German Memories - Early European Migration & Life-Style

Though our discussion touched on many of the early human migration what attracted us most was the 400, 000 year old wooden projectile spears which were found at Schoningen in northern Germany. These wooden projectile spears are thought to have been made by the Neanderthals' ancestors.

The Neanderthals disappeared completely from this world some 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnon probably came in contact with the Neanderthals, and is often credited to have caused or finalized the latter's extinction. To what extent Cro-Magnons interbred with Neanderthals - if at all - is still a matter of debate and we came out with some controversial argument.

The Cro-Magnons could be descended from any number of subspecies of Homo sapiens that emerged from Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons were the earliest modern humans to enter into Europe perhaps around 50,000 years ago, during a long interglacial period of particularly mild climate, when Europe was relatively warm, and food was plentiful.

Some of the oldest works of art in the world, such as the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France came into our discussion which were as old as shortly after the Cro-Magnons' migration. These early humans used manganese and iron oxides to paint pictures and even they were believed to have created the first calendar around 34,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons even knew how to make woven clothing and constructed huts out of rocks, clay, bones, branches and animal fur.

The last ice age plunged Europe into a much colder and harsher environment, and covered much of the north of it with inhospitable glaciers. As the glaciers began to retreat, about 20,000 years ago, humans migrated northward again. It was this Mesolithic population, the descendants of Cro-Magnons who were dwelling in Europe around 7000 BC when the Neolithic people first began to enter there from the Asiatic portion of today's Turkey.

If the Neolithic immigrants to Europe were indeed Indo-European, then populations speaking non-Indo-European languages in today's Europe the Basques of the Pyrenees are the descendants of Mesolithic people since their language is related to none other in the world and also the Basque population has a unique genetic profile. The Uralic speaking peoples, the Finns and others represent this Mesolithic generation.

The other current non-Indo-European languages of Europe - Turkish, Maltese, and Magyar - were introduced in pre-historical times.

Our discussion went back into the Neolithic European lifestyle in between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC to 1700 BC. The Neolithic Europeans were living in small-scale, family-based communities, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and with hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, that is, made without the potter's wheel.

There were some Neolithic Europeans in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000-4,000 people in Greece whereas in England there were 50-100 people together as highly mobile cattle-herders.

The Neolithic European peoples were warlike, and they imposed themselves as an elite on the Mesolithic populations, who adopted their language. The Neolithic Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society. They had domesticated the horse and the cow which played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals.

They practised a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their household or wives under the human sacrifice called Suttee.