Early Metal Age (2000 - 1 B.C.)

The last 2000 years B.C. are marked by new raw materials and artefact groups; among other things metals and pottery. Still, stone tools dominate among the finds up to 1000 B.C. The houses are larger than earlier. People have become more settled, but still fishing and hunting are the sources to the most important food. There is only a single find from Elgsnes that can definitely be dated to this period: A fragment of an arrow-point. There are probably more objects from this period still hidden in the ground.

Metal and Agriculture

During the last century B.C. stone tools are gradually replaced by metal ones. Still, we do not speak of a normal "Bronze Age" in southern Troms. In the nearby Vågsfjorden area objects have been found that belong to the traditional south Scandinavian Bronze Age. So undoubtedly there was extensive contact between the people along the coast.

Stone-setting - which is undoubtedly a grave - on the top of Masterhaagen.

Consequently it is interesting that there has been a burial cairn on western Raten, which is interpreted as a "Bronze Age cairn", due to its shape and location. It was probably of the same kind as the enormous cairns at Inner Elgsnes. There is also on the top of Masterhågen on Rateneset a 10 m. in diameter large stone-setting, which is undoubtedly a grave. It was once a lot higher, but most of the stones were taken away to be used for the constructions at the trading centre. This cairn may have been a Bronze Age cairn, too. Burial cairns have been made for a chosen few, and is a witness of the increasing social stratification and stricter organisation of the community.

An important consequence of the south Scandinavian contacts was the introduction of agriculture. The cultivation of cereals was probably primarily related to religious practices. Still, at Elgsnes as elsewhere, animal husbandry and agriculture became permanently a part of the food supply during the last millennium B.C. Around the beginning of the Christian epoch, iron replaces stone as raw material for tools, and at the outset of the Iron Age the North-Norwegian farm structure is established.