Did Vikings and Greeks ever meet?
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Did Vikings and Greeks ever meet?
The Vikings had no contact with the ancient Greeks, if that’s what you’re asking, though. The Vikings came long after the fall of Rome in the West, after Greece became the New Rome.
Did the Vikings go to the Mediterranean?
Expedition to the Mediterranean A number of Frankish, Norman, Arab, Scandinavian and Irish sources mention a large Viking raid into the Mediterranean in 859–861, co-led by Hastein, Björn Ironside and possibly one or more of his brothers. The two Vikings conducted many (mostly successful) raids in France.
Are the Finns Scandinavians?
Strangely, of the four countries mentioned above—Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland–only the first three are generally spoken of as Scandinavia. Except that sometimes Finland IS referred to to as a Scandinavian country, depending on who’s doing the talking.
Modern people of northern Europe trace relatively little genetic ancestry back to the early Scandinavians studied by us. That’s because several later migrations have changed the Scandinavian gene pool over time.
One of the reasons the origins of the first Scandinavians is so enigmatic is a major shift in stone tool technology that appeared soon after they got there. This new technology seemed to have had an origin in eastern Europe and it has been an open question how it reached Scandinavia.
How did hunter-gatherers get to Scandinavia?
When the ice sheet retreated, some of these hunter gatherers eventually colonised Scandinavia from the south about 11,700 years ago, making it one of the last areas of Europe to be inhabited. But exactly who these individuals were and how they got there has remained a puzzle for researchers.
The two groups that came to Scandinavia were originally genetically quite different, and displayed distinct physical appearances. The people from the south had blue eyes and relatively dark skin. The people from the northeast, on the other hand, had a variation of eye colours and pale skin.