Archaeologists recently unearthed a startling discovery in Vinjeøra in southern Trøndelag County that they had only ever dreamed of discovering.
Flint objects with completely straight and parallel side edges told archaeologists that what they had found was extra exciting. Credit: Silje Elisabeth Fretheim
The initial finds, enormous shards of flint that were strikingly suggestive of early, pioneer villages, appeared to be very promising.
But it soon became apparent that Silje would be closer than anyone had thought to swallowing her hard helmet. What they had discovered was completely different and far more interesting.
Individuals from the east
When the excavations in Vinjeøra started up properly, the researchers at once found objects that had entirely different characteristics and did not resemble anything that would be expected from a pioneer village.
Small and medium-sized flint artefacts, also known as lithics and microlithics, were discovered. A ruler could have been used to make some of the sharp edges on several of the artifacts, according to Fretheim, an archaeologist at the NTNU University Museum.
Archaeologists don't just dig with a shovel. Here, the top layer of soil in the excavation area is removed before the "fine digging" begins. Credit: Silje Elisabeth Fretheim
There was little question that we had found a different form of stone technology than we identify with pioneer culture because we also found a conical lithic core, the researcher added.
The researchers instead discovered evidence from humans who arrived in Finnmark from the east around 9000 BC.
Two migratory waves
In comparison to the rest of Europe, Scandinavia saw the longest periods of ice during the previous Ice Age. Around 12,500 years ago, the Norwegian shore finally stopped being covered in ice. About a thousand years later, the first people began to settle in what are today known as Sweden and Norway.
Previous skeletal studies have demonstrated that during the period after the ice began to retreat, Scandinavia saw two significant waves of migration. Southwesterly was the first to arrive. It was composed of individuals who had lived in present-day Spain and Portugal during the last Ice Age and had later relocated to the north as the ice retreated. They had blue eyes, but darker skin than modern Scandinavians.
In a matter of a few centuries, they "populated the entire Norwegian coast up to Finnmark," according to Fretheim.
This is a type of stone hammer, a tool flint smiths used to shape tools. The technique used by the eastern immigrants was quite difficult. It’s something you have to be trained in, it’s not something you can copy just by looking at a tool, Fretheim said. Credit: Silje Elisabeth Fretheim
A further significant wave of migration occurred a thousand years later, this time coming from the northeast. These were individuals who had moved north through Russia and Finland to the coast of Finnmark from regions near the Black Sea or Ukraine. They had paler complexion, and the hues of their eyes varied.
They used a unique method for making stone tools that was obviously distinct from the methods used by the migrants from the south. This method gradually gained control and became prevalent.
It appears that when the two cultures came together, they each had something to teach the other. The people from the east brought new technology, whereas those from the south were familiar with the environment and way of life along the shore, which the people from the east must have been unaware of, according to Fretheim.
During the early centuries, it appears that the people from the east adopted the way of life of those who already lived here and led nomadic lives in lightweight homes, possibly tents. Like the southern pioneers, who relied on the sea for their nourishment, they were likely dependent on boats.
According to Fretheim, "DNA studies also show that the two groups mixed."
Unusual discovery
Why, then, are artifacts from the Eastern wave of immigration so thrilling to find?
This map shows what the sea level—and shoreline—was like 10,200 years ago. The red ring shows the excavation area at Skardbekken. Credit: Silje Elisabeth Fretheim
While many artifacts from southern migrants—the pioneer culture—have been discovered along Central Norway's outer shore to the south of Trondheim Fjord, Fretheim notes that there have been almost no discoveries in that area that can be positively linked to the early migrants from the east.
One example, according to Fretheim, is a small town in Malvik near Foldsjøen that was unearthed during the 1980s.
The absence of evidence from the eastern immigrants on the outer coast is not mysterious. Most of the evidence of settlement along Norway's western coast between 8500 and 7000 BC has vanished, been washed away, degraded, or been buried in beach sand due to changes in sea level in the years that followed the Ice Age.
Because of this, Fretheim claims that there aren't many finds made by these people between Finnmark and Eastern Norway.
However, she added, "Deep in the fjords, the uplift progressed differently, and settlements here were preserved as a result."
The archaeologists haven't been able to concentrate their search for settlements from the people from the east since they are unable to choose where to excavate on their own. This is because excavations for archaeology are typically done in conjunction with the construction of new structures or buildings. For instance, this excavation is being done as part of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration's construction of the new E39 expressway through Vinjera.
"We were dealt a perfect hand here," said Fretheim. "We have dreamed of finding this for a long time."
For dinner, a hard hat?
I had to put Fretheim on the spot since this author takes her duties as a journalist seriously. Should she eat her hard hat?
“Based on the nearby beach displacement curve, we are now dating the town to be between 10,200 and 10,300 years old. Because of this, even if the settlement was different than I had anticipated, I have narrowly escaped having to eat my hard hat”, she added.
