Arctic hunting folk on their way across the ice
Arctic hunting folk on their way across the ice. Is this the way the first human beings reached our country – across the ice from the North Sea Continent? (Photo from the 5th Thule Expedition 1921-24).(photo: Knud Rasmussen, owner: Etnologisk Samling, Nationalmuseet, København (neg. nr. 1700)).
The forgotten saga
HUNTING FOLK AND THE HUNTING SOCIETY
The saga regarding the settlement of Hordaland started off about 10,000 years ago. Most of this saga has been recorded in writing, not on paper, but on stone and on the earth in the forest and the marshes. Contemporary written sources that can tell us of life and fate in the distant times only go back about 1,000 years. Further back the sources are silent. All memories are forgotten. He who wishes to know something about the times before that will have to turn to the silent testimony from distant ancestors; the menhirs and stone crosses, to grave mounds along the routes, to inscriptions on the rock. Such great monuments from the past speak directly to us, and can convey to us something of the forgotten saga.
The relationship between land, the ice and the sea about 10,000 years ago. West of Hordaland, on the Viking Bank, there may have been a large low-lying island. (after: Blystad, P. (1989) Nordsjøen i seinkvartær tid. Stavanger, Archaeological Museum in Stavanger. Part of the series "AmS-rapport", volume 1).
The first hunting folk settled right on the seashore.(Helge Sunde).
The quarry on the western wall at Hespriholmen - more than 8,000 years old. (Anders Stavland).
From the archaeological excavation at Skipshelleren in the summer of 1931. (owner: Universitetsmuseet i Bergen (A 1129)).
4-6000 year old harpoon points and fish hooks from Skipshelleren. (owner: University Museum in Bergen).
This is where reindeer was hunted 8,000 years ago. Finnsbergvatnet at Hardangerjøkulen. Sumtangen in the far distance to the left. (Helge Sunde).
Reindeer (Helge Sunde).
The red dear on Bjelkaneset in Kvam – was it art or magic? (Svein Nord).
Hardangervidda – veidemark gjennom meir enn 8000 år (Svein Nord).
Pilespissar frå Hardangervidda. Flintpilene nedst er 4-5000 år gamle. Skiferspissane i midten ca. 4000 år. Kvartsittpilene øvst er frå bronsealderen, ca. 1000 år f.Kr. (eigar: Universitetsmuseet i Bergen).