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From the first appearance of Proto-Germanic peoples during the Nordic Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages circa 1000 BCE - 1000 ACE, the Germanic Ancient Culture was practiced by all of the speakers of the Common Germanic language and its daughter dialects such as Burgundian, Gothic, Lombardic, Old English, Old Frankish, Old Frisian, Old High German, Old Norse, Old Saxon and Vandalic. The Germanic Ancient Culture also had arcane traditional roots that stretched back much further than 1000 BCE. These Germanic roots extended at least 42,0000 years into the distant past all the way back to the ancestral traditions of the indigenous European folk groups who once shared a common belief system, culture, language and spirituality. These European folk groups were at one time comprised of Germanic, Scandinavian and Celtic peoples. By 500 ACE, the people, who eventually became known as the Germanic Norse Heathens, had spread over the areas that would become Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Within another two hundred years, the many different dialects of the Germanic language became undecipherable and the offshoot Dutch, English, German, Scandinavian and other languages emerged. Despite this unfortunate divergence in language, the foundational Heathen keystone spiritual beliefs and practices of the Germanic Norse peoples continued to be interwoven with those of their kinfolk, the Celtic peoples who also inhabited many of the same regions at one time.
Numerous bronze and gold artifacts, mounds, rock carvings (animal totems, storytelling) and weaponry (axes, swords) dating from the Nordic Bronze Age have been discovered in the Scandinavian countries. During that timeframe the Germanic Norse culture relied for the most part on oral traditions for storytelling and to pass on cultural knowledge. The picture above was a composite of rock carvings found at Häljesta in Västmanland, Sweden. The petroglyphs depicted a farmer with a fertility branch plowing a field with oxen, an archer with a bow, fishermen and boats, a ceremonial procession, human footprints, a man with a dog and Scandinavian ship symbols. Many of the Nordic Bronze Age rock carving petroglyphs depicted ships. Some of these ships sometimes somewhat resembled ships from the Black Sea and Mediterranean areas. Ships played a highly significant role in the Germanic Norse Ancient Culture. There were even large standing stone ship commemorative monuments erected on the Scandinavian sacred landscape.
Despite the fact that the
Germanic Norse peoples were not involved early on in trade with other Bronze Age
cultures, Scandinavian archaeological sites have yielded valuable well-preserved
bronze, gold, wooden and woolen artifacts. The distinctive Nordic artistic style
was influenced mainly by the Amber Road, Ancient Celtic Culture which originated
to some extent from the Black Sea area; as well as, other ancient cultures that
were influenced by the Celts at one time or another.
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