From Stone to Bronze in prehistoric Scandinavia

Recently, the preprint for a massive new study by Morten Allentoft and colleagues went online over at bioRxiv.org. It is a paper full of important and illuminating new data from all over Stone Age Eurasia. However, this article will mainly focus on the new data from Scandinavia. The newly sequenced ancient genomes from Scandinavia are…

Genetics of the Nordic Bronze Age

Bronze Age Scandinavia. Massive burial mounds full of wealth. Groups of armed men with bronze weapons manning boats. Status-obsessed hierarchical warriors and traders. The likeliest candidates for pre-Proto-Germanic speakers and a proto-Germanic material culture. But who were they, and where did they come from? The people of the Nordic Bronze Age were skilled metalworkers and…