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.
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.
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