4 ms·

Right, I read through the whole thing and the only reference to 'Roman' is to other Scandinavian burials in the 'Roman Era', absolutely nothing to support any c

by simonh 4y ago

Right, I read through the whole thing and the only reference to 'Roman' is to other Scandinavian burials in the 'Roman Era', absolutely nothing to support any claim of influence from 'Ancient Rome' itself.

kzrdude 4y ago
While ancient Rome almost surely influenced germanic and scandinavian culture. People from those areas served in the Roman military in some cases. In some cases they brought home money and culture after surviving such a life. Norse mythology and for example week day names show clear similarities with the ancient roman and greek corresponding concepts, which is not a coincidence, and so on.
- ETH_start 4y ago
  >>Norse mythology and for example week day names show clear similarities with the ancient roman and greek corresponding concepts That's more likely due to the two cultures having a common Indo-European origin, from whence they inherited their language and mythology from, as opposed to cultural diffusion during the Roman era, I think.
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    Surely not considering how intertwined German peoples were with Rome
- Tor3 4y ago
  The seven day week and the connection to planets came from Babylon or Egypt, way back. And then via the Greek and so on. The Romans weren't actually the quickest to adopt it, they had an 8-day week (possibly from the Etruscans), which had to fight with the (also known) 7-day week. It's unclear when the 8-days week completely fell out of favour, but the 7-day week didn't become official until AD 321 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-day_week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-day_week) In any case, the 7-day week spread, and much farther than just to the north of Europe. China apparently imported the Hellenistic system as far back as the 4th century (wikipedia), and Japan got it four centuries later (but wasn't made official until 1876. The week day names matches the Latin ones, with Monday as "moon day" and so on).

by simonh 4y ago

kzrdude 4y ago

While ancient Rome almost surely influenced germanic and scandinavian culture. People from those areas served in the Roman military in some cases. In some cases they brought home money and culture after surviving such a life. Norse mythology and for example week day names show clear similarities with the ancient roman and greek corresponding concepts, which is not a coincidence, and so on.

ETH_start 4y ago
>>Norse mythology and for example week day names show clear similarities with the ancient roman and greek corresponding concepts That's more likely due to the two cultures having a common Indo-European origin, from whence they inherited their language and mythology from, as opposed to cultural diffusion during the Roman era, I think.
- edgyquant 4y ago
  Surely not considering how intertwined German peoples were with Rome
Tor3 4y ago
The seven day week and the connection to planets came from Babylon or Egypt, way back. And then via the Greek and so on. The Romans weren't actually the quickest to adopt it, they had an 8-day week (possibly from the Etruscans), which had to fight with the (also known) 7-day week. It's unclear when the 8-days week completely fell out of favour, but the 7-day week didn't become official until AD 321 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-day_week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-day_week) In any case, the 7-day week spread, and much farther than just to the north of Europe. China apparently imported the Hellenistic system as far back as the 4th century (wikipedia), and Japan got it four centuries later (but wasn't made official until 1876. The week day names matches the Latin ones, with Monday as "moon day" and so on).