Northern european bronze age

The Bronze Age in southern Scandinavia surpasses most of bronze age europe. It is the richest period of finds, crafts, creativity and artistic expression. Only in Mycenaean Greece there is an equivalent in findings. In Scandinavia it developed over 1000 years the prime Bronze Age craftsmanship and crafts in Europe. Large quantities of buried amber treasures has been found from Bronze Age Scandinavia. Amber was also a very important commodity in countries around the mediterranean sea. Tutankhamun was buried with an amber held over his heart. Amber was seen as magical during the Bronze Age and was used for jewelry. In the richest graves of Mycenae in Greece, it has been found large collars of amber. Modern analysis shows that those amber comes from the Baltic Sea. The Nordic bronze age fits also the Greeks description of their contact with the Hyperboreans in the far north. Amber seems ta have been the Nordic gold during the Bronze Age. The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around 30 cm diameter, with a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These are interpreted generally as a sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster interpreted as the Pleiades). Two golden arcs along the sides, marking the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes (of uncertain meaning, variously interpreted as a Solar Barge with numerous oars, as the Milky Way, or as a rainbow). The disk is attributed to a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, and associatively dated to c. 1600 BC. It has been associated with the Bronze Age Unetice culture. http://www.empireofthesun.eu/ Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.