The Kullaberg caves. Between the Ice Age and the present, between natural science and the humanities.

What is the reality behind our idea of cave dwellers? Through archaeological discoveries, local history and international politics, the Kullaberg caves provide a new outlook on the notion of cave dwellers and answers to the question of how the caves at Kullaberg have been used from the Ice Age until today.

Along the foot of the Kullaberg hills, there are about twenty caves close to the coast. Cliffs and steep slopes make them hard to reach both from the sea and from land. Ever since the Ice Age, the caves have been used in various ways and visited for various reasons.

Archaeological excavations and osteological analysis of animal bones from some of the caves give a number of clues to all these thousands of years. Local history and international political events provide other angles. What we know is that the caves have been used among other things as temporary resting places for the flint carvers of the Stone Age, the fishermen of the Iron Age and the tourists of the modern era.

This project reviews how the idea of cave dwellers emerged and to what extent that image corresponds to the way in which the caves at Kullaberg were actually used