Skimminghøj
Intro
Flint was found at Skimminghøj in 1937. This may signify the location of a stone-age settlement.
However this question has not yet been thoroughly investigated, but this supposition is supported by Skimminghøj’s location, situated as it is almost perfectly for both hunters and fishermen of that time. Also, back then, the lakes and streams of the Lakelands created an extensive water system giving easy access to large hunting and fishing areas.
About 15,000 years ago the first humans appeared. The glaciers had started to melt, the Old Stone Age in Denmark began, and humans started to migrate to new places where there were animals to hunt.
Although, most hunters followed a nomadic life style at that time, it is easy to imagine that the same families would often return to the same settlement site again and again. They made tools of flint, which was a simple technique, and they lived in huts that resembled tents with a skeleton of branches stuck into the ground.
In the area around the River Gudenå, many relics from the Old Danish Stone Age have been found. Previously there was talk of a special "Gudenå-culture" but, in reality, for a long time the settlements were used by people from different cultures. There are many of these settlements along streams and lakes, marked by flint deposits on sandy fields. Most discoveries have been made at Tørring and between Mossø and Silkeborg.
The water level in the lakes at Skimminghøj has been changing throughout history. Peat formation in the low areas around Skimminghøj suggests that at some point the mound was surrounded by water, but it may also be associated with humans having dammed the River Gudenå near this spot.
It is also difficult to tell precisely when Skimminghøj was used as a settlement, but the finds of flint are dated to the Old Danish Stone Age, which lasted from about 9.000 to about 3,950 BC.