Did the Northern Germanic peoples trade with mainland Europe?

by LordPooh

In Pre-Roman Europe?

We know that by the time Julius Caesar hit the Gauls with the imperialism stick, there was a strong network of trade from Britain to Greece, trading gold and metal works for amphorae of wine and the like. I've been doing some reading about the Germanic tribes and I honestly can't find anything about Scandinavians, their culture, gods, or trade routes.

TheSupercargo

The short answer is Yes. Scandinavia did trade south even as far as the Mediterranean in pre-Roman times. For a longer answer read on... Pre-Caesar puts us back into prehistory as far as Scandinavia goes, so there are no written records. (The earliest of the Elder Futhark runes date from the 2nd century CE.) We have to look to archaeology. I don't know of any artifacts that can be traced to southern Europe - though I wouldn't be surprised if they exist. The hällristningar (petroglyphs - for example those at Tanum in Bohuslän, south west Sweden http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Carvings_in_Tanu ) include elaborate images of boats, which suggests travelling by water was common practice - a prerequisite for trade south to mainland Europe. Recent analysis of the composition of the metal in bronze age and early iron age objects shows that the metals were not local but imported. "A complex picture of connections between Scandinavia and other parts of Europe... southern European mines from around the Mediterranean have been important suppliers of metal to Scandinavia..." The last is my translation of parts of the final paragraph in this abstract "Metallens väg till Sverige under bronsåldern och järnåldern" (The route of metal to Sweden during the Bronze and Iron Ages), Eva Hjärthna-Holdar. The final abstract in this PDF from the Geological Institute of Lund University dated 2014. http://www.geol.lu.se/kfl/Sidor/workshop2014/abstracts.pdf