The Pioneer Condition on the Scandinavian Peninsula: the Last Frontier of a ‘Palaeolithic Way’ in Europe

This article takes a new approach to patterns in settlement and technology in the early Mesolithic of Norway and the Scandinavian peninsula in general. Throughout the entire period we witness stability in settlement patterns and durability of technological practices. An attempt is made to explain the highly mobile life – combined with egalitarian structures and the absence of any changes in blade technology – through hunting practices embedded in the human-reindeer relationship. The early Mesolithic on the Scandinavian peninsula is a context in which hunting groups experienced a very changing world. This situation probably triggered the need for stability in social and animal relations. The early Post-Glacial context provided possibilities of seeking out vast areas of new lands, that paradoxically also served to sustain a way of life. This is the ‘Palaeolithic way’.