Posted on 07/25/2019 12:24:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The geographic origins of the metals in Scandinavian mixed-metal artifacts reveal a crucial dependency on British and continental European trading sources during the beginnings of the Nordic Bronze Age.. 2000-1700BC marks the earliest Nordic Bronze Age, when the use and availability of metal--specifically tin and copper, which when alloyed together creates bronze--increased drastically in Scandinavia... isotope and trace-element analyses on 210 Bronze Age artifact samples, predominantly axeheads, originally collected in Denmark and representing almost 50% of all known existing Danish metal objects from this period... reveal the trading networks established to import raw metals as well as crafted weapons into Scandinavia via two major maritime trade routes: one leading down across the Baltic Sea towards the Únetice (a Bronze Age civilization in what is now eastern Germany and Bohemia), and another leading to the British Isles...
The authors also uncovered an unexpected predominance of Slovakian copper, and suggest that Únetice traders acted as middlemen to ship this desirable copper to Scandinavia... metal recycling was common: smiths repeatedly hacked up imported and local metal objects to recast them for new local products. The metal mixing in this early period is distinct from the alloying of copper with tin to create high-quality bronze, though the authors also found evidence of rather pure copper (sourced from the eastern Alps) beginning to be used this early: this characteristic copper would become crucial to Scandinavian smiths during the breakthrough Bronze Age period to come.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
British-developed bronze flat-axe from Selchausdal, northwest Zealand (NM B5310, photo: Nørgaard). The 20-cm-long axe has a geometric decoration covering the surface. Low-impurity copper is alloyed with 10% Sn. Scandinavia holds the largest proportion of British type axes outside the British Isles 2000-1700 BC. Credit: Heide W. Nørgaard (2019)
TXnMA
Bump for after work.
But... But... They didn’t even know how to float and leave their lands towards the south until the the 700s AD. So how could this be?
I think they were of the first seafaring cultures if not the first, and traveling up rivers like the Volga to the Caspian sea long before 3000 BC during the Ertebølle culture. This find indicates travel up the Vistula river south to Slovakia as early as 2000 BC, but I suspect they were up this river and others trading long before the Bronze age. Maybe as early as 5000 BC.
Possibly even a short land hop from the Volga to the Don and into the Black sea and the Mediterranean long before it is thought. In fact these areas are supposed to be from where they originated and migrated north to Scandinavia. And by water would have been the easiest way from the very beginning.
I think the earliest Scandinavian cultures were much more than just simple hunter gatherers. Their dependence and demand on the sea for sustenance was far too great, especially in the winter. They were hunter gatherers who knew how to float before other cultures had need to learn how to float.
Vikings were the Epsteins of their day. Thsy’d kidnap hot young girls and transport them to Iceland and Greenland. Pleasure islands....
And only the hottest of the hottest! lol
But I really think “their day” started long long before the official narrative allows. I think they were far ahead of every other culture in sea travel. Like I say, Their very survival from the beginning would have required it. :)
I really think Thor Heyerdahl was absolutely right.
https://elementamundi.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/origins-of-the-norse-gods/
http://insearchoflostplaces.com/2017/09/gobustan-azerbaijan/
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