In the North a culture of weapon-wearing cattle farmer
Around 3000 b. in Egypt and Sumer ´high cultures´ obviously
emerged on the material basis of agriculture.
In North - West Europe nothing comparable, no towns, no temples, no
writing, no infra-structure, only the world´s oldest megalithic monuments.
Compared with Egypt for acheologists the North an area settled obviously
by ´backwoodsmen´. May be, but must not
Problem: At the end of the last Ice Age (10000 b.) the Magdalénian
hunters had to follow their prey northward . Thereby they had to adapt to
changed ´life-threatening´ living conditions .
Among others the rickets (blond)
In thousands of years reindeers and lateron cattle became domesticated
and stepped in place of hunted animals.Therefore for Post-Magdalénians
there was no recognizable necessity to change their way of life fundament-
ally. Their life continued to depend on animals.In stead of reindeers the cow, the auerochs became milked.
Reindeer Auerochs (backward breeding) link
The aurochs is thought to have been the original wild stock of all Euro-
pean cattle
To day reindeer's milk is about 22.5% milkfat, 14.5% milk solids and 63% water
200-250 ml/day = .500 Cal. 1 liter 2240 Cal. Cow: 1 liter cow milk 680 Cal.,
Milk max be a fundamental key for understanding the North Culture in the Megalth
region of he western Baltic Sea
Hypothesis: The neolithic culture in the area of the western Baltic Sea
was a selfadvancement of a millennium-old culture of geographically
isolated Magdalénean reindeer hunters. If so then
A culture not based on agriculture!
but based on milk -drinking
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I
n a society shaped by the hunt the courage, the physical strength and the
psychological willingness to kill are the social yardsticks, not to
handle plow or sickle.
Attention in the community and the selfassurance of the weapon-
wearing man is determined by courage and success in the fight. The later
nordic religion reflects this attitude. To God Odin comes who falls in the
fight with the weapon in his hand.
To the Hel (hell) in the underworld must go, who died in bed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Problem: What typical culture developed in the meso-neolithic North ?
In general the legal basis of all advanced cultures was a selfapointed
>nobilty<.with swords in hand.´ Normal´ people had to obey and to pay. In
Old Egypt Pharaoh´s word was law.
In the geographically isolated North developed a typical ´pre-democratic´
law among weapon-wearing free spirit descendants (Individualist) at the end
of the last glacial period.
In North the free man subordinated himself voluntarily
obeying the law the community itself has created.Tacitus (3) supports this view * there is nothing at all within the national
or personal range, which they would carry out without armament. - - - -----
22) then they go to their business, less often also to drinking-bouts, in
weapons "
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The cultural problem in the isolated North : How to tax a man wearing a
weapon ?.How to explain to pay voluntarily for things he did not needed ?
Statussymbols like pyramids,or Stonehenge or Gothic cathedrals.
Good for what ?
~ 350 Germanic bronze full handle swords around 1600 - 1000 b.
(ottenjann)
An unique worldwide cluster of bronze swords
Liikely to assume a ´megalithic North-Culture.Only a marginal culture, far away from the High-Cultures in Egypt and Sumer Thus, so far no need to comment about ?
Problem: The older swords do not show traces of fighting along the
sword´s edge but more superficial ornaments on the grip got so much
worn that often the original ornament was lost. (Ottenjann) .
Northern full handle swords not for fighting but primarily a status symbol ?
Herodot 4/13 “ --over these (lived in the North) the Hyperborean, bordering
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the sea. All of these - except the Hyperboreen - always fought their
neighbour."Tacitus Germania 13 :. They transact no public or private business with-
out being armed. It is not, however, usual for anyone to wear arms till the
state has recognized his power to use them. Then in the presence of the
council one of the chiefs, or the young man's father, or some kinsman,
equips him with a shield and a spear.These arms are what the "toga" is
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Examples show in Egypt and Sumer that an agrarian community becom-
es always turned -in the course of its development- into an aristocratic-
feudalistic community with an upper class of weapon-wearers and priests.
This in mind, in early times a relatively small group of raiding adventurers
may subject a larger population and force these to statute-labor, i.e. to
pay taxes´ .World wide the background of all so called *High Cultures*.
For the Egyptian fellah, Pyramids good for nothing ?This ´high´ culture supporting feudalistic taxation-system is impossible to
develop in the North. Due to the isolation there were no neighbours,which
could be subjected in sufficient numbers
Far off we dwell in the surging sea, the furthermost of men, and no
other mortals have dealings with us.(Homer´s Nausikaa)
The cattlefarmer had to do his work himself. The younger man may grumble
about the rainy-cold weather and the pre-dominance of the chieftain. While
milking a cow dreaming: " Let´s built aboat and go south down the rivers
next spring. Reaching - a t least down the river Danube - the Aegaeis
within one summer. Take a sword and have a fight, an ´event´ worth to
talk about later on".
1-nordkultur 25.12.03-Index
Next Post-Magdalénians -Proto-German and Indogerman
For biological reasons the term *Indoeuropean* may be basically
missleadingOttenjann,H. Die nordischen Griffzungenschwerter der älteren und
mittleren Bronzezeit Roem. Germ. Kommission, Bd.30 1969
xx
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