Bromme

Facts

Hunting for Denmark's oldest settlement

By Anders Fischer, Arkæolog, Ph. D. (11 stories)

For a long time, Bromme was thought to be the oldest settlement in Scandinavia. People had lived there for about a millennium before the Ice Age finally ended. Traces of settlements often consist of flint objects in particular. Most characteristic are the Bromme points" (see photo), which were used as the points on a hunting weapon. The finds are found clustered around central fireplaces surrounded by tools and craftsmen's waste. These are probably the traces of small family groups who stayed here during the warmer part of the year. Bones found show that they hunted elk, beavers, swans, reindeer and wolverines. "

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Hot on the trail of Ice Age man

Story written by Anders Fischer

Time / Periode -11000

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Amateur archaeologist and High Court Barrister Erik Westerby had a mission. He wanted to prove that people had lived in Denmark during the part of the Ice Age when the country wasn't covered by an ice cap. For years, he combed the banks of lakes, bogs and streams throughout Denmark. And in 1944, he finally came up trumps in a field north-west of Sorø. He found a roughly formed tool made of flint. The trail got even hotter when he found a knapped flint in a deep layer of a bog. Subsequent analyses of the pollen grains provided the final proof that this layer dated back to the end of the Ice Age – a time called the Allerød Period.