I put here my "elucubrating" post because Germanics and Celts are part of it , even if "
neolithic Celts and Germanics" is not the very purpose - I beg your pardon in advance!
About Germanics again
reading again some notes from the H.HUBERT work about germanic formation, I constate he thought, based on archeology principally:
after LGM southern populations got up to North (Maglemose evocates more the Magdalenian than Azilean, with few stone tools but bones, anters) until the scandinavian coast (Sweden, Norway) and Onega Lake! - some traces of Tardenoisian among Maglemose (silex), partly akin to the Capsian of southern Spain – all that lasted until the Neolithic – just before Neolithic too (5000/4000 BC), the 'kjökkenmodings' coastal culture in Denmark, N-Germany >> Saale river, >> S-Sweden (Scania) >> Wolhynia, Lithuania maybe? – physically some 'cromanoids' plus more or less «brutal» shaped brachycephals plus some 'nordic', different from the 'proto-mediterraneans' of Ofnet cave (who mixed with 'proto-alpine' types) –
the kjökkenmodings people knew already pottery but did not polish their stone axes! (common with W-Aremorica, ancient Britain...) - some links with the Campinian of Italy -
to conclude, at these times, scarce population in N-Europe-Scandinaviadivided as:
a) some little bands of hunters-river-fishers near lakes and ponds, remnants of the old Mesolothic hunters-gatherers (bet: majority of Y-I1)-
b) seashores fishers, more numerous along the coasts rich in shellfishs, between sea and dense woodlands, and originated from agricultors Neolithic groups from South
- some litlle groups of agricultors in cleared zones in the woods, not too numerous – (bet: Y-G2 + Y-E1bV13) – supposedly, iron gave later way to swifter clearing of woodlands -
strinking change at Eneolithic (transition to Calcholithic-Copper): dense populations, well organised, agriculture and fishing (boats), territories and cheftains!!!
3500/2000 BC: neolitihical groups of megalithers occupied the land (divided into North-West megaliths of N-Germany and W-Elbe, scandinavian megaliths and Elbe-Saale megaliths group of Thuringen and surroundings) along the
Artic culture people, frequently well separated but sometimes the too overlapped – dense net of population, even Norway is well colonised, Trondheim is reached through the mountains passes! - the Artic culture overlap with Finland -
leaving the coasts (but East?) and the islands to the megalithers - a continental inland population with individual tombs under tumuli (barrows), sometimes with pits, occuped the North and the West of Denmark (Jutland); they had a
corded pottery with BB influences (I suppose the «Britain-Rhineland BBs», common in West and in the local dolmens but uncommon among the 'gallery sepultures' (= 'long barrows' megalithers, coastal, OK! Normal!) – they had assymetrical 'hammer-axes', and in Sweden, 'boat-axes' («haches naviformes») - $: the danish models of axes were found too in Fatjanovo, in Kouban, and around Dniepr and Donetzk -
no extermination of the megalithers: the same occurs in the Netherland with the 'corded' people taking even the worst sandy places on coasts because megalithers ('long barrows' rulers) held already the good shores (this could prove the strength at that time of the descendants of the earlier peasants of Britain in their other possessions, if I don't mistake) – but at last, the tumuli-individual sepultures took the strong side upon the megalithers that had hard time too in the Isles (their «home»?) with the 'round barrows' BB folks came frome the Rhine mouth after having left the Weser-Hannover-Westphaly-Frisia great region with an archeological vacuum (HUBERT thought they were ancestors of the gaelic-celtic speaker folks) -
these people got into Southern Sweden (SW Skania >> SE Blekinge) and covered (?) the 'artic' peoples until the Norway «doors» (around Oslo passes?) – according to HUBERT? This civilisation, with some light loans to the 'Artic' and the 'megalithic culture', had extended northwards and also until Russia – ('battle axes culture'?)
