The Varanger Peninsula is at the very northeastern edge of the country of Norway, in fact the very northern limits of mainland Europe, well above the arctic circle and near the Russian border. It is partly separated from the Norwegian mainland by a natural inlet, called the Varangerfjord, and it is here where, beginning about 4500 years ago, maritime hunter-gatherers lived.
Location of the Varanger Peninsula in Extreme Northeastern Norway
Map Credit: CIA World Fact Book
Archaeological investigations into Gressbakken houses, rectangular semi-subterranean houses constructed on the coastlines for the use of these hunter-gatherers, have taught archaeologists much about the hunter-gatherer lifestyles of Norway's Younger Stone Age, as reported recently in the journal Antiquity. Studies along the Varangerfjord illuminate a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in which people lived off fish, sea mammals and reindeer, in a place best known today as a birdwatching mecca for fans of Steller's Eiders, King Eiders and Gyr Falcons.
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Hey, Kris!
My sisters and I have recently discovered that we are probably descended from the Saami people from Norway’s arctic region, also known as laplanders…..I am very interested in this topic, now.
Thanks for the interesting story. I have always been amazed at how these high altitude people could survive with so much meat and so little plant food in their diets. There must have been some sort of genetic and molecular-level adaptations that allowed them to stray so far from the archetypical hominid and Homo sapiens diet.