How well can scientists map linguistic, archaeological and genetic events to each other?
By "genetic event" I'm especially thinking of tests on DNA from ancient skeletons; I'm especially interested in Y-chromosome haplogroups. Jean Manco used to have a wonderful website where she posted the results of every DNA test performed on ancient skeletons. She passed away;
her final version is available on the Wayback machine. With DNA testing increasingly common it would be nice to have an updated list, but is there one? (Some of the best websites have been by amateurs, and often disappear. Perhaps with Search an inferior "professional" site would turn up . . . but probably behind a pay-wall.)
What's the relationship between languages and cultures in Scandinavia and the Baltic area? I'll show what I've gleaned, mostly from Wikipedia, listing relevant cultures in roughly chronological order.
Mesolithic Central Europe had mostly I2 Y-haplogroup, with G2a2 Y-haplogroup often found among the earliest farmers, whether Linear Ware or Impressed Ware. In many locales these Y-chromosomes have now been replaced by R1b or R1a; but this does NOT mean there was general gene replacement. A small band of strong male invaders can have high procreative and survival success and have a dramatic effect on Y-chromosome frequencies even when autosomal genes change little! The dominance is retained with an explicit or implicit caste system with caste inherited from father.
The
Funnel-Beaker Culture (4300 BC - 2800 BC) was the first neolithic culture of northern Germany, noted because it lacked orderly garbage dumps compared with other sedentary cultures. Among several firsts are the earliest preserved wagon wheels (although the wagon was probably invented elsewhere). Their language is unknown but probably was NOT Indo-European, Uralic or proto-Basque. Their Y-chromosome is unknown but was probably I2 -- the chief haplogroup of mesolithic Central Europe. Funnel Beaker diminished when Corded Ware arrived, persisting for a few centuries in Sweden.
The
Comb Ceramic Culture (4200 BC - 2000 BC) lived between the Baltic Sea and the Urals (and may have originated east of the Urals). They had little or no farming but used pottery apparently influenced by the Far East. In Finland they lived in teepees and hunted seals. Their Y-chromosome was R1a-YP1272, a branch of R1a that split off before the very early Indo-Europeans. Their trajectory was similar to that of Uralic people, but Wikipedia insists that their migrations were long before those of the Uralic speakers. Their language is unknown.
The
Pitted Ware Culture (3500 - 2300 BC) were seafarers who thrived along the coasts of Scandinavia. They borrowed heavily from Comb Ceramic, but were very different genetically. While Comb Ceramic had Eastern European genes, Pitted Ware descends from the hunter-gatherers of Sweden; their Y-chromosome was I2. They hunted seals and land animals like elk, wild boar and beaver; fished and gathered plants; but didn't need to farm: they could trade with neighbors who did farm. Because of their seafaring skills, I think they were raiders (proto-Vikings?) who sometimes just took what they wanted. They came into conflict with (and tended to dominate?) other Scandinavians beginning with Funnel-Beaker.
The
Corded Ware Culture (3000 BC - 2350 BC) dominated North Central Europe from the Rhine to the Volga and probably(?) spoke Indo-European language(s). Today R1b dominates the western part of the Corded Ware region, and R1a dominates in the East, but ancient skeletons tell a very different story, and various Y-chromosomes have turned up, including R1a in the West. Wikipedia sources use this genetic fact to argue that Corded Ware -- despite its strong similarities to Yamnaya culture -- was a "parallel" culture. The R1b Y-chromosome common in Corded Ware skeletons is R1b-Z2103 which, while possibly ancestral to Hittites and other very early Indo-European speakers, split from the main Western Indo-European clade (Yamnaya) about 4000 BC. Some centuries before Corded Ware there was the related
Globular Amphora culture. Its major Y-chromosome seems to be I2. Its language is unknown although Gimbutas treats it as part of the "Kurgan horizon" which culminated in Yamnaya.
The
Battle Axe Culture and
Single Grave Culture basically just refer to Corded Ware of Scandinavia
The
Bell Beaker Culture (2800 BC - 2000 BC) quickly dominated almost all of Western Europe. They spoke proto-Celtic or Italo-Celtic. Their R1b-P312 Y-chromosome originated in 2700 BC and now completely dominates Western Europe. About 3000 BC, R1b-U106 split off and became common in Germany and Sweden (although as mentioned this is a different clade than the R1b's found in ancient Corded Ware skeletons).
Balto-Slavic speakers moved into the Baltic area perhaps about 2000 BC? They had R1a Y-chromosome.
Uralic speakers arrived near the Baltic even later than the Balto-Slavic people? Many had N Y-chromosome.
The
Nordic Bronze Age began about 2000 BC and was centered in Denmark and southern Sweden. It had strong contacts with the Myceneans of Greece!
Wikipedia said:
the Corded Ware constructed a series of defensive palisades ... which may be a sign of violent conflict between them and the Pitted Ware. [Funnel-beaker also built palisades to defend from Pitted Ware.] Though cultural influences of the Battle Axe culture are detectable in Pitted Ware burials, its peoples do not appear to have mixed with each other. By ca. 2,300 BC, the Pitted Ware culture had merged with the Battle Axe culture. The subsequent Nordic Bronze Age represents a fusion of elements from the Pitted Ware culture and the Battle Axe culture.
The
Jastorf Iron Age began about 550 BC. While the Nordic Bronze Age is usually described as the origin of the Germanic languages, in fact proto-Germanic's alleged date is AFTER Jastorf.
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Whew! I'd intended a much briefer summary, but once started I had to be thorough. And even so, I show more questions than answers.
The prehistoric cultures of the Scandinavian area interest me because of the light they may shed on the
Germanic substrate hypothesis. Germanic is unique among Indo-European language families in that it shows much divergence in lexicon, phonology and grammar; and is difficult to place into a "genetic" language tree.
Other Indo-Europeans conquered easily. Proto-Celtic speakers quickly dominated Western Europe; early Greek and Iranian warriors seemed invincible; and so on. BUT the Pitted Ware seafarers put up a fight, and Wikipedia concludes that the "Nordic Bronze Age represents a fusion of elements from the Pitted Ware culture and the Battle Axe culture." I think we must look to Pitted Ware to solve the mystery of the origin of the Germanic language family. "Sea, ship, sail, keel, eel, ice" are words that were probably borrowed into Germanic from a sea-faring people. Yet Wiki's
Germanic substrate hypothesis doesn't even mention Pitted Ware, arguably the most likely source of such words.
I think a pidgin language would have developed between Pitted Ware and Battle-Axe: the two cultures had much contact but remained too aloof from each other for bilingualism or (at least initially) creole. That pidgin language influenced the development of proto-Germanic.
