dry and scientific. traces by DNA etc. Very informative but more a resource than for reading ( )

This is a sweeping history of the peopling of Europe, from the perspective of genetics, archaeology, and linguistics. Several months ago, I became fascinated with the idea that Ancient Greece was populated by Greek-speakers before they were “Greek”. I read J.P. Mallory’s book, In Search of the Indo-Europeans. Mallory wrote a favorable review of this book which influenced my decision to read it. I’m happy I did although there are stylistic problems with it. Manco writes clearly, even on complex topics like genetics, however she doesn’t handle conclusions very well. She often ends a chapter and even the book itself, without neatly wrapping things up for the reader. Instead she leaves ideas and concepts dangling.

I still don’t have a clear picture of how Classical Greece evolved in terms of language and religion. By the time we meet “the Greeks”, we are in the historical age. It’s that mysterious time just before, when people were not yet literate, that fascinates me. The early Greeks, known as the Hellenes, were likely migratory farmers with a sophisticated trading economy. This is tied to Manco’s main thesis, which is that Europe was populated over millennia by waves of leap-frogging farming communities. She generally agrees with the idea that people who spoke a single, Proto-Indo-European language (from which most other European languages evolved), migrated in successive waves from somewhere in the vicinity of the Black Sea. What she doesn’t agree with, however, is the idea that these were male-dominated, bellicose, horse-riding warriors out to take over Mother-goddess worshipping peaceful and female dominated cultures. (See my previous review of Charlene Spretnak’s Lost Goddeses of Early Greece.) The reality on the ground is much more mundane that that. Most likely climate change, coupled with advancements in agriculture and the need for fertile land caused people to migrate. This was at a time when nations and therefore national identity didn’t exist, nor did the idea of land ownership. People grew their crops. And if they had a few bad years, they picked up and moved until they found a better place. They left clues along the way for us to decipher - pottery, stone tools, and, thanks to burials, ancient DNA. Geneticists are now able to piece together the peopling of Europe by studying modern and ancient DNA not only of people and plants but of animals as well. The movement of domesticated animals throughout history shines light on the movement of people.

Overall I found the book worthwhile, if sometimes a bit dull. I suspect that it will serve as a good reference book to refer to while I continue on my own journey to read the Western Canon.

A few favorite quotes:
“Tribes and nations developed origin myths for lack of better knowledge.”

“The Minoans would have had no concept of themselves as European. Indeed the would have had no concept of Europe”

And my most favorite:

“Whether civilization is a good thing is best left to philosophers to decide. We can only observe that the whirligig of time has crushed many a civilization while humankind managed to survive by retreating to a simpler life. As with technology, so with society: the more complex it is, the more ways there are for things to go wrong” ( )

I like dry books but this is just uninspired and lacks any idea or structure. It's hardly a book, more like an unstructured list of topics you'd be better off reading about somewhere else. Too many "oh, and another thing...". ( )

In this well-written and informative account of the ancient history of Europe. The author weaves together multiples strands of genetic evidence, archaeology, history and linguistics to present this narrative of the movement of people, DNA distribution and the spread of languages throughout Europe. This book includes numerous illustrations and maps. ( )

This book examines the question of where the peoples of Europe came from, and how they spread across the continent. The author combines the latest genetic analysis, archaelogical information, and linguistic analysis to provide multidimensional answers to these complex questions. The author stresses -- helpfully, I think -- the switch in views on the European past over the past thirty years or so. The consensus has moved to an emphasis on migration (people and cultures moved) away from the stable population approach (culture moved, people pretty much stayed in place). Here, genetic analysis has been invaluable, showing that ancestral DNA in many locales does NOT bear a close relationship to the DNA of people who live there now.

Her time span ranges from the deepest past up to the Viking age, and presents a lot of information of which I was not aware -- a lot of which focusses on how fast populations actually have changed. The Slavs, for example, appear to have emerged well into the first millenium. Another key point she emphasizes is that cultures retreat as well as advancing, due to sickness, climate change, or war. She stresses that population dropped sharply in many areas on many occasions.

My only quarrel with the book is that I found it tedious at time. That is likely to be more my fault than the authors (haplogroup analysis is critical, but I don't know enough to find it thrilling). In addition to this book, however, I would recommend "The Horse, The Wheel and Language" by David Anthony. This book is a tad older than Manco's (2007) but for whatever reason I found it even more interesting. How fortunate history buffs like me are to live in a period when research is uncovering so much about unwritten human history! ( )