Proto-Germanic Culture in Scandinavia

 Here's a thing I learned this week...

As we all know, ancient Europe was often a very mobile set of populations. Between the end of the last Ice Age and the rise of Roman dominion over the continent, things get a little murky archaeologically speaking, when it comes to figuring out who lived where and when.

This is especially true in the mid and far north, where climate and a lack of writing tended to make things less stable and knowledge less transferable. We have to rely on artifacts, and these can be spread far and wide too.

Of course, we have a pretty good timeline for major groups, including the early induction of the Corded Ware culture that, in the west, became the foundation of the Germanic tribes.

Somewhere between the arrival of the Indo-Europeans and the spread of the Germanic peoples was a period known as the Nordic Bronze Age. This period lasted from about 3700 to 2500 years ago, and was situated in southern Scandinavia (roughly the area of Denmark and Northern Germany). We tend to think of these distant ancestors as a lot more primitive than even Roman-era Germanics, but despite their relatively low population, these people had hoards of treasure in their graves that included items from as far away as Egypt and the Mediterranean.

It was a bronze age culture, after all, and that means they were smelting and working bronze themselves, often into spectacular decorative items. At this time, the climate was warmer as well, which made for good farming. One of the most intriguing finds was that of "Egtved Girl" in Denmark. This was a young woman who died in the summer (we can tell by her clothes) of 1370 BCE.

Check out this outfit, reproduced from the items in her grave:

That's 3,391 years between this year's Coachella and this girl's outfit from Denmark. An incredible find.

Shortly after this time, the climate began to cool again, and these people were forced further south to farm, which inevitably brought their heirs into contact with the Greeks and Romans. At that point, the Germanic tribes enter recorded history for the first time.

I'm going to be digging a lot more into this Nordic Bronze Age culture. I'm fascinated by the depth of this history. I mean, imagine: more time had passed between Egtved Girl and the Viking Age than has passed between the Vikings and us...and she lived in the middle of her people's era. Before her, countless generations had lived and told stories on that land, all the way back to the time when it lay under two kilometers of ice.