3400 BC to 792

Hunters, farmers and the Sami

People followed the retreating ice up the Norwegian coast about 11,000 years ago. At Alta in the far north, hunters carved thousands of pictures of reindeer, boats and bears into the rocks between about 4200 and 500 BC. Farming spread along the southern fjords. In the north, the Sami, Norway's indigenous people, have long lived from hunting, fishing and reindeer herding.