Abstract The Norwegian coast facing the Atlantic Ocean was ice free as early as the Allerød oscillation in the late Pleistocene. The landscape was probably habitable for humans. It has, therefore, been assumed by several scholars that this coastline was visited or inhabited from the Late Glacial period onwards. In part, this argumentation is based on the presumed proximity of the Norwegian mainland and Doggerland, which existed between present-day Denmark and Great Britain because of a much lower global sea level. The aim of this paper is to examine the 14 C dates available from the oldest Norwegian settlement sites, and to compare them to the Quaternary processes of deglaciation and sea-level change. The hypothesis is advanced that humans did not settle in present-day Norway before a sheltering passage of islands and peninsulas had developed between the Swedish west coast (Bohuslän) and the Oslo area. This happened in the second half of the Preboreal period, at approximately 9.3 cal ka BC, or in the final centuries of the tenth millenniun BC. Supplementary material: 14 C dates used in Figures 2, 4 and 9 are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18779 .

The conventional assumption that erosion by ice sheets is pervasive and effective in landscape evolution is tested in northern Sweden using geomorphic mapping and cosmogenic nuclide analyses of formerly glaciated surfaces. The following evidence indicates that recent glaciations in this region have produced only slow and patchy landscape evolution: (1) Geomorphic mapping shows that at least 20% of the repeatedly glaciated study region in the northern Swedish mountains has landforms that are relict, i.e., clearly nonglacial in origin. (2) The contrast between cosmogenic apparent exposure ages from relict landforms in the northern Swedish mountains and from overlying glacial erratics and juxtaposed glacially eroded bedrock surfaces, which are consistent with last deglaciation, implies that the relict landforms have been preserved through multiple glacial cycles. (3) Apparent 10 Be and 26 Al exposure ages for tor summit bedrock surfaces in the northern Swedish lowlands reveal that these relict landforms have survived at least eleven exposure and ten burial events with little or no erosion over the past ∼1 m.y. (4) The northern Swedish lowland and mountains are primarily covered by glacial landforms. However geomorphic mapping suggests that even these landforms may have undergone limited erosion during the last glacial cycle. Cosmogenic 10 Be and 36 Cl data from what appear to be heavily scoured areas in one glacial corridor indicate erosion of only ∼2 ± 0.4 m of bedrock during the last glaciation. These results suggest that in some areas the overall modification produced by ice sheets may be more restricted than previously thought, or it has occurred preferentially during earlier Quaternary glacial periods.