The charismatic Vikings made themselves known in the 8th century CE. At the time Christianity was seven centuries old. The Ages of Metal had passed into history by 550 BCE. The reindeer people, the Sámi, lived in the northern reaches of Scandinavia during the European Bronze Age from c. 3300 BCE.
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Civilizations in Greece, Egypt, China, the Indus Valley and Levant flourish with trade and business during the southern Bronze Age. In China, the Yangtze River Valley is a hub of commerce and activity.
In 1600 BCE a dominant force appears in the Mediterranean as the future ancient Greece, the Myceneans, gradually assimilate the Bronze Age Minoan culture. In Egypt, royal decree makes gold an item of monetary value in 1500 BCE.
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In Scandinavia, the Nordic Bronze Age lasts from 1700 to 500 BCE, while the southern lands come into a series of crises and collapse and stagger into the Iron Age. Subsequently the north undergoes major changes including the rise of the Battle Axe Culture of the Nordic Bronze Age.
The Battle Axe culture evolved from earlier Corded Ware pottery cultures of northern Europe and the Baltic. A Copper Age people, also called Boat Axe, they emerged from the progress and industry of the metal ages.
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The first of these was the Copper or Chalcolithic, when the Neolithic people gained skill at mastering the golden ruddy metal in its raw form. Copper is one of the seven Metals of Antiquity and has a low melting point in metallurgy.
From 2800 to 2300 BCE the Battle Axe people thrived on the coastal areas of southern Scandinavia and Finland, mingling with an even earlier people, the Funnelbeaker culture, active from c. 4300–2800 BCE.
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The Funnelbeaker are credited with strong developments in agriculture, animal domestication and husbandry. They taught the pottery people how to farm and grow crops.
From this rich intermingling comes the Battle Axe culture, who first emerge in Scania at the south tip of Sweden in 2800 BCE. As it progresses the Battle Axe culture absorbs another early people along the Scandinavian coasts, the Pitted Ware Culture.
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Interest grows in the shining ruddy gold metal imported from the south through developing trade channels. Copper was somewhat known since c. 4000 BCE in the north. The Nordic Copper Age takes hold in 3800 BCE and lasts until 1700 BCE, the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age.
Battle Axe then occupies further coastal areas around the Baltic, North Sea and Scandinavian peninsula. Battle Axe settlements are found above the Arctic Circle as far north as Tromsø, Norway.
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There they would have overlapped Sámi territory. The Battle Axes seem content to leave the far northern reaches in the hands of the reindeer people.
Further south, routes of trade and settlement open up with the North Sea people, the Baltic cultures, Greece and the hot shifting sands of Egypt. Some routes follow the paths of the Amber Road from 1600 BCE and earlier.
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From their early origins on the Ponti-Caspian Steppe and subsequent migration of these tribes, the Battle Axe culture carries the blood of ancient horse people and warriors. By 2300 they own the northern coastlines, almost five hundred years before the the Nordic Bronze Age fires up in c. 1750.
Identity as a single people wanes and the Battle Axe vanish into the overall mingling of cultures. The Battle Axe culture held sway for five hundred years (comparatively, the USA is 247 years old). In that time it was one of the most influential elements of Nordic Bronze and Copper Age history.
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