Article written by Tove Damholt

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For millennia, Denmark’s natural resources have influenced the way Danes live their lives. During the Stone Age, flint was the most important resource. Today, oil and gas fields are the new gold mine. Danes have always sworn by their own resources, and to this day the country’s own natural resources are the raw materials of choice when it comes to building, heating, technology or new roads.

Even though it is possible for Denmark to import all the natural resources it desires, doing so is costly. And for that reason, Danes continue to look to the natural resources they have used for thousands of years.
During the Stone Age, flint was king of the natural resources. The high quality of Danish flint is due to the thick layers of limestone and chalk in the soil. Because both are found in large quantities, it is possible to extract it directly from limestone and chalk cliffs. A belt of such cliffs cuts a swath from Bulbjerg and Hanstholm in the north, through Djursland on the east coast of Jutland, and down towards Faxe, Stevns and Møn in the south-east. Flint, however, was deposited throughout Danish soil by the advancing and retreating glaciers of the Ice Age.
Due to its composition of microscopic crystals, flint can be split into thin, sharp splinters. The first Danes exploited this to make flint arrowheads, as well as scraping and cutting tools. In…

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