ABSTRACT
The Danish relation to the Roman empire formed during the final centuries before the currently used “year-zero” (2000 y BP) was not just one of trade. A major relocation of both warriors and their entire families took place in 2114 or 2113 y BP. The tribes participating were the Cimbrians (believed to come from Himmerland in mid-Jutland, because that name figures on a map of Jutland drawn by Ptolemaïos, 150), the Teutons, possibly coming from Thy in northwest Jutland or from the German Baltic coast; and the Ambrons (maybe from Schleswig south of Jutland; Fig. 5.1). Why they chose to move south is unknown. Natural catastrophes and famine have been suggested, but no concrete evidence is available. Temperature oscillations were fairly strong for a period of several hundred years preceding this time (cf. Fig. 4.2) and sea surface temperatures were 4 °C warmer than in adjacent times (Sarnthein et al., 2003), with a corresponding peak in plankton production (Hebbeln et al., 2006). Pollen in a Danish inland lake on the island of Funen does not show any anomaly (Rasmussen, 2005).
