Prehistoric Europe
Prehistoric Europe is the designation for the period of human presence in Europe before the start of recorded history, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional irregularities of cultural development emerge and increase; the region of the eastern Mediterranean is, due to its geographic proximity influenced and inspired by the classical Middle Eastern civilizations, adopts and develops the earliest systems of communal organization and writing. The Histories of Herodotus is the oldest known European text that seeks to systematically record traditions, public affairs and notable events. In contrast, the European regions furthest away from the ancient centers of civilization tended to be the slowest, regarding acculturation. In Northern and Eastern Europe in particular and systematic recording was only introduced in the context of Christianization, after 1000 CE. Dispersed, isolated finds of individual fossils of bone fragments, stone artifacts or assemblages that suggest Lower Paleolithic palaeo-human presence are rare and separated by thousands of years.
The karstic region of the Atapuerca Mountains in Spain represents the earliest known and reliably dated location of residence for more than a single generation and a group of individuals. Prolonged presence has been attested for Homo antecessor (or Homo erectus antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals. Homo neanderthalensis emerged in Eurasia between 350,000 and 600,000 years ago as the earliest body of European people, that left behind a substantial tradition, a set of evaluable historic data through rich fossil record in Europe's limestone caves and a patchwork of occupation sites over large areas, including Mousterian cultural assemblages. Modern humans arrived in Mediterranean Europe during the Upper Paleolithic between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago, both species occupied a common habitat for several thousand years. Research has so far produced no universally accepted conclusive explanation as to what caused the Neanderthal's extinction between 40,000 and 28,000 years ago. Homo sapiens subsequently proceeded to populate the entire continent during the Mesolithic and advanced north, following the retreating ice sheets of the last glacial maximum.
A 2015 publication on ancient European DNA collected from Spain to Russia concluded that the original hunter-gatherer population had assimilated a wave of "farmers" who had arrived from the Near East during the Neolithic about 8,000 years ago. The Mesolithic era site Lepenski Vir in modern day Serbia, the earliest documented sedentary community of Europe with permanent buildings as well as monumental art precedes sites considered to be the oldest known by many centuries; the community's year round access to a food surplus prior to the introduction of agriculture was the basis for the sedentary lifestyle However, the earliest record for the adoption of elements of farming can be found in Starčevo, a community with close cultural ties. Belovode and Pločnik in Serbia, is the oldest reliably dated copper smelting site in Europe. Attributed to the Vinča culture, which on the contrary provides no links to the initiation of or a transition to the Chalcolithic or Copper age; the process of smelting bronze is an imported technology with debated origins and history of geographic cultural profusion.
It established in Europe about 3200 BC in the Aegean and production was centered around Cyprus, the primary source of copper for the Mediterranean for many centuries. The introduction of metallurgy which initiated unprecedented technological progress has been linked with the establishment of social stratification and distinction between rich and poor and precious metals as the means to fundamentally control the dynamics of culture and society; the European Iron Age culture originates in the East through the absorption of the technological principles obtained from the Hittites about 1200 BC arriving in Northern Europe by 500 BC. During the Iron Age, Central and most of Eastern Europe entered the historical period. Greek maritime colonization and Roman terrestrial conquest form the basis for the diffusion of literacy in large areas to this day; this tradition continued in an altered form and context for the most remote regions via the universal body of Christian texts, including the incorporation of Eastern European Slavic people and Russia into the Orthodox cultural sphere.
Latin and ancient Greek language continued to be the primary and best way to communicate and express ideas in Liberal arts education and the sciences all over Europe until the early modern period. The climatic record of the Paleolithic is characterized by the Pleistocene pattern of cyclic warmer and colder periods, including eight major cycles and numerous shorter episodes; the northern maximum of human occupation fluctuated in response to these changing conditions and successful settlement required constant adaption capabilities and problem solving. Most of Scandinavia, the North European Plain and Russia remained off limits for occupation during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Associated evidence, such as stone tools and settlement localities is more numerous than fossilized remains of the hominin occupants themselves; the simplest pebble tools with a few flakes struck off to create an edge were found in Dmanisi, Georgia and in Spain at sites in the Guadix-Baza basin and near Atapuerca. These Oldowan tool discoveries, called Mode 1-type assemblages are replaced by a more complex tradition, that included a range of hand axes and flake tools, the Acheulean, Mode 2-type assemblages.
