Preboreal
«Birch time»
You are now in Preboreal time, 10 000 – 9 000 years ago.
Preboreal was a time where the temperatures rode – at the end of Preboreal, the temperatures were about the same as they are today. The landscape changed immensely at this time. The.
We call this period “Birch time” because birch thrived and formed forests. One also believes that hazel and scots pine started to establish themselves at southern Norway and could have spread further north with crowberry and other heather species.
Other species migrated to Norway. The snowy owl thrived in the new, warmer climate, which caused rich access to lemmings. Whales and other fish species arrived with the warm water from the gulf stream which begins at the warm, Caribbean Ocean in the south, up the Norwegian coast, and further up to the North Sea. There are many residues of bones from minke whale and other whales between Lillesand to Mandal from the Preboreal time.
The reindeers came, and with them came wolverine and wolf. Since the reindeers were the most important prey of the stone age people, the first humans established here in the south of Norway. Yet, there could perhaps have been humans here 10 000 – 12 000 years ago.