Was there a Viking Age in Norway — 2000 years before the Vikings?
In recent years discoveries by archaeologists suggest there was a Viking age prior to the one we know about- 2000 years earlier.
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. That which is today known as the Viking Age took place only 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