Among the many Stone Age sites there is one type that sets itself apart: the so-called gressbakken (grassy knoll) sites. A particularly large number of these distinctive house sites have been registered in the Varanger area. They are dated at the end of the Stone Age - at around 2000 BC.
The gressbakken sites have been given their name from the place where they were first discovered: Rissebávti/ Gressbakken on the south side of Varangerfjorden. A large number of such sites have been found in Varanger, and they are also found in coastal and fjord areas farther west in Finnmark, and on the Kola Peninsula in the east.
The gressbakken sites appear as a rule as pronounced depressions surrounded by commanding ram parts. The shape ranges from oval to rectangular, and the inner depression has a length of 6 to 8 metres and a width of 3 to 5 metres. But the most special feature that sets them clearly apart from other Stone Ages sites, is the distinct recesses in the ramparts. The recesses are traces of entrances and/ or "additions". Such entrances are found as a rule on the long side closest to the ocean, on both short sides and sometimes also on the "rear" long side.
Altogether around 200 gressbakken sites have been surveyeded in the Varanger area. The sites lie in two areas: one on the south side of the fjord and one on the north side and in the fjord hinterlands. This could indicate that we are dealing with two separate societies or local communities. It is difficult to say for certain how large the population was, but an estimate of from 500 to 720 persons in each community is not unlikely.
Several of the gressbakken sites in the Varanger area have been excavated by archaeologists. The excavations have shown that the houses had a rectangular floor and divided, flagstone fireplace. In some cases traces of postholes have also been found. The posts probably held up the roof.
The archaeological material indicates that people who lived in gressbakken-type houses had to observe many set rules and behavioural norms and that a number of activities were of a distinctly ritual nature. Several of the objects found in the middens are undamaged and were hardly discared there because they were unusable. Objects and meal leftovers and animal bones may have been laid in the middens as a gift to the gods or for worshipping animal spirits.
A number of well-made objects made of bone, horn and stone are exhibit at the Varanger Samiske Museum. Among these are two human figures found in the midden of a gressbakken site in Karlebotn.