Archaeological evidence indicates the island of �land was settled about 8000 BC, with excavations dating from the Paleolithic era showing the presence of hunter-gatherers. In the early Stone Age, settlers from the mainland migrated across the ice bridge that connected the island across the Kalmar Strait.
Evidence of habitation of �land (known in earlier times as Oelandia) occurred at least as early as 6000 BC, when there were stone age settlements at Alby and other locations on the island. Burial grounds from the Iron Age through the Viking Age are clearly visible atGettlinge, Hulterstad and other places on the perimeter ridge including stone ships.
There are nineteen Iron Age ringforts identified on the island, only one of which, Eketorp, has been completely excavated, yielding over 24,000 artifacts. Around 900 AD, Wulfstan of Hedeby called the island "Eowland", the land of the Eowans:
Then, after the land of the Burgundians, we had on our left the lands that have been called from the earliest times Blekingey, and Meore, and Eowland, and Gotland, all which territory is subject to the Sweons; and Weonodland was all the way on our right, as far as Weissel-mouth.]
However, this is not the first mention of the Eowans. There is an even earlier mention of the tribe in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith: swin ruled the Eowansand Gefwulf the Jutes, Finn Folcwalding The Frisian clan. Sigar longest ruled the sea-Danes Scholars such as Sch�tte and Kendrick have pointed out that there was probably an even earlier mention of the people of �land in 98 AD, by Tacitus, who called them the "Aviones �After the Langobardi come the Reudigni, Auiones, Angli, Varni, Eudoses, Suarines and Nuithones all well guarded by rivers and forests. There is nothing remarkable about any of these tribes unless the common worship of Nerthus, that is Earth Mother, is considered. They believed she was interested in men's affairs and walked among them. On an island in