HUBERT thought the 'artic' people has furnished a dominent demic basis to the future Germanics and has done so among Finns (no way to differenciate Scandinavia 'artic' and Finland 'artic' on archeology criteria ... - he thought the individual tombs folks were close in origin to the Celts and were come from the Danau (Don) river through the Saale valley and that they have had only a slight influence in the demic constitution of the Germanics -
after, the sepultures contained wooden coffins under tumuli (different from the later stones circles tumuli of pre-Lusace Culture in Czechia and S+W Poland) – new axes with upturned edges («rebords relevés»)
me: all the way, in this northern region, the incineration or cremation system seems having taken place without great populations movements – the first incinerations were under tumulus as before : at least in this region, because in other regions, the first launching involved demic process, see under -
&: HUBERT spoke of Illyrians but in a curious way: he spoke sometimes of an illyrian domain, more cultural than ethnic ? where he placed too Latins and Umbrians, Greeks, Cimmerians, Veneti, Phrygians, Karpodacians (these last ones baptized 'Illyrians' by KOSSINA)- he considered these culturally Illyrians as the primary source of the propagation of cremation and Urnfields and he thought it is during their influence period that germanic language formed up definitely without saying why – he said same linguistic place-names were found among the Lusace (and W-Veneti places?) and Adriatic regions even if we did not find lusacian pottery in Adriatic region -
I personally, at this stage of my knowledge, should be attracted to think this cremation system (religious) is the fact of an Anatolian Near-Eastern population(s) (what size?): metallurgy professionals? Yet cremation appeared at Unetice times in Czechia and other types of sepultures in big urns (not every time the tandem cremation-urn at beginning) implying some castes of southeastern origin; but Cucuteni-Triploje knew too something close – and some anthropologic studies link more or less directly Tripolje people (males for the most) with south Caucasus (Armenia) - # maybe an Illyrian branch having reached the Adriatic coast could have ignored this type of sepulture and indeed, the cast practizing it could have gained reputation after only in central Europe (say between Hungary and Moravia?) and passed its religion to I-Eans of different but yet close enough stocks: E-Celts, E-Italics, N-Hellenes??? plus a northern branch of Illyrians becoming Lusacians – other hypothesis: Illyrian was a too well known term extended too much without any proof: so the «lusacian» language of toponymy could be the North Illyricum language, akin to NE-Italy Veneti language (Eh! Eh!), centum as a whole, and not true «illyrianish»; same problem: only a part of the tribes adopted the «new religion» (cremation in urns)- I suppose Veneti ancestors as Umbrians ancestors have been neighnours in a central Europe position before and around the 1000 BC... by the way, the Umbrians seem having worn clothes close to the last Celts ones – these lands around Don river have knew so numerous invasions and colonisations and contacts! A highway!!! It would be interesting to make a rapid survey about the Y-diversity near the Don compared to other regions of Europe (even if mt-DNA is more quiet)-
Hubert said Germanic tribes kept the cremation system (without pottery, contrary to Celts and «Illyrians»<> me: rather Umbrians or Veneti?) and that Celts reversed to inhumation after the Urnfields period -
to go back to Germanics synthesis, on the demic plan, I think the imput of neolithical people has been weak enough in Northern Europe and Scandinavia (it is not a scoop); even the megalithers did not leave a strong signature (at individual levels, we find some atavic phenotypes, but rare – the rare skeletons of the Netherlands neolithic until the Funnelbeaker (already some I-Eans introgression?) were about 1m65 of stature when the Germanics after showed 1m72-1m74 statures) – the most of the ancestors were taken among the autochtonous mesolithical artic people (a lot of Y-I >> Y-I1?) and the diverse I-Ean tribes were genuine Corded (flat tombs: Y-R1a) and a mix of Corded-BBs-other western °autochtones (tumuli) and °°some South-Baltic «artic» autochtones indo-europeanized (result: Y-R1a + Y-R1b (U106 principally + some U152 and L21?) + °Y-I2a2? + °°Y-I1: the Y-I1 are more dense in South-Scandinavia than in North) -
me: personally, I am astonished by all these changes in sepultures and the non-stop alternance of tumuli-no tumuli or inhumation-cremation systems: what is the part of ethny and the one of believings exchanges? - two short studies about Czechoslovakia and Lusace Bronze Age seems showing that the cremation and the urns came from the South before 'historic' Celts and did not impose themselves in the whole population: the culture linked to them were firstable born by distinct population not immediatly mixing with their predecessors – in Silesia and around the Wisla/Vistula the new coming urnfields people did not replace the precedent Tumuli people passed before by the same Moravia «pass» (I don't go into the details here) and it is only after interminglings (geographical) during some time that diverse forms of mixed forms of sepultures appeared... the successive Tumuli cultures were different at first sight, arrived at different times in different places, but maybe they marked steppic tribes waves from East having kept this old mode of sepulture (for elite, it's true...) or at least some forgotten inland tribes having kept on with?
