From: d89-jsp@nada.kth.se (Jan Sparrendahl)
Newsgroups: soc.history
Subject: Scandinavian Stone- and bronzeage
Date: 9 Apr 92 20:39:54 GMT
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden


   This is an abstract from article in Dagens Nyheter 9 april 1992.
   I thought it might be of intrest. If you are not intrested in 
   Scandinavian archaeology you might as well skip this article since it
   is fairly long, 4kBytes. 

   The article is about new excavations in the far north that have remarkably 
   close resemblace to other findings in the east. The area in question are
   about 100 by 200 km in size.
   
   I have transcribed an a with a ring over it (}) as aa and an a with to two
   dots over it ({) as ae.

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Indications that the nothernmost provinces of Sweden had intence relations 
to culturs more east during the stone- and bronzeage are growing stronger.
Large houses from the bronze age and stone age villages with up to 30 hoses
and 5000 year old pottery are some examples of thit early influence from the
east. The finding during the last few years have made Norrbotten the most
intresting archaeological region in the country.
- We have found 100 stone age villages and 300 houses, the head of the Luleaa
  office of the riksantikvarieaembetet RA] (~achaeological office of the realm)
  Lennart Klang, says.
At the same time as the RA] opened an office in Luleaa some Umeaa 
archaeologists opened a stoneagevillage at Vuollerim in the interiour of
Norrbotten, for visitors. The 6000 year old setlement that consists of five
houses have grown a tourist attractor. RA] archaeologist have not yet seached
for villages that far west. Still several villages as old as the one at 
Vuollerim and some at least 1000 year older. 

The houses are about 12 m long and 10 m wide. The oldest house found so far 
is at Altraesket and is 7000 years old. The lived mainly from hunting seals.
In the interiour of the duchy the food consisted of elks and fish from lakes
and rivers. The costal areas had larger settlements than the woodlands.
The seals have been hunted from the ice and caught in nets.

1990 the archaeologists found an 5000 year old settlement that used comb
pottery. The term comb pottery refers to a method of decorating pottery 
using a comblike device that they pressed into the still wet clay. This
settlement consisted of eight houses the lagest of which were 70 sqms. The
same summer they found two more villages with comb pottery. The combpottery
cultur is known from suthern Poland in the south to the Varanger area in the 
north. Finish archaeologists have earlier estimated the most western occurances
of the comb pottery culture to be at Kemi river. 
- Some findings in Upper Kalix allso consists of flintstone of russian fashion.
  This implies that nothern Norrland archaeologically belongs to a different 
  region than southern Scandinavia, Lennart Klang says.

The most sensational of the findings was a grave from the hunter stone age. It 
was found in Manjaerv in AElvsby district. The corpse was soked in red ocher
and covered with stones. This kind of eastern fashon grave have never before
been found in Sweden. Close to Onega in Russia there are gravefields with 
similar 6000 year old graves. 

At Flatteborg near Mojaerv in the Kalix district there are remains of many
large houses from the bronze age. The hoses in this settlement are from 1800-
1500 BC. The are about 40 by 20 meters. According to Mr Klang they are the
largest of there kind yet found in Sweden.

Some of the finding have been hard to explain. A few large fields of cooking-
dugouts has puzzled the archaeologists. The fifty very large cooking dugouts 
containd burned stone in large quantities. They have a diameter of up to four
meters. There is no information if what they have been used to but they could
have been used to some large scale cooking like the extracting of oil from
seals or the cooking seals.

In the archipelago the archaeologists have excavated about 100 stone-paved
labyrinths. The allso found some fishing communitys dating from about 900 AD. 

Next year the archaeologist will move inland of the duchy, the woodland and 
to the Scandic mountain range. They expect to discover very inspiering things.
- This is a white spot at the archaeology maps except Vuollerim, Lennart Klang
  at the Luleaa office of the RA[, says.

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