History of Sweden
Part 1:
The Prehistoric Age (StoneAge to IronAge):
The first human beings to live and settle in Sweden were nomadic hunters and fishermen. They made their way from Denmark via the landbridge to Scandinavia. They wore clothes made of skin and fur and had weapons and tools made of bone, wood and stone; mostly flint stone.
At first they sheltered in caves but later began building huts. Their days consisted of collecting food, hunting, fishing, making new clothes and forging tools and weapons. The women helped with this work as well as cooking and cleaning.
Between these activities they often gathered for social and religious purposes. The "hunter/gatherer" society held its population down by strict and harsh controls, consciously through abortion, sexual abstinence and the putting of newborns to death; mostly girls. The classical division of labour in the nomadic society was rigidly followed so that the men carried the weapons and the women carried children and utensils. Fire was an important part of the Stone Age peoples' lives. Without fire they couldn't survive because it provided them with warmth, protection and the fuel to cook their foods etc.
From Nomads to Farmers: (cirka 4200BC)
Around this time the nomadic hunters and fishermen, although still continuing to hunt, started to cultivate the land and became farmers. Their abilities as craftsmen improved too and thus they were able to forge better weapons and tools. The improvements made in agriculture especially and the growing of crops etc, enabled the nomadic clans to settle in one place - allowing for the growth of small clusters of clans/settlements.
Today, Archaeologists are still making new finds from this era. The oldest and most well-known was made in Segebro, Malmö. There, a settlement was discovered where a hunting family lived apx 11000 years ago. The settlement was similar to a very small cottage where about 6-8 people lived.
The Bronze Age (cirka 1600BC):
Men began using axes, spears and swords made of bronze while women began to wear pins, necklaces, and belt plates of bronze in ornately decorated spiral patterns.
Bronze was imported from Middle Europe and from the British Isles. In exchange, the Scandinavians traded amber and slaves. This established the grounds for commonplace trading in Scandinavia.
However, bronze was not introduced in large amounts, mainly due to lack of appropriate tools to harvest it. Bronze was first used to indicate the power of chiefs and warriors i.e. the ones who ranked highest on the social scale. The majority of the settlements still worked with Stone and during the early Bronze Age, people with power were buried in large piles of stone (burial mounds) - often including all their wealth and possessions - of which archaeologists have found brooches, belt buckles etc. in these ancient grave sites.
The Bronze Age was also the time for the growth of woollen clothing from furs and for the taming of horses together. Burial mounds started to decline and it became common place to burn the dead on funeral pyres. Bronze Age wall paintings and carvings differed too - in the North they normally depicted quarries and so forth, whilst in the South of the country, they depicted farmers, ships, animals etc. These are thought to be connected to ancient rites e.g. asking for help with the harvest.
The Iron Age (cirka 500BC):
From the beginning of the Iron Age to the birth of Christ, the climate gradually became colder and moister. This created a need for more durable and dependable crops as well as warmer clothes. Houses were built with walls of timber and soil and with roofs of moss and straw. In central Sweden and on Öland and Gotland primative forts of soil and stone can still be found. Most of these forts are from the fifth and sixth century. The division of the land into fields and grazing land - remained in this same pattern that lasted until the late 1800's.
During the centuries following the birth of Christ, Scandinavia entered into communication with the Mediterranean world. The trade connections were lively, indicated by the large amount of silver coins from the Roman Empire which have been found in Scandinavia. In the third century, the Swedish people began using the runic alphabet. This alphabet came from southern Europe and was the first alphabet to be used in Sweden.
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