Modelling Modes of Production: European 3rd and 2nd Millennium BC Economies

Kristiansen, Kristian; Earle, Timothy

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-08763-9_8

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Archaeologically, the Nordic Bronze Age is a period of strong cultural homogenisation in south Scandinavia, starting around 3500 BP, creating the so-called Nordic Cultural Zone that lasted until 2500 BP. It was accompanied by widespread mobility not least in relation to forging new alliances supporting metal distribution 76 . Although it is possible additional migratory events occurred, our results based on IBD Mixture Modelling (Supplementary Note admixed source) and DATES analyses (Supplementary Note S6.7) suggest that admixture between Bronze Age Southern and Eastern Scandinavians likely occurred in Jutland and the Danish Isles during the Nordic Bronze Age, between 3700 -3400 BP, and leading to the formation of the Iron Age Southern Scandinavians (Supplementary Note S6.5.1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

McColl,

Kroonen,

Moreno-Mayar

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Germanic-speaking populations historically form an integral component of the North and Northwest European cultural configuration. According to linguistic consensus, the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, which include German, English, Frisian, Dutch as well as the Nordic languages, was spoken in Northern Europe during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. However, important questions remain concerning the earlier Bronze Age distribution of this Indo-European language branch in Scandinavia as well as the driving factors behind its Late Iron Age diversification and expansion across the European continent. A key difficulty in addressing these questions are the existence of striking differences in the interpretation of the archaeological record, leading to various hypotheses of correlations with linguistic dispersals and changes in material culture. Moreover, these interpretations have been difficult to assess using genomics due to limited ancient genomes and the difficulty in differentiating closely related populations. Here we integrate multidisciplinary evidence from population genomics, historical sources, archaeology and linguistics to offer a fully revised model for the origins and spread of Germanic languages and for the formation of the genomic ancestry of Germanic-speaking northern European populations, while acknowledging that coordinating archaeology, linguistics and genetics is complex and potentially controversial. We sequenced 710 ancient human genomes from western Eurasia and analysed them together with 3,940 published genomes suitable for imputing diploid genotypes. We find evidence of a previously unknown, large-scale Bronze Age migration within Scandinavia, originating in the east and becoming widespread to the west and south, thus providing a new potential driving factor for the expansion of the Germanic speech community. This East Scandinavian genetic cluster is first seen 800 years after the arrival of the Corded Ware Culture, the first Steppe-related population to emerge in Northern Europe, opening a new scenario implying a Late rather than an Middle Neolithic arrival of the Germanic language group in Scandinavia. Moreover, the non-local Hunter-Gatherer ancestry of this East Scandinavian cluster is indicative of a cross-Baltic maritime rather than a southern Scandinavian land-based entry. Later in the Iron Age around 1700 BP, we find a southward push of admixed Eastern and Southern Scandinavians into areas including Germany and the Netherlands, previously associated with Celtic speakers, mixing with local populations from the Eastern North Sea coast. During the Migration Period (1575-1200 BP), we find evidence of this structured, admixed Southern Scandinavian population representing the Western Germanic Anglo-Saxon migrations into Britain and Langobards into southern Europe. During the Migration Period, we detect a previously unknown northward migration back into Southern Scandinavia, partly replacing earlier inhabitants and forming the North Germanic-speaking Viking-Age populations of Denmark and southern Sweden, corresponding with historically attested Danes. However, the origin and character of these major changes in Scandinavia before the Viking Age remain contested. In contrast to these Western and Northern Germanic-speaking populations, we find the Wielbark population from Poland to be primarily of Eastern Scandinavian ancestry, supporting a Swedish origin for East Germanic groups. In contrast, the later cultural descendants, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths are predominantly of Southern European ancestry implying the adoption of Gothic culture. Together, these results highlight the use of archaeology, linguistics and genetics as distinct but complementary lines of evidence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

McColl,

Kroonen,

Moreno-Mayar

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Regionally, the Carpathian Basin sequence does not support the assertion that social inequality continued to ratchet up after the Neolithic (cf. 37,38). When farming using traction animals is firmly established, people disperse and we see wealth consumption and display present only in cemeteries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five Thousand Years of Inequality in the Carpathian Basin

Duffy,

Wilkes,

Skorna

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The emergence of sedentary farming economies, especially in contexts intensified by plow agriculture, has been argued to underpin marked increases in economic inequality and its intergenerational transmission across Eurasia. To assess this presumed causal relationship, we examine relational (burials) and material (house sizes) inequalities in the Carpathian Basin, a large region in central Europe, from the time the first farmers arrived in southeastern Europe through the next five millennia to the Bronze Age. We find that although farming did increase the potentials for both relational and material inequalities that potential was rarely reached, and then only for short durations. A series of leveling mechanisms, which shifted over time, are identified including the removal of material wealth from circulation, community fission, and investments of surplus labor in infrastructural investments. In the Carpathian Basin, only after at least five thousand years were the intergenerational potentials of material wealth transmissions more broadly realized.

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“…There is an assumption that violence, oppression, and competition are the only way for a society to become meaningfully ordered. Witness the ongoing popularity within archaeology of models of the past that see social complexity emerging only from genocide (Kristiansen and Earle, 2022, 136–37) and self‐interested accumulation of capital (e.g., Hayden and Earle, 2022). Without circumscription and the violent enactment of state‐like borders (following Carneiro, 1970), so the story goes, we could not end up with the vast bounties of the modern developed world.…”

Section: Myth 2: Humans Are By Their Nature Selfish Competitive and P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology in 2022: Counter‐myths for hopeful futures

Berihuete‐Azorín,

Blackmore,

Borck

et al. 2023

American Anthropologist

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Archaeology in 2022 features more calls than ever for a socially and politically engaged, progressive discipline. Archaeologists increasingly respect and integrate decolonizing and Indigenous knowledge in theory and practice. They acknowledge and embrace the fluidity and diversity of sexes and genders, past and present. They document patterns of migration, ancient as well as contemporary, to combat retrograde and racist narratives that remain pervasive in the public sphere. At the same time, the field has a deep‐seated conservative bastion toward which many scholars retreat, arguing for an “objective” past that is free of political implications or interpretive ambiguity. As anarchist archaeologists, we see the myth of the objective past as one of many interconnected myths that have provided the basis for an archaeology that reifies and proliferates the current social order. We deconstruct myths relating to capitalist and colonialist ideologies of “human nature,” the assumed inevitability of the current order, and fatalistic commitment to dystopian or utopian futures. As alternatives, we present counter‐myths that emphasize the contingent and political nature of archaeological praxis, the creative and collaborative foundation of communities, the alternative orders that archaeology uncovers, and the role of a hopeful past for constructing the possibilities of different futures.

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Modelling Modes of Production: European 3rd and 2nd Millennium BC Economies

Cited by 6 publications

References 89 publications

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

Five Thousand Years of Inequality in the Carpathian Basin

Archaeology in 2022: Counter‐myths for hopeful futures

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