fjord of Varanger, where the reindeer probably ran over the isthmus on the way between the winter and summer grazing. The question of the ethnic identity of the Stone Age cultures is politically charged, as many Sami feel the uncertainty surrounding the earliest settlers in Northern Norway is being used to question their status as an indigenous people. Metals were introduced around 500 BC. The Sami culture can be traced back at least 2,000 years. There is also some archeological evidence of Bronze Age agricultural settlements about 2,500 years old, as in Steigen and Sømna. In 2009, archeologist discovered evidence of barley grown in Kvæfjord near Harstad in the Bronze Age 1000 BC. A larger settlement by people of Germanic origin, with substantial archeological evidence, seem to have occurred 200–300 AD. These settled along the coasts roughly up to Tromsø. The two ethnic groups traded with each other, and there seems to have been quite a lot of intermarriage. The nature of the co-existence is hotly debated. In the Viking Age, several chieftains along the coast played a significant role in Norwegian history, usually resisting unification of Norway. The voyage and story of Ottar from Hålogaland was recorded by King Alfred the Great in Wessex. Hårek from Tjøtta and Tore Hund, who killed Saint Olav at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 were important leaders according to Heimskringla. The chieftain and poet Øyvind Skaldespiller was the first to receive international acclaim, as his poems were rewarded when the Icelandic parliament organized a money collection to buy him a thick ring of gold. This flourishing period of resistance was followed by consolidation and centralization of the Norwegian state, which was (and is) dominated by southerners (in the relative sense of south of Northern Norway), reducing the power and wealth of the Northern Norwegian chieftains. In the Middle Ages, churches and fortifications were built along the coast in an effort to stake a more firm claim for the kingdom of Norway along what was then the frontier of Norwegian settlement. By 1150, Lenvik Church was the northernmost church in Norway. In 1252 the first church, the Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae de Trums juxta paganos ("The Church of Saint Mary in Troms near the Heathens"), was built in Tromsø, along with a small rampart intended to serve as protection against Karelian raids. This was followed in 1307 by the consecration of Vardø Church in