Komsa culture

The Komsa culture was a stone age culture of hunter-gatherers that existed in northern Norway from around 6000 BC. The culture is named after the Komsa mountain in the community of Alta, Finnmark, where the first remains of the culture were discovered in 1925.

The Komsa are thought to have followed the Norwegian coastline when receding glaciation at the end of the last ice age opened up new areas for settlement. Similarities to contemporary cultures in the east seem to indicate that the Komsa moved into modern-day Finnmark from the northeast, possibly coming from Karelia or modern-day Finland.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Komsa culture was almost exclusively sea-oriented, living mainly off seal hunting and being able boatbuilders and fishermen. In comparison to southern Norway's contemporary Fosna culture, stone tools and other implements appear relatively crude. This has been explained with a paucity of flintstone in the region.

The Komsa culture seems to have disappeared around 2000 BC, probably because around that time seals became extinct in the waters around northern Norway; however, as the region remained inhabited after their disappearance, it has been speculated that the Komsa people might be in some way related to the carver culture that produced the Rock carvings at Alta, and even that they might have been the ancestors of the Sami people.

See also