What if Neanderthals hadn’t become extinct? This is a question the curators of a Museum in Germany must have asked themselves when they created this exhibit: A Neanderthal in a suit and tie. As many of you may know, research in Archaeogenetics has relatively recently revealed that all human beings north of the Sahara Desert… Read More A Neanderthal in Suite and Tie
The Haplogroup distribution across the German Empire prior to WW1 according to FTDNA and Robert Gabel.Haplogroup I is the oldest of them and probably resembles remnants of Hunter-Gatherer lineages whilst R1b and R1a are connected to Celto-Germanic and Slavic peoples.
The maximum expansion of the Etruscans. The Etruscans were one of the many historic peoples inhabiting the Italian Peninsula before the Rise of Rome and influencing the Empire from within after their subjugation. It is thought that the Romans incorporated some of the Etruscan deities in their own pantheon and that even the Latin language… Read More The Etruscans
The migration of the Cimbri and the Teutons from Jutland across Central and Western Europe and into Northern Italy.The Cimbri and Teutons were the first Germanic people mentioned in history, although the term Teuton itself may in fact be of Celtic origin. They left their Northern European homeland for unknown reasons and made their track… Read More The Migration of the Cimbri and Teutons
Fenrir bites off Tyr’s hand. Illustration from a 17th century Icelandic manuscript.Tyr is the god of war and justice in Norse mythology, and the etymology of his name suggests that he once was at the top of the Germanic pantheon, although he had been replaced by Odin/Wodan relatively early.Fenrir is one of the children of… Read More Fenrir and Tyr
Map showing the German Eastward Expansion, starting in the early Middle Ages at the zenith of Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire. Although first German settlements east of the river Elbe in modern Eastern Germany started relatively early, it wasn’t until the 10th and 11th centuries, that larger amounts of Germans moved eastward and assimilated most of the… Read More The German Eastward Expansion
One of the Tarim mummies from the Tarim basin in northwestern China in the province of Xinjiang, dated to 1800 BC. These mummies are frequently associated with speakers of the Indo-European Tocharian language which since has gone extinct due to assimilation into the Uyghur population at the end of the first millennium AD. It took… Read More The Loulan Beauty – A Tarim Mummy
This article is a re-blog from HERITAGEDAILY (link to original article at the bottom of the page). HERITAGEDAILY is an independent publisher of the latest scientific discoveries, research, and travel news. First launched as a small archaeology blog in 2011, the platform has grown into a general science publisher with a focus on archaeology, anthropology,… Read More THE ANGLO-SAXON MIGRATION: NEW INSIGHTS FROM GENETICS
‘Barbarian’ and ‘barbaric’ are nowadays commonly used to describe somebody or something behaving in a particularly uncivilized or – to the observer – foreign way, and in this regards differs surprisingly little from it’s ancient counterpart. This article seeks to examine the meaning and history of the term in short.… Read More The Greco-Roman Concept of the Barbarian
The borders of Rome weren’t as much boundaries as they were frontiers: Areas of cultural exchange between different peoples. This article explores the relationship between Rome and the Germanic tribes living beyond the border.… Read More The Roman Border in Ancient Germany
An in-depth analysis of the infamous Spartan Agoge and it’s Athenian counterpart – the Ephebeia.… Read More Spartan Agoge and Athenian Ephebeia – A Comparison
Languages are always evolving in a process that is never truly finished. So to ask what the oldest word in a given language is, is a bit pointless. We can ask, however, what the oldest attested word in a given language, like English, is, which is what’s examined in this article.… Read More What Is the Oldest English Word?
An attempt at answering – in brief – the question of the origin of the Ancient Greeks from an archaeological, mythological and genetic approach.… Read More The Origins of the Ancient Greeks
The High German Consonant Shift gave rise to the High and Upper German dialects of the West Germanic Dialect Continuum. It’s cause is still debated, however, although a Gallo-Roman substrate seems to be the most likely explanation.… Read More The Cause of the High German Consonant Shift
Originally posted on Tattúínárdǿla saga:
A long time ago, in a North Atlantic far far away… Introduction Earlier this week I was drawn into an enlightening discussion with my colleague Ben Frey about the complicated textual tradition that lies behind George Lucas’s “Star Wars,” which few outside the scholarly community realize is…
The origin of the Elder Futhark is still disputed. The Roman alphabet appears to be a significant inspiration but fails to explain all it’s oddities. Perhaps the North Etruscan or Phoenician alphabets offer an alternative.… Read More The Origin of the Elder Futhark
Where did the Ancient Celts originally come from? A comparison of the linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence.… Read More The Origins of The Ancient Celts
Originally posted on Kristyn J. Miller:
Epic poems have incredible staying power both as literary achievements and as historical resources. The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is one of the foremost examples of this. Despite its mythological themes, the story offers historians a rare insight into Anglo-Saxon ideals of masculinity, heroism, and society. At the same time,…
The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the (re-)constructed Proto-Indo-European language, the ancestor to most European and some central and south Asian languages.… Read More The prehistoric Eurasians: The Proto-Indo-Europeans
Ragnarok describes the end of the world in Norse Mythology. Or does it really? Not only the world itself is reborn after its destruction, but one of the gods as well. Could this be an indication for reincarnation in Germanic myth or perhaps even evidence for a pan-Indo-European phenomenon of rebirth?… Read More Ragnarok and Reincarnation in Norse Mythology
The Indo-European language family is the most widely spoken language family in the world today, partially due to Colonialism. But even before the European expansion Indo-European languages were spoken throughout Eurasia.… Read More The Indo-European Language Family
In Nigel M. Kennels book “The Gymnasium of Virtue” he discusses the possible influence of Proto-Indo-European customs on ancient Spartan society.… Read More Remnants of Proto-Indo-European Society in Sparta
Report on the ‘Martin Burr Fund’ grant offered for a monograph on the Norse God Loki written by Riccardo Ginevra (Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University) The historical and comparative approach to Indo-European poetic language and myth has developed greatly in the second half of the 20th century, particularly thanks to the efforts of, among […]… Read More How linguistics helps us reconstruct ancient fire mythology — The Philological Society Blog
Western society is often thought of as profoundly patriarchal, capitalist and power hungry, as has been shown multiple times throughout history. But how deep these traits run within our ancestry has only come to light within the last few decades with the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European society.… Read More Proto-Indo-European Society: A short Introduction
The origin of the ancient Germans (not to be confused with the modern Germans) is still debated, although somewhere between Northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia seems to be the most likely place. Bu where did the people inhabiting this area come from?… Read More Origins and Culture of the Ancient Germanic Tribes
The Celts belong to the most mysterious of Europe’s inhabitants. Today, Celtic speakers are confined to the far northwest of the continent, in the past, however, much of Continental Europe spoke Celtic. Where did they come from and how did they manage to cover such a vast area?… Read More The Origin and Expansion of the Celtic Peoples
Before the expansion of Rome the Italian peninsula was inhabited by a variety of different, mostly Italic peoples, such as the Umbrians, Veneti and Semnintes. But they shared the peninsula with non-Italic peoples as well, such as Greeks in the South, Etruscans in the North and Celts further beyond.… Read More The Ancient Italic Peoples
European Origins 