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| 4
500 - 1 800 BC |
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From Early to Late
Stone Age several changes take place. The technology
for the manufacture of stone tools changes, and now
we also find many grinded tools of slate. At some
places ceramics enter the daily lives of people, and
many tools of bone are being found in the settlements
from this period. Much of the archaeological research
has focused on the Late Stone Age, and this is one
explanation to the fact that we know more about this
part of the Stone Age than the earlier period.
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| Climate |
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The rising of the sealevel, which
began around 6500 BC, ceases around 4000 BC, but the
rising of the land continues. Thus, the shoreline
is sinking. This happens much more slowly now than
in the later parts of the Early Stone Age. The warm
period that came towards the end of the Early Stone
Age ceases around 4000 BC, and the climate is gradually
cooling during the Late Stone Age. As a consequense,
a de-forestation takes place in the outer coastal
areas. In the interior of Finnmark the large forests
disappear, and around 1800 BC the vegetation is approximately
like it is today. A further consequense of the worsening
climatic conditions is that terrestric ressources
like elk and reindeer become more unpredictable. On
the other hand, marine resources are more stable.
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| Tools |
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| During
the Late Stone Age new rawmaterials are being utilized.
At the coast, red, green and grey slate eventually become
the the most frequently used rawmaterial for stone tools.
The usage of fine grained stone like chert and fine
quartzite is far more rare now than earlier. These are
replaced by coarsegrained types of stone, like coarse
quartzite and quartz. The changes occur due to new tecniques
in the manufacture of stone tools, i.e. techniques for
grinding and pressure flaking. Slate seems to have been
more in use at the coast than in the interior, which
can be explained by the slate tools mainly being used
in connection with hunting on marine mammals, like seal
and whale. From the Late Stone Age we also find artefacts
made of bone and antler conserved, like fishinghooks,
harpoons, needles, arrowheads, combs and awls. Ceramic
is in use at the southern side of the Varanger-fjord,
but in the other parts of Finnmark it is only introduced
at the end of the period. |
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| Settlement |
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| In
the Late Stone Age remains of larger dwellings along
the coast of Finnmark are more frequent than in the
Early Stone Age. The houses vary in size, but now areas
with many and easily recognizeable dwellings, as for
instance Gressbakken in Varanger, are found. Many dwellings
have two hearths, and in the later Late Stone Age sunken-floored
houses with several entrances and thick walls appear.
This, in addition the the artefacts found in the contexts
of the settlements, indicate a sedentary or semi-sedentary
pattern of settlement with a distinguished orientation
towards marine subsistence. In the interior parts there
are no indications for sedentarity. On the contrary,
a continued high degree of mobility is presumed to have
been the case. In the early Late Stone Age there seems
to have been an extensive movement between interior
and coast, while this is not the case for the later
Late Stone Age. The transition from Late Stone Age to
Early Metal Age is characterised by a strong dichotomy
between (semi)sedentary coastal groups and mobile interior
groups. |
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| At
Melkøya |
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