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Let's Discover Denmark -
your travel guide to Denmark with useful information for
visitors and local residents alike. Make the most of your
time in Denmark with our information on travel,
tours, sightseeing, hotels, and holidays. |
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The Kingdom of Denmark (Kongeriget Danmark)
is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe. It is the
southernmost of the Nordic countries. Denmark lies southwest of
Sweden and south of Norway. Its only land border is with
Germany to the south althogh Denmark sea borders with the Baltic
Sea and the North Sea. The country consists of a large
peninsula, Jutland (Jylland) and many islands such as
Zealand (Sjælland), Funen (Fyn), Vendsyssel-Thy,
Lolland, Falster and Bornholm as well as hundreds of minor
islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. |
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The earliest archaeological findings in
Denmark date back to 130,000 –110,000 BCE in the Eem
interglacial period. People have inhabited Denmark since about
12,500 BCE and agriculture has been in evidence since 3,900
BCE.[17] The Nordic Bronze Age (1,800–600 BC) in Denmark was
marked by burial mounds, which left an abundance of findings
including lurs and the Sun Chariot. During the Pre-Roman Iron
Age (500 BC – AD 1), native groups began migrating south,
although the first Danish people came to the country between the
Pre-Roman and the Germanic Iron Age, in the Roman Iron Age (CE
1–400). The Roman provinces maintained trade routes and
relations with native tribes in Denmark and Roman coins have
been found in Denmark. Evidence of strong Celtic cultural
influence dates from this period in Denmark and much of
northwest Europe and is among other things reflected in the
finding of the Gundestrup cauldron. Historians believe that
before the arrival of the precursors to the Danes, who came from
the east Danish islands (Zealand) and Skåne and spoke an early
form of north Germanic, most of Jutland and some islands were
settled by Jutes. They were later invited to Great Britain as
mercenaries by Brythonic king Vortigern, and were granted the
south-eastern territories of Kent, the Isle of Wight, among
other areas, where they settled. They were later absorbed or
ethnically cleansed by the invading Angles and Saxons, who
formed the Anglo-Saxons. The remaining population in Jutland
assimilated in with the Danes, due territorial expansions from
the south and the east, and the Jutes being initially weakened
after their emigrations. |
