June 28, 2017

King Björn's Barrow in Håga (STJ)

The Indo-European invasion from the steppe completely overhauled the cultural and genetic landscape of Europe. The early farming populations in Scandinavia were replaced by modern-looking North Europeans, coming in from the Corded Ware culture in Germany some five thousand years ago.
A few centuries later, exactly the same thing happened in Britain with the Bell Beakers replacing the previous inhabitants and establishing the genetic structure remaining to this day.
The Scandinavian Corded Ware developed a local variant called the Battle-Axe culture, which later developed into the very rich Nordic Bronze Age. At this time, the weather was so good grapes were growing in Scandinavia and the population was larger and wealthier than during the colder Iron Age. Toward the end of this era, Scandinavians were probably speaking an early version of Proto-Germanic (dated ~700 BC).
Given the riches found in the Håga burial, its tenant king may well be considered the Agamemnon of Scandinavia, in reference to the mythological king of Mycenaean Greece, another maritime Indo-European civilization contemporary with the Nordic Bronze Age.


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