Pirates Merchants Devils and Dark Deeds

Culture is a journey of experiential discovery in an ever-changing landscape. Our Northern history remains largely unsung, eclipsed by the glamour of the classical world and its colourful legacy of Romanised culture. But there is another world, no less vibrant and exciting, no less fascinating or challenging. Locked into our DNA is a very diff erent history . . In its immersive wonder we can find answers to age old challenges concerning how culture evolves, what were the catalysts, who were the antagonists, who were the oppressed, the exploited, what were the real events, and who was really behind the violence in the tussle for power a thousand years ago. Removing layers of accumulated concepts regarding faith, myth and magic, this book exposes the socio-religio-political machinations that rocked the northern world, changing its landscape, the people and their beliefs systems irrevocably. From Rock Art to Pazyryk Mummies, Coffin Boats to Royal Scythians, from the Sami to the Evenki, from Ethnicity to the Enarei priesthood, and from Thunder spirits to the Northern Crusades, the threads that bind them all are founded in trade. Trade is the currency and agent for change in the world impacting everything from war to religion. The Cosmic Mill turns, churning magic and myth into profi t and fear. Here be pirates and dragons.....