no these are not vikings. people always think of the vikings when you talk about Norse
history but even these Viking boats which are only a thousand years old can be
seen as continuations of an ancient boat cult that went back to the Nordic
Bronze Age
These golden boat models from Denmark are more than
three thousand years old. they show that a sophisticated culture has existed in Northern Europe for
millennia
these are replicas of two golden drinking from Denmark. the runic engravings
and expensive gold might make you assume they were made by Vikings but they date
to the 5th century; hundreds of years before the Viking age even started
The men you see here are dressed in armour and clothing from the Vendel period. the mid-six the late
eighth century
most of their weapons and helmets are all from both burials found either in Valsgarde
or Vendel - both in Uppland, Sweden.
this one is from anglo-saxon England. the famous Sutton Hoo helmet looks a lot
like the contemporary Swedish examples.
you can see the same kind of imagery depicted on the foils on the sides of the helmets
This horned man motif for example is found not only in England and sweden but even as far away as
Russia and as late as the Viking Age. It looks a lot like this guy
from the golden horns of Galleus which I showed earlier
this is called a pressblech. it was used to make the foils like those on the
helmets
I had a go at making one myself with the help of the Smith David Roper
That happens I guess. that happens after the first two or three inches of the finger you tend
to be more careful
square-headed brooches like this one are also common in both Anglo-Saxon
England and Scandinavia, long before the Viking Age. The shared material culture
indicates that there was a pan-Germanic culture across Northern Europe with shared
religious belief too. this vast cross-continental culture with its rich
artefacts was thriving long before the so-called Vikings
and as a continuation of the aforementioned nordic bronze age boat
cult, all these helmets and artefacts were found in boat burials at Valsgarde and
at Vendel in Sweden just like the boat burial at sutton hoo in England