The Stone Age man apparently took the landscape into possession at this time.
Core Axes | 
Flint Tools |
Pottery
Another proof of the fact that the early hunter society became more settled in the Eolithic period is the rich occurrence of pottery from the period. Pottery is fragile and is not suited for the vagrant existence of the hunter society.
The Funnel Beaker Culture
A characteristic trait in the abandoned settlements from the Eolithic period is the many special pottery finds, the so-called ”funnel beakers”. The name indicated that the pottery has the form of a beaker with a neck. The oldest funnel beakers were rather clumsy containers. But the people who used them must have been settled and certainly not people travelling. The funnel beaker pottery can thus be considered a greeting from the first farmers in Scania and in Zealand
In this from of pottery we see man´s desire artistic display. The wet clay was and is an excellent material when it comes to design and decoration. It is interesting that that the sparse decoration of the beakers is almost identical on both sides of the Sound, which indicates that there must have been close contact among the population in the Sound region.
Stone Age Pottery |
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