Both types of tool sets are attributed to Homo erectus, the earliest an
Lombards
The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the Historia Langobardorum that the Lombards descended from a small tribe called the Winnili, who dwelt in southern Scandinavia before migrating to seek new lands. In the 1st century AD, they formed part of the Suebi, in north-western Germany. By the end of the 5th century, they had moved into the area coinciding with modern Austria and Slovakia north of the Danube river, where they subdued the Heruls and fought frequent wars with the Gepids; the Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552. Following this victory, Alboin decided to lead his people to Italy, which had become depopulated and devastated after the long Gothic War between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom there. In contrast with the Goths and the Vandals, the Lombards left Scandinavia and descended due south through Germany and Slovenia, only leaving Germanic territory a few decades before reaching Italy.
The Lombards would have remained a predominantly Germanic tribe by the time they invaded Italy. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Gepids, Bulgars and Ostrogoths, their invasion of Italy was unopposed. By late 569 they had conquered all of northern Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in southern Italy, they established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy named Regnum Italicum, which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the Kingdom was integrated into his Empire. However, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their County of Sicily. In this period, the southern part of Italy still under Longobardic domination was known to the foreigners, by the name Langbarðaland, in the Norse runestones, their legacy is apparent in the regional name Lombardy. The fullest account of Lombard origins and practices is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, written in the 8th century.
Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a small tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern Scandinavia; the Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was overpopulation; the departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war; the Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute." The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan, who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea, who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands.
At sunrise, Frea turned her husband's bed so that he was facing east, woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, "Who are these long-beards?," and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them the victory." From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards. When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian, he thought the pagan stories of his people "silly" and "laughable". Paul explained. A modern theory suggests that the name "Langobard" comes from a name of Odin. Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to "Lombards", they changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin, thus creating a conscious tribal tradition. Fröhlich inverts the order of events in Priester and states that with the Odin cult, the Lombards grew their beards in resemblance of the Odin of tradition and their new name reflected this. Bruckner remarks that the name of the Lombards stands in close relation to the worship of Odin, whose many names include "the Long-bearded" or "the Grey-bearded", that the Lombard given name Ansegranus shows that the Lombards had this idea of their chief deity.
The same Old Norse root Barth or Barði, meaning "beard", is shared with the Heaðobards mentioned in both Beowulf and in Widsith, where they are in conflict with the Danes. They were a branch of the Langobards. Alternatively some etymological sources suggest an Old High German root, meaning “axe”, while Edward Gibbon puts forth an alternative suggestion which argues that: …Börde still signifies “a fertile plain by the side of a river,” and a district near Magdeburg is still called the lange Börd
Germanicus
Germanicus was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and a prominent general of the Roman Empire, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia; the agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4, he was adopted by his paternal uncle, who succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor a decade later; as a result, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family which he was related to on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii was further consolidated through a marriage between himself and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus, he was the nephew of Tiberius, the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero. During the reign of Augustus, Germanicus enjoyed an accelerated political career as the heir of the emperor's heir, entering the office of quaestor five years before the legal age in AD 7.
He held that office until AD 11, was elected consul for the first time in AD 12. The year after, he was made proconsul of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, all of Gaul. From there he commanded eight legions, about one-third of the entire Roman army, which he led against the Germanic tribes in his campaigns from AD 14 to 16, he avenged the Roman Empire's defeat in the Teutoberg Forest and retrieved two of the three legionary eagles, lost during the battle. In AD 17 he returned to Rome where he received a triumph before leaving to reorganize the provinces of Asia Minor, whereby he incorporated the provinces of Cappadocia and Commagene in AD 18. While in the eastern provinces, he came into conflict with the governor of Syria, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. During their feud, Germanicus became ill in Antioch, where he died on 10 October AD 19, his death has been attributed to poison by ancient sources, but, never proven. As a famous general, he was popular and regarded as the ideal Roman long after his death.
To the Roman people, Germanicus was the Roman equivalent of Alexander the Great due to the nature of his death at a young age, his virtuous character, his dashing physique, his military renown. Germanicus's praenomen is unknown, but he was named Nero Claudius Drusus after his father, or Tiberius Claudius Nero after his uncle, he took the agnomen Germanicus, awarded posthumously to his father in honor of his victories in Germania, when he nominally became head of the family in 9 BC. Germanicus held the title. By AD 4 he was adopted as Tiberius's heir; as a result, Germanicus was adopted out into the Julii. In accordance with Roman naming conventions, he adopted the name "Julius Caesar" while retaining his agnomen, becoming Germanicus Julius Caesar. Upon Germanicus's adoption into the Julii, his brother Claudius became the sole legal representative of his father, his brother inherited the agnomen "Germanicus" as the new head of the family. Germanicus was born in Rome on 24 May 15 BC to Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, had two younger siblings: a sister, Livilla.
