The Battle Axe Culture, also called the Boat Axe Culture, flourished during the Chalcolithic in the coastal areas of the south Scandinavian Peninsula and southwest Finland, lasting from about 2800–2300 BCE. [1] This ancient culture, known for their distinctive battle axe, arrived in Scandinavia — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden — around 2800 BCE and survived as a distinct culture until around 2300 BCE after which the people transformed themselves in a new age.
The Battle Axe culture is known for their burial sites, since many of the settlements lay in what is now farm land, having been plowed away over thousands of years by farmers. They built single person graves (compared to the Funnelbeaker culture who built collective megalithic graves) where it was common to place flint axes in the graves of both males and females, and a battle axe near the head of the deceased man, presumably so that it was there, ready, if he needed it in the afterlife.
Beyond military utility, the battle axe appears to be a symbol of status that held both symbolic and cultural value so prominent that it the entire culture has been named after it. In the much later mythology and sagas of the Norse religion — the Norse people, Vikings, who are the distant descendants of the Battle Axe culture — regarded the axe as a weapon favored by gods and heroes. It held symbolic and utilitarian importance for the Norse, sometimes imbued with supernatural attributes (as in the case of Mjölnir) and associated with concepts of honor, glory, and divine favor.
Perhaps there are some similarities with the Boat Axe culture in their nature, in addition to their boats? Could they also have been deeply rooted in a similar warrior ethos and martial tradition that shaped a part of their society?
Origins of the Battle Axe Culture
The Battle Axe culture was a branch of the Corded Ware Culture. As the Corded Ware Culture moved through Europe from the East — an ancient, migrating Indo-European people originally from the Fertile Crescent many miles and millennia ago — their populations grew and their tribes flourished. As the community grew, each tribe grew steadily larger, becoming harder (and impractical) for a settlement to support such a large population in a single location.
Smaller tribal units or clans would break off from the whole periodically, moving gradually across Europe. Infusing the land with their presence, shooting off roots in regions across Europe in time, displacing, conquering, or merging with the cultures already in the land. The Battle Axe culture is a branch of the Indo-European Corded Ware Culture, who themselves were once part of the Yamnaya Culture.
The Old Norse Language is an Indo-European language of the Nordic branch. Languages throughout Europe and India are of the Indo-European language family which connects languages as disparate now as Greek French, Spanish, Iranian, German, and Old Norse with one another. It is believed that the Indo-European language and culture were brought through the region by the Corded Ware Culture who themselves were on offshoot of the more ancient Yamnaya Culture of the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
Descendents and a New Age
When the Battle Axe culture moved into the region, there were already a people living on the coastline of the Peninsula, the Pitted Ware culture, along with the Funnelbeaker culture, who they absorbed initially. [1] The Battle Axe culture ended around 2300 BCE, eventually succeeded by the Nordic Bronze Age, essentially bridging the gap between the Battle Axe culture and the Viking Age, which seems to be a fusion between elements of the Battle Axe and Pitted Ware culture. [1]
Yet even in it’s demise, certain elements of the traditions of the ancient ancestors remain. The battle axe of the Battle Axe culture remained in use for thousands of years, passed down to the Norse people where it emerged as a defining aspect of their warrior society during the Viking Age. The battle-axe, with its distinctive design and formidable power, became an iconic symbol of Norse martial prowess and strength. Warriors wielded these weapons with skill and ferocity, using them to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies on the battlefield.
Notes
Resources
- Battle-Axe Culture. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Axe_culture>. Accessed 19 April 2024.
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