I NTRODUCTION In northern Fennoscandia (i.e. the northern-most parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland and the neighbouring areas in north-western Russia (see Fig. 1), in following simply: Fennoscandia) the archaeological evidence suggests increased exploitation of the interior by groups from around the Bothnic Bay and by groups from the Atlantic coast in the Atlantic period. While it is possible that groups from these separate settlement areas met by coincidence even earlier, it is likely that such direct encounters increased in frequency from 6000 BC. What was the character of the interaction with other groups, how did these develop and what were the consequences for the Atlantic groups? The following represents a preliminary hypoth- esis based on the existing and rather sparse data. What I wish to emphasize in the suggested histor- ical trajectory and in future analyses is the impor- tance of simultaneous analyses of interregional and regional interaction as well as local socio-eco- nomic developments, and the probably interdepen- dence of the local and the interregional. PRELUDE At the beginning of the Holocene large parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula was still covered by the ice. This meant that Fennoscandia was settled by different groups from different directions. Some came along the coast of Norway as early as around 9000-8500 BC calibrated (Bjerck 1995). Others came from the southeast into Finland, reaching northern Finland around 7500-7000 BC quite some time after the ice had melted, and possibly continuing west- wards into northern Sweden (Matiskainen 1996; Olofsson 2003; Rankama 2003). Northern Sweden was most likely settled around 7500-7000 BC by groups having earlier immigrated from the south- west through a passage from Central Norway (Olofsson 2003). The groups that settled in northern Norway along the Atlantic coast appear to have exploited pri- marily marine resources. They kept to the outer coastal areas and the fjords, and did not venture far away from the coast. The early groups in northern Sweden, however, exploited not only the coastal resources in the Bothnic Bay, but also (and perhaps predominantly) the relative low lying forest areas, where they caught beaver and elk (Forsberg 1996). 197 Interregional Contacts across Northern Fennoscandia 6000-4000 BC Charlotte Damm 1 1. Dept. of Archaeology, University of Tromsø. Fig. 1. Northern Fennoscandia encircled. The region covers parts of present day Norway (N), Sweden (S), Finland (F) and Russia (R).