The Fosna culture was a mostly coastal stone age culture of hunter-gatherers that existed in mid-western Norway from around 8000 BC. The culture is named after the old name of the small city Kristiansund, where one of the major sites was discovered in 1909 (near Kvernberget mountain).
A sparse archaeological record leaves some room for interpretation as to the origins of the Fosna culture; the theory currently favored by researchers posits that the culture entered Norway from the south at the end of the last ice age when herds of reindeer (which were the hunters' main food source) gradually migrated northwards following the cooler climate.
The Fosna culture gradually disappeared around 2500 BC when southern Norway's landscape started to transform from open tundra to extensive forests and the advent of farming and adoption of metal tools made the culture's way of life obsolete.
See also
Last updated: 05-14-2005 10:16:15
