How old is Norse mythology?

[Judi Lynn]

1. Was there a Viking Age in Norway -- 2000 years before the Vikings?

(Just saw this article for the first time, and it's 5 years old)





The 3000-year-old Bjørnstad Ship had room for more than 50 people. There’s a 4-metre-long picture of the ship on a rock wall just south of Sarpsborg, in southeastern Norway. Today the ship’s pictograph lies in a field. But thousands of years ago, it was carved into a beautiful spot on the beach, by a fjord that has long since disappeared. (Photo: Erik Irgens Johnsen, Museum of Cultural History)


It may be that people from the North went to the Mediterranean with "Viking ships" as early as 3000 years ago.


Bård Amundsen
JOURNALIST

PUBLISHED 19 June 2020 - 15:13

In recent years, archaeologists who study Norway during the Bronze Age have discovered a great deal of new information. Some now have a completely different perspective on this period. Colleagues in Sweden and Denmark feel the same way.

They see evidence of a first Viking Age.

The thing is, it happened three thousand years ago. What we now call the Viking Age actually dates from just a thousand years ago.

Big ships

People who lived in Norway 3000 years ago were far less primitive than many have imagined. They were not hunters who still lived a Stone Age kind of life.

The ships built by Norwegians, Swedes and Danes during the Bronze Age may have had a crew of over 50 men. People from Scandinavia went to England in ships like these. They probably made their way down the great rivers in Europe.

They may have used the ships to travel to Finnmark in northern Norway.

And perhaps to Italy in the south.

People were linked to the sea
As many as 90 per cent of all Bronze Age petroglyphs (rock carvings) in Norway feature ships, both large and small. They have now begun to attract the attention of archaeologists.

Why were people in Norway 3000 years ago so focused on ships?

When Norwegians learn about the many petroglyphs found in their country during history class in school, the teacher and textbook probably describe them as mythological images of ships, transporting passengers into the realm of death. Essentially, they were thought to be some kind of religious images.

But would it be too unbelievable if the ships were real?

People in Norway, Sweden and Denmark during the Bronze Age travelled far and wide. They were mobile people.

They travelled all the way to Spain and Italy.

More:
https://www.sciencenorway.no/archaeology-bronze-age-ships/was-there-a-viking-age-in-norway-2000-years-before-the-vikings/1698522