# Reindeer hunters follow the retreating ice (-11000)

URL: https://poland-history.com/timeline/-11000-reindeer-hunters-follow-the-retreating-ice
Location: Northern European Plain

As the Scandinavian ice sheet retreated, late Palaeolithic groups such as the Swiderian culture followed reindeer herds across the newly exposed plains of central and northern Poland. Within the broader Prehistoric Poland period: From the first Palaeolithic hunters to the Bronze Age, the lands between the Oder and the Vistula saw waves of migration, the arrival of farming and the growth of ever more complex communities long before any state existed. At this point in the timeline (c. 11,000 BCE), the governing authority was Prehistoric communities (No single ruler). The lands of present-day Poland were inhabited by successive Palaeolithic hunters and Neolithic and Bronze Age farming communities; there was no state or single ruler. Reindeer hunters follow the retreating ice mattered because it offers material evidence of how people lived on Polish soil long before written records, and helps date the region's earliest cultures. The event is placed here so readers can follow it alongside changes in government, warfare, society, religion and culture across Polish history.

## Why it matters
Reindeer hunters follow the retreating ice mattered because it offers material evidence of how people lived on Polish soil long before written records, and helps date the region's earliest cultures.

Ruler at the time: [Prehistoric communities](https://poland-history.com/rulers/prehistoric-communities)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Swiderian culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiderian_culture)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Reindeer hunters follow the retreating ice](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Reindeer+hunters+follow+the+retreating+ice)
- [Wikipedia — Prehistory and protohistory of Poland (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_and_protohistory_of_Poland)