Prehistoric times
The first people, who appeared in modern Norway approx. 11 000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, there were newcomers from Siberia. Most likely they belonged to the old hunter culture, called Komsa, and they were the ancestors of the modern Sami, that is, the Sami. Only that much is known about Samach, that they have lived in the northern part of Scandinavia since pre-Christian times. In prehistoric times, the Fosna culture developed in the coastal areas of present-day Trondheim and on the northern tip of the western fjords. The basis of the existence of this people was hunting, fishing and cattle breeding.
After the end of the glaciation in the northern part of Europe, peoples from Central Europe began to move north and settle in the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, m.in. on the south coast of Norway. Because the first settlers, belonging to the N0stvet culture-0happens, they had no access to flint, they had to make bone tools. Initially, these tribes led a nomadic lifestyle, dealing with hunting and gathering. Only after several thousand years, the first permanent settlements began to be established. The origin of peoples from the southern part of Norway, who came from the interior of the European continent in the Stone Age, presumably is not homogeneous. Possible, that tall people predominated, fair-haired and blue-eyed, speaking the Germanic language, from which modern Scandinavian languages have developed.
Ok. 2500 r. p.n.e. representatives of the battle ax culture migrated from what is now Sweden to southern Norway, the boat ax culture and the funnelbeaker culture (the names are derived from the various stone tools and objects they use). Due to the abundance of various types of natural materials, relatively few tools were made of bronze or other metals. The most important remains from the Bronze Age are images of boats and religious symbols carved in the rock (Scandinavian petroglyphs, that is, rock drawings). They testify to the growing importance of travel and the development of trade, and to establish trade contacts with the peoples of the south and west. The Scandinavians exchanged amber for metals with the inhabitants of those areas, especially bronze.
Drawings carved in the rock, from the period before 500 r. p.n.e., depict farm work and marine scenes. They reflect the development of land farming and boat building methods, as well as technological progress. Burial mores from that period – especially building mounds – they indicate, that the spiritual and secular leaders were then mighty leaders. Ok. 500 r. p.n.e. the climate of the region has slightly warmed, which enabled the development of agriculture. Later, when it cooled down, people had to change farming methods and adapt to climate change. This is indicated by the remains of stone and turf houses, farms and furnaces from that period.
Although trade between southern Norway and the Mediterranean froze during the migration of the Celts heading eastward, trade relations were renewed in the declining period of the Roman Empire. The Romans provided people from the North with fabrics, ironware and ceramics. The use of iron tools made it possible to clear forests and create larger arable lands. Larger boats were built with iron axes. W V w. the ancestors of the Norwegians learned the method of smelting iron ore, whose deposits were discovered in the swampy areas of today's southern Norway. The runic alphabet also appeared, possibly of Germanic origin, which over the following centuries became a communication tool. This is evidenced by the inscriptions carved on stone slabs found throughout the area in question. After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was a two-hundred-year period of migration and fighting, fought between the inhabitants of several regions of the country.
Ok. 700 r. Irish monks built a monastery in Selje, probably the first evidence of Christianity in Norway. At that time, due to difficult geographic conditions, most of Norway was divided into small parts, independent, separate kingdoms, ruled by the jarls (magnates). In the minds of Europeans, Norway was associated only with the so-called. Norovegr (North Way], the trade route leading west from the Oslofjord along the south coast.