Stone Ages to late Middle Ages Stone Age (13 000 – 1 700 BCE)
About 9,000 years ago, when the ice sheet had retreated from Gotland, the first people started coming here. They were mainly fishermen and hunters and the remains of habitations have been found on Stora Karlsö, among other places. Gotland was smaller in surface area than it is today, sea level was much higher. There were many lakes and streams, open moorland and forests with both pine and deciduous trees.
Bronze Age (1 700 – 500 BCE)
Photo: Roger Arleryd
The people of Gotland devoted a lot of time to hunting and fishing, but slowly agriculture and animal husbandry began to become more prevalent. Trade in handicrafts and bronze spread through migratory people. Many objects from this era, mainly axes and knives, have been found on Gotland. In the Bronze Age, rock carvings were made depicting ships, warriors, ceremonies and animals. Other memorials on the island from this time are stone cairns, a kind of burial monument. Gotland has over 1,000 stone cairns – the highest being eight meters tall. At the end of the Bronze Age, the Gotlanders began to make ship settings – stones that stand tall in boat-like formations – as graves. There are around 350 on the island, the most famous of which is Tjelvar's grave on eastern Gotland.
13 000 – 1 700 BCE
1 700 – 500 BCE
STONE AGE
BRONZE AGE
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