An active search for pre‐Holocene organic deposits in stratigraphically well‐defined positions has proved to be a useful tool for reconstruction of glacial and non‐glacial Weichselian development in northernmost Sweden. The investigations have been concentrated to kettle holes connected to eskers belonging to a morphologically prominent northwesterly glacial system characterized by extensive drumlinization. Organic deposits, radiocarbon‐dated as older than the Holocene, have been found at some 25 localities. Some sites display two organic‐bearing sequences separated by a till bed. The pollen flora in the lowest organic bed reflects an interstadial vegetational development: Arctic shrub and herb tundra‐subarctic light birch forestherb tundra with ericaceous shrubs and dwarf birch. This interstadial is correlated with Peräpohjola in Finland. During the younger Tärendö Interstadial the vegetational development was similar, but a more continental climate is indicated hy high values of steppe plants, e.g. Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae. The Tärendö Interstadial, correlated with Odderade, wascharacterized by open, unstable soils due to periglacial processes such as cryoturbation and eolian activities. The Weichselian glaciation is divided into three glacial stades separated by ice‐free interstadials in the area studied. Except for a zone with S‐SW drumlinization the impact of the two later ice sheets is insignificant.

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The Veikimoraines in northernmost Sweden display a very conspicuous distribution pattern, sharply demarcated to the east and successively decreasing to the south, west and north. The sharp demarcation to the east is thought to reflect the front of a stagnant ice sheet. The downwasting of this glacier was retarded by the insulation of a thick superglacial debris cover and subarctic vegetation invaded at least parts of the slowly collapsing ice. Radiocarbon datings of organic matter deposited in connection with the formation of the Veiki moraine, lithostratigraphical evidence and the relation to other glacial features prove the Veiki moraine landscape to date from the deg laciation of the first Weichselian ice sheet, i.e. the Peräpohjola Interstadial. The good preservation of the features implies that in extensive areas of northern sweden the Early Weichselian glacial landscape escaped significant erosion despite being overrun by two later glaciers. Previous interpretations of the Late Weichselian/Holocene deglaciation are largely based on an Early Weichselian deglaciation pattern.

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