His paternal grandmother was Livia, who had divorced his grandfather, Tiberius Claudius Nero around 24 years before Germanicus birth, was married to the emperor Augustus. His maternal grandparents were Augustus's sister Octavia Minor. Germanicus was a key figure in Julio-Claudian dynasty of the early Roman Empire; as well as being the great-nephew of Augustus, he was the nephew of the second emperor, his son Gaius would become the third emperor, who would be succeeded by Germanicus's brother Claudius, his grandson would become the fifth emperor, Nero. When Augustus's chosen successor, Gaius Caesar, died in AD 4, he considered Germanicus as his heir. Livia persuaded him to choose Tiberius, his stepson from Livia's first marriage to Tiberius Claudius Nero, instead; as part of the succession arrangements, Augustus adopted Tiberius on 26 June AD 4, but first required him to adopt Germanicus, thus placing him next in the line of succession after Tiberius. Germanicus married Augustus's grand-daughter, Agrippina the Elder the next year, to further strengthen his ties to the imperial family.
The couple had nine children: Nero Julius Caesar. Only six of his children came of age. Germanicus became a quaestor in AD 7, four years before the legal age of 25, he was sent to Illyricum the same year to help Tiberius suppress a rebellion by the Pannonians and Dalmatians. He brought with him an army of levied citizens and former slaves to reinforce Tiberius at Siscia, his base of operations in Illyricum. Towards the end of the year, additional reinforcements arrived. By the time Germanicus had arrived in Pannonia, the rebels had resorted to raiding from the mountain fortresses to which they had withdrawn; because the Roman legions were not so effective at countering this tactic, Tiberius deployed his auxiliary forces and divided his army into small detachments, allowing them to cover more ground and con
Publius Quinctilius Varus
Publius Quinctilius Varus was a Roman general and politician under the first Roman emperor Augustus. Varus is remembered for having lost three Roman legions when ambushed by Germanic tribes led by Arminius in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, whereupon he took his own life. Varus was born into the gens Quinctilia. Although he was a patrician by birth, his family, though aristocratic, had long been impoverished and was unimportant, his father, Sextus Quinctilius Varus, was a senator who had served as a quaestor in 49 BC. This Sextus aligned with the Senatorial Party in the civil war against Gaius Julius Caesar. Although Sextus survived the defeat, it is unknown whether he was involved in the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar. Sextus committed suicide after the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC; the mother of Varus is unknown. They were all younger based on when they started having children, so it seems he was born at least four years before his father's suicide; the fact that they had advantageous marriages indicates.
One sister married Publius Cornelius Dolabella, consul of 35 BC. Despite Varus’ father's political allegiances, he became one of the supporters of the heir of Julius Caesar, Octavian; when Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa died in early 12 BC, Varus delivered his funeral eulogy. His political career was boosted and he achieved the consulate in 13 BC, when he was elected as the colleague of Tiberius, the stepson and eventual successor of Augustus. Varus married Vipsania Marcella Agrippina, a daughter of Agrippa, at an unknown date before 13 BC. Varus became a personal friend to Marcus Tiberius; the historian Josephus says that the son of Varus named Publius Quinctilius Varus, served under him during his command in Syria. If true, that son would have to be a son by a prior marriage and not the son by his last wife, Claudia Pulchra. Vipsania Marcella disappears from history, it is unknown whether she was divorced. Varus married again to Claudia Pulchra, she was a daughter of Claudia Marcella Minor and the Roman consul of 12 BC, Marcus Valerius Messalla Appianus.
Her maternal grandparents were the consul Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor and Octavia the Younger, sister of Augustus. Hence she was a grand-niece of Augustus, his marriage to Pulchra shows. Pulchra bore Varus a son called Publius Quinctilius Varus. Through their son, they may have had further descendants. In 8-7 BC, Varus governed the province of Africa, he went to govern Syria from 7/6 BC until 4 BC with four legions under his command, where he was known for his harsh rule and high taxes. The Jewish historian Josephus mentions the swift action of Varus against a messianic revolt in Judaea after the death of the Roman client king, Herod the Great, in 4 BC. After occupying Jerusalem, he crucified 2000 Jewish rebels and may have thus been one of the prime objects of popular anti-Roman sentiment in Judaea. Indeed, at this moment the Jews, nearly en masse, began a full-scale boycott of Roman pottery. Thus, the archaeological record seems to verify mass popular protest against Rome because of Varus' cruelty.
