ABSTRACT
The Stone Age in Scandinavia and Denmark, in the formal sense of this term as a definitive era wherein the use of metal was everywhere unknown, was a long period that lasted according to present reckoning from about 7000 b.c. to about 1800 b.c. The origin of the megalithic civilization in Scandinavia has been the subject of a considerable controversy, some regarding this surprising cultural development as the direct result of an invasion, or at least a strong cultural influence. The outside world, while others deem it to be an autocthonous achievement that was itself the example that inspired the building of similar tombs elsewhere in Europe. The culture–changes indicated must be held to apply only to the rich and vigorous peoples of certain geographically favoured parts of Denmark and Scandinavia, and as a background there remains always the steady and little–changed peasant–life of the Stone Age folk.
