"Komsa" redirects here. For other uses, see Komsa (disambiguation).
The Mesolithic
↑ Upper Paleolithic
Mesolithic cultures
Mesolithic Europe
Fosna–Hensbacka culture
Komsa culture
Maglemosian culture
Iron Gates Mesolithic
Kunda culture
Narva culture
Komornica culture
Swiderian culture
Epipaleolithic Transylvania
Mesolithic Transylvania
Tardenoisian
Schela Cladovei culture
Mesolithic Southeastern Europe
Epipalaeolithic Near East
Levantine corridor
Natufian
Caucasus
Trialetian Mesolithic
Zagros
Zarzian culture
↓ Neolithic
v
t
e
The Komsa culture (Komsakulturen) was a Mesolithic culture of hunter-gatherers that existed from around 10,000 BC in Northern Norway.
The culture is named after Mount Komsa in the community of Alta, Finnmark, where the remains of the culture were first discovered. The term was first used by the Norwegian archaeologist Anders Nummedal (1867–1944) after the discoveries he made on Mount Komsa in 1925. The distinction between a "Komsa" type of stone-tool culture north of the Arctic Circle and a "Fosna" type from Trøndelag to Oslofjord was rendered obsolete in the 1970s. Nowadays both phenomena are ascribed to different types of tools of the same culture.[1][2]
Recent archaeological finds from Finnish Lapland were originally thought to represent an inland aspect of the Komsa culture equally old as the earliest finds from the Norwegian coast. However, this material is now considered to be affiliated with the contemporary Post-Swiderian culture of North Central Russia and the eastern Baltic and thus to represent a separate early incursion into northernmost Scandinavia.[3][4]
The commonly held view today is that the earliest settlement of the North Norwegian coast originated on the western and southwestern coast of Norway and ultimately in the final Palaeolithic Ahrensburg culture of northwestern Europe.[5] The Komsa are thought to have followed the Norwegian coastline when receding glaciation at the end of the last ice age (between 11,000 and 8000 BC) opened up new areas for settlement. It was formerly believed that some elements may have moved into modern-day Finnmark from the northeast, possibly coming from ice-free coasts of the Kola Peninsula.[1][6] However, recent research indicates that a number of the coastal sites in the Varangerfjord area previously attributed to the second phase of the "Komsa" continuum actually represent an early incursion from the southeast (northwestern Russia) and are related to the early Post-Swiderian influx discovered in northernmost Finnish Lapland.[7]
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Komsa culture was almost exclusively sea-oriented, living mainly off seal hunting and being able boat-builders and fishermen. In comparison to the southern Norway's contemporary Fosna variety of this same culture, stone tools and other implements appear relatively crude. This has been explained with a paucity of flintstone in the region.[8]
^ ab"Norway" Britannica Online
^Karin Tansem. "Anders Nummedal". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
^People, Material Culture and Environment in the North. Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Archaeological Conference, University of Oulu, 18–23 August 2004. Edited by Vesa-Pekka Herva Gummerus Kirjapaino
^Tuija Rankama & Jarmo Kankaanpää: The Earliest Postglacial Inland Settlement of Lapland, in: Kamennyi Vek Evropeiskogo Severa, Syktyvkar 2007, edited by A.V. Volokitin, V.N. Karmnov & P.Yu. Pavlov, ISBN 5-89606-291-5
^Survey and excavation at Lake Vetsijärvi, Lapland - Tuija Rankama & Jarmo Kankaanpää, in: People, Material Culture And Environment In The North, Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Archaeological Conference, University of Oulu, 18–23 August 2004, Edited by Vesa-Pekka Herva [1]
^This view was still held in the 80s:[2] The Paleohistory of Circumpolar Arctic Colonization - Janusz Kozlowski and H.-G. Bandi, Arctic 37(4) (December 1984) p. 358372
^Rankama, Tuija & Kankaanpää, Jarmo 2011, “First evidence of eastern Preboreal pioneers in arctic Finland and Norway.” Quartär 2011, 183–209.
^Dr. Vincent H. Malmström. Professor Emeritus of Geography. "Norway Before the Vikings" (PDF). Dartmouth College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-04. Retrieved August 15, 2016.
The Komsaculture (Komsakulturen) was a Mesolithic culture of hunter-gatherers that existed from around 10,000 BC in Northern Norway. The culture is named...
Natufian culture (/nəˈtuːfiən/) is a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of the Neolithic prehistoric Levant in Western Asia, dating to around 15...
Zarzian culture is an archaeological culture of late Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Southwest Asia. The period of the culture is estimated to have existed...
given to a culture of the early Mesolithic period in Northern Europe. In Scandinavia, the culture was succeeded by the Kongemose culture. The name originates...
farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa. The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated...
The Kunda culture, which originated from the Swiderian culture, comprised Mesolithic hunter-gatherer communities of the Baltic forest zone extending eastwards...
The Narva culture or eastern Baltic was a European Neolithic archaeological culture in present-day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad Oblast (former...
Finnmark county, Norway. The area has given its name to the so-called Komsaculture when in 1925, archaeological finds from the Stone Age were made in the...
first traces of a similar Stone Age culture in Northern Norway. It was named the Komsaculture after Mount Komsa, close to where the first discovery was...
discovered in Finnmark (Komsaculture) in the north and Rogaland (Fosna culture) in the southwest. Theories about the two cultures being separate were deemed...
important archaeological site of the Lepenski Vir culture (also called as Lepenski Vir-Schela Cladovei culture). It includes Mesolithic Iron Gates Hunter-Gatherers...
between 16,000 / 13,000 BP and 8,000 BP. The name of the archaeological culture derives from sites in the district of Trialeti in south Georgian Khrami...
Mesolithic cultures Mesolithic Europe Fosna–Hensbacka cultureKomsaculture Maglemosian culture Iron Gates Mesolithic Kunda culture Narva culture Komornica...
dates approximately 10,000–12,500 years ago. Diagnostic artifacts from the culture include projectile points (microliths with rounded retouched backs), crude...
suggest the presence of the Komsaculture from Norway. The Sujala finds, which are equal in age with the earliest Komsa artifacts, may also suggest a...
for at least 10,000 years (see Komsa, Pit-Comb Ware culture and Rock carvings at Alta). The destiny of these early cultures is unknown. Three ethnic groups...
evidenced by the Komsaculture in Troms and Finnmark and the Fosna culture further south. The Nøstvet culture took over from the Fosna culture ca. 7000 BC...
village which gave its name to the Komornica culture, due to the nearby archaeological sites of this culture from the Mesolithic period of Northern Europe...
(122 mi) border with Russia. The oldest known historical culture in the region is called the Komsaculture, named after a mountain in Alta. The first people...
Beuronian) is an archaeological culture of the Mesolithic/Epipaleolithic period from northern France and Belgium. Similar cultures are known further east in...
Liao invasion, Yang was appointed as military inspector (도순검사; 都巡檢使; tosun kŏmsa) of Sŏbukmyŏn. He defeated the Liao army at Hŭnghwa-jin, resisting calls...