Someones say: the proto-celtic tumuli culture of Southern Germany took its tumuli from the last Corded Wares people (first Corded before inhumed their dead fellows in individual flat tombs that became the unique mode among well evolved Germanics)
+ the tumuli people of Bohemia seemed coming from North Bohemia before progressing southwards and eatswards to Moravia and SW-Poland– the Lower Rhine Bell Beakers used tumuli too according to 'round barrows' of Britain(maybe it is them who gave tumuli to the Corded? It seems to me the Harz (metals) and Thuringen-Saale-South-Saxe-Anhalt region was the core of the «rich» Tumuli («princes tumuli») and a mixing place where Y-I2a2 fellows and Y-R1b from close South and West (BB influences*) created a new culture upon the Unetice one, associated to North-East Y-R1a Corded...the «pure» initial Corded were stayed more northern or eastern...
*: at this stage, I don't say BB promotors = Y-R1b's – just their constated following settlements envolved Y-R1b's -
&&: I note some authors spoke about the first tumuli people of Czechia-Poland as if they were different from the historic Celts who reached after them and after the Urnfields – I think they are right -
concerning cremation and urns, I red that in 2600/2400 BC in Tripolje a 'pile dwelling' population of dominant agricultural culture presented few inhumations and at contrary numerous incinerations and urns! At Bronze Age, the cremation system would be come from Hungary or carpathian Bassin, before to reach S-Bohemia and SW Slovakia and to pass to Lusace and Poland through Moravia – it is about the 1000 BC that the 'celtic Tumuli' zone of S-Germany adopted cremation in urns under flat tombs, come from N-E (it is to say: Bohem) before coming back to old inhumations practices under tumuli -
at Hallstatt (beginning of Iron) we had a mix of inhumations and incineration: I have some difficulty to believe it was only a question of transmitted mode: dead is too important to be assimilated at clothes or arms or pottery. When religious, it needs time to be transmitted OR domination of a foreign elite I think that at first different culture tribes were living along in a kind of patchwork and that there was not a religious mode without future... the tumuli came back in force after the beginning, rich ones extented from Don river and Julian Alps to Balkans: BUT according to scholars, the skeletons were different (as a mean, I suppose) and the artefacts too (?)
I red somewhere the range of northern tumuli made a highway from S-Sweden to S-Norway showing the progression of the newcomers – I think they were a mix of predominent Y-R1a classical 'corded' from Thuringen-Saale mixed with some «foreign» elite more western? from Harz? Bell Beakers (genuine or influenced only) creators of the new BB Rhine style ? Proto-Celts as say someones ? (I keep sceptical but it is possible the first wave, could be proto-celtic: the Thuringen region was for me a crossing place between Y-R1a Corded and Y-??? Bell Beakers, where Y-I2a2 were involved too) – nevertheless I think the propagation of «boat-axes» is more typical of dominently genuine Corded people maybe partly satemized: it could explain the strong presence of Y-R1a in central parts of Norway and even if less, in Sweden, when we see less Y-R1a in SW Norway (these last ones more «proto-Celtic»?) and even less in Denmark? A very mixed population at first (autochtones + BB + Corded (in Thuringen) creating dynamics and after gained more Corded (R1a) people to this culture, this last ones being the more numerous to pass in Scandinavia?
&; me: contrary to the thoughts of HUBERT concerning germanic Scandinavia, the Finn scientists think the Battle Axe 'corded' tribes who colonised the ancient territories of the Comb Ceramic culture were flesh and blood demic «imports» and not only accultured autochtones – the alleged particular links between germanic and slavic could reside in this 'corded' presence on the two sides of the Oder??? but if Veneti/Venedi were from Carpathian bassin and around, it could also explain a partial satemization (origin closer to the eastern-slavic-dacian-thracian group: let us recall illyrian is considered {at final stage only? By convergeance?} as a satem language too... but Veneti were classified in the centum group by others (not completely centum for others!)
&&:
the supposed «proto-Celts» of the tumuli spoke surely an archaïc N-W european I-Ean on way to the future celtic but at that time the linguistic process was not finished – maybe a specimen of the future Belgae language? Or proto-gaelic?