Editing Scandinavian Peninsula (section)

==People==
The first recorded human presence in the southern area of the peninsula and Denmark dates from 12,000 years ago.<ref name="Tilley">Tilley, Christopher Y. ''Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia'', p. 9, Cambridge University Press. 2003. {{ISBN|0-521-56821-8}}</ref> As the ice sheets from the glaciation retreated, the climate allowed a [[tundra]] [[biome]] that attracted [[reindeer]] hunters. The climate warmed up gradually, favouring the growth of [[evergreen]] trees first and then [[deciduous]] forest which brought animals like [[aurochs]]. Groups of hunter-fisher-gatherers started to inhabit the area from the [[Mesolithic]] (8200 BC), up to the advent of agriculture in the [[Neolithic]] (3200 BC).

The northern and central part of the peninsula is partially inhabited by the [[Sami people|Sami]], who began to arrive several thousand years after the Scandinavian Peninsula had already been inhabited in the south. In the earliest recorded periods they occupied the [[arctic]] and [[subarctic]] regions as well as the central part of the peninsula as far south as [[Dalarna]], Sweden. They speak the [[Sami languages|Sami language]], a non-[[Indo-European language]] of the [[Uralic languages|Uralic]] family which is related to [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and [[Estonian language|Estonian]]. The first inhabitants of the peninsula were the Norwegians{{when|date=November 2022}} on the west coast of Norway, the Danes in what is now southern and western Sweden and southeastern Norway, the [[Swedes (Germanic tribe)|Svear]] in the region around [[Mälaren]] as well as a large portion of the present day eastern seacoast of Sweden and the [[Geat]]s in [[Västergötland]] and [[Östergötland]]. These peoples spoke closely related [[dialect]]s of an Indo-European language, [[Old Norse]]. Although political boundaries have shifted, descendants of these peoples still are the dominant populations in the peninsula in the early 21st century.<ref name="Sawyer">{{cite book|author=Sawyer, Bridget and Peter|title=Medieval Scandinavia: from conversion to Reformation, circa 800–1500|year=1993|isbn=0-8166-1738-4|publisher=University of Minnesota Press }}</ref>