North European hypothesis

Neolithic stone-axe from Sweden

The North European hypothesis was a linguistic and archaeological theory that tried to explain the spread of the Indo-European languages in Europe and parts of Asia by locating the original homeland (Urheimat) in southern Scandinavia or in the North German Plain.[1] This hypothesis, advanced by Karl Penka, Hermann Hirt, Gustaf Kossinna and others, had some success in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, and was endorsed by Nazism,[2] but is today considered outdated by the majority of the academics, who tend to favor the Kurgan hypothesis.[note 1]

Overview[edit]

According to Penka, the first to propose a Nordic Urheimat, the primitive Indo-European people had to be sedentary farmers native of the north, formed without external interference since the Paleolithic.[2] The presence of a term to indicate copper (*ayes) in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European vocabulary would restrict the homeland (Urheimat) in a culture of the late Neolithic or the Chalcolithic. Terms in favor of a northern location would be, among others, the ones to indicate the beech (bhāghos) and the sea (*mori).[2] Others, such as Kossinna, identified specifically the Chalcolithic Corded Ware culture (c. 2900–2300 BC, but at the time known as Battle-Axe culture or, in German, Streitaxtkultur, and dated to c. 2000 BC) with the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[5]

For Boettcher, the very first period of formation of the future proto-Indo-European peoples began in the late Paleolithic, when global warming, which followed the Würm glaciation, allowed to the hunter-gatherers settled in the glacial shelters to repopulate northern Europe, now free of ice. They gave rise to archaeological manifestations such as the Hamburg culture and the Federmesser culture. In these areas of the north are common boreal phenomena apparently described in some Indo-European myths.[6] These groups of hunters and fishermen are the basis of the next Maglemosian culture (9000–6500 BC approximately). The rising of the sea level in northern Europe caused the flooding of part of the territories occupied by Maglemosians (Doggerland) and drove them south. The heirs of this culture developed the cultures of Ertebølle and Ellerbek.[7] Boettcher compares their activities with those of the Vikings of the following millenniums. They are described as a developing warrior society, which deals with trade and piracy, going up the rivers to raid the lands occupied by the Danubian farmers of the southern plains, subduing them and become their leaders.

The fusion of these two populations gave rise to the so-called Funnelbeaker culture (4200–2600 BC), extended from the Netherlands to north-western Ukraine,[8] which would be the original habitat of the first Indo-Europeans. For Jean Haudry, "The Neolithic Funnelbecker culture agrees well with the traditional image of the Indo-European peoples confirmed by linguistic paleontology: in this culture there are simultaneously breeding and plant cultivation, the horse, the wagon and the battle axe, fortifications and signs of a hierarchically organized society".[9] The first Indo-European culture would be then a synthesis of the Ertebølle culture and the final stages of the Linear Pottery culture.[10] This prehistoric fusion of two different populations would explain some common myths to the Indo-European mythology that were studied by Georges Dumézil, such as the Rape of the Sabines in Rome and the war between the Æsir and Vanir of Norse mythology, which would show the union between warrior groups and groups of producers/farmers.

Later cultures, such as the Globular Amphora culture and the Corded Ware culture, would represent the expansion of the Indo-Europeans (or Indogermanen according to this hypothesis) from their original locations in the North European Plain toward Russia (Middle Dnieper culture, Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture[11]) and Asia (Koban culture[12]). Similar movements of Nordic populations would have radiated from Northern Europe to Western and Southern Europe, including Anatolia (Troy),[11]) between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ See:
    • Mallory: "The Kurgan solution is attractive and has been accepted by many archaeologists and linguists, in part or total. It is the solution one encounters in the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Grand Dictionnaire Encyclopédique Larousse."[3]
    • Strazny: "The single most popular proposal is the Pontic steppes (see the Kurgan hypothesis)...".[4]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Gordon Childe 1926, p. 178.
  2. ^ a b c Villar 1997, p. 42-47.
  3. ^ Mallory 1989, p. 185.
  4. ^ Strazny 2000, p. 163.
  5. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 127–128.
  6. ^ Boettcher 1999, p. 28.
  7. ^ Boettcher 1999, p. 68.
  8. ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 596.
  9. ^ Haudry 1981.
  10. ^ Boettcher 1999, p. 148.
  11. ^ a b Gordon Childe 1926, p. 177.
  12. ^ Gordon Childe 1926, p. 177-178.

Sources[edit]

  • Boettcher, Carl-Heinz (1999), Röhrig (ed.), Der Ursprung Europas: Die Wiege des Westens vor 6000 Jahren (in German), ISBN 3861102005
  • Gordon Childe, Vere (1926). The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European Origins.
  • Haudry, Jean (1981). Les Indo-Européens. Presses universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2130383710.
  • Mallory, J. P. (1989). In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500050521.
  • Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
  • Villar, Francisco (1991). Los Indoeuropeos y los origines de Europa: lenguaje e historia (in Spanish). Madrid: Gredos. ISBN 84-249-1471-6. Trad. it.: Villar, Francisco (1997). Gli Indoeuropei e le origini dell'Europa. Bologna: Il Mulino. ISBN 88-15-05708-0.
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