[stareatgoats]

Close cultural relationships are tricky to substantiate. But Germanic people (that likely spread from Scandinavia before dawn of history) were all fairly warlike and had religious beliefs and cultural norms that glorified war and conquest. But in this they didn't differ much from other Yamnaya descendants, like the Celts, Greeks or Romans - or other peoples that did not have any steppe connection like the Mongols or Japanese for that matter.

Still, it is likely that the viking ethos does draw from the culture they inherited from the Yamnaya - and if not, their behavior was likely (often) perceived as similar to how the Yamnaya would have been perceived by the megalithic farmers they displaced: a brutal conquest that largely eliminated or sold off the men as slaves while keeping the women and children.

[SadCordDrone]

> Still, it is likely that the viking ethos does draw from the culture they inherited from the Yamnaya

This is intuitive to me as well. But my question is, are there evidences in support, eg their language, mythology or "pots" likely being more closer to yamnaya / PIE than others?

[stareatgoats]

I think such "cultural distances" would be really hard to prove, and there are no such attempts that I'm aware of. But I would also be interested if someone were to attempt or know of such a cultural comparison project.

The archeological material from the Yamnaya is not overabundant, and the content of their beliefs and language is largely inferred in ways which leave many things open to debate. But we can likely be certain that different descendant cultures all fanned out culturally, both as a consequence of internal driving forces as well as influences from the other peoples they encountered.

The latter could actually speak in favor of the Scandinavians keeping more of their ancestral culture, since that part of the world was relatively more isolated compared to rest of the Europe.