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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
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this is a shitpost, but Scandinavian anthropology really shows how the land gave rise to a remarkable culture. Some historians conceive of them as the final terminus of the ancient silk road, which makes sense from all the distant imported goods fond in prehistoric scandinavia, such as silks, jade Buddhas, islamic artifacts. In order to be able to trade at such an extent, they must've had something that foreigners wanted. There was a well established network of north-sea traders long before the viking period, due in large part to their development in an environment where maritime travel was far faster than land travel in any direction. they probably perceived the world map in terms of traveling time, and the east coast of Britain was therefore far closer than their neighbors 50 miles away. Their trading was unique in that it wasn't simply organized to exchange foreign goods. it was also a sophisticated network of domestic trade, across political boundaries of Scandinavia, with petty kingdoms being able to command and distribute an oversized economy that funneled goods from the hinterlands into exchange, and vice versa
Back in uni I studied the Samanid dynasty in Iran, specifically numismatics (coins), and the vast majority of Samanid gold dirhams from mints all over their realm are found in coin hordes in Scandinavia, because it was the final terminus of most of the Samanid's trade routes. Like hundreds and hundreds of hordes of coins all across the Islamic world are found in Scandinavia, it's pretty insane. It's like the primary source for early Islamic numismatics!
It’s pretty amazing how things can be preserved in the periphery like that. Culture as well. Some fashion rises in the core trickles out to the fringe, then changes in the core but is preserved in the fringe.
Can second it. Sure, they’re “western” but I find Scandinavian culture to be very fascinating.
The western cultures were the first victims of “western civilization”
Any good resources you'd point toward?
Children of Ash and Elm is a somewhat general audience book. Author's expertise in archeology, and it's received it's share of criticism for fumbles when he talks outside of his expertise, but nearly all experts still give it a positive reception.
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Did some evening courses on history and one of the professors was on the cutting edge climate history (Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist). Most of his books are only available in Swedish but if you're interested in climate history then he contributed to an anthology called "Nordic Climate Histories". Most of Sweden used to be plains with a lot of cattle, but it collapsed somewhere before the 'Migration Period' and the landscape became covered in forests instead. Anyway, Finland is notable for being area where people became settled farmers with the worst circumstances for farming in the world. Why they decided to become farmers is kind of baffling to historians. Just Sisu and stubbornness? Who knows.
And most societies, before steam trains, were tied together via sea/river routes. Look at the Mediterranean for example, Carthage makes a lot more sense if you consider that it was easier to go from Tunisia to Sardinia than to go 100 miles inland.