Following the governorship of Syria, Varus returned to Rome and remained there for the next few years. Between 10 BC and 6 AD Tiberius, his brother Drusus, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Germanicus conducted long campaigns in Germania, the area north of the Upper Danube and east of the Rhine, in an attempt at achieving a further major expansion of the Roman Empire together with a shortening of its frontier line, they subdued several Germanic tribes, such as the Cherusci. In 6 AD, Tiberius declared Germany pacified, Varus was appointed to govern Germania. Tiberius, who would rule as Emperor, left the region to suppress the Great Illyrian Revolt. Augustus made Publius Quinctilius Varus the first "officially appointed" governor of the newly created Roman province of Germania in 7 AD. In September 9 AD Varus was preparing to leave his summer headquarters in Vetera and march three legions--the Seventeenth, the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth--with him to Moguntiacum, when news arrived from the Germanic prince Arminius of a growing revolt in the Rhine area to the West.
Ignoring a warning from Segestes not to trust Arminius, Varus marched his forces behind the latter's lead. Not only was Varus' trust in Arminius a terrible misjudgement, but Varus compounded it by placing his legions in a position where their fighting strengths would be minimized and those of the Germanic tribesmen maximized -- because he expected no ambush and little trouble in intimidating the rebels. Arminius and the Cherusci tribe along with other allies, had skillfully laid an ambush, in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in September at Kalkriese, the Romans marched right into it; the forested, swampy terrain made the infantry manoeuvres of the legions impossible to execute and allowed the Germans to defeat the legions in detail. On the third day of
Badb
In Irish mythology, the Badb or Badhbh —meaning "crow"—is a war goddess who takes the form of a crow, is thus sometimes known as Badb Catha. She is known to cause fear and confusion among soldiers to move the tide of battle to her favoured side. Badb may appear prior to a battle to foreshadow the extent of the carnage to come, or to predict the death of a notable person, she would sometimes do this through leading to comparisons with the bean-sídhe. With her sisters and Nemain or Anand, Badb is part of a trio of war goddesses known as the three Morrígna. In Irish legends, Badb is associated with war and death, appearing either to foreshadow imminent bloodshed or to participate in battles, where she creates confusion among the soldiers; as a harbinger of doom, she appears in a number of different guises. In Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, she takes the form of an ugly hag, she appears in a similar guise in Togail Bruidne Dá Choca to foretell the slaying of Cormac Condloinges, as well as taking the form of a "washer at the ford"—a woman washing Cormac's chariot and harness in a ford in what was considered an omen of death.
The cries of Badb may be an ill omen: Cormac's impending death is foreshadowed with the words "The red-mouthed badbs will cry around the house, / For bodies they will be solicitous" and "Pale badbs shall shriek". In this role she has much in common with the bean-sídhe, she was regularly depicted as an active participant in warfare. During the First Battle of Mag Tuired, Badb—along with her sisters and Morrígan—fights on the side of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Using their magic, the three sisters incite fear and confusion among the Fir Bolg army, conjuring "compact clouds of mist and a furious rain of fire" and allowing their enemies "neither rest nor stay for three days and nights". Badb plays a similar role in the Táin Bó Cúailnge and disorienting the forces of Queen Medb and causing many to fall on their own weapons, she would take the form of a screaming raven or crow, striking fear into those who heard her, could be heard as a voice among the corpses on a battlefield. Following the defeat of the Formorians by the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, Badb instead of predicting doom, now sings a prophecy celebrating the victory and a time of peace, Then she delivers a prophecy of the eventual end of the world, "foretelling every evil that would be therein, every disease and every vengeance.
Wherefore she sang this lay below.": Badb is identified as one of the Morrígna, a trio of Irish war goddesses, although there exist a number of conflicting accounts on this subject. In Lebor Gabála Érenn, Badb and Morrígan make up the Morrígna trinity and are named as daughters of the farming goddess Ernmas. According to this version, she is the sister of Ériu, Banba and Fódla, the three matron goddesses of Ireland, who give their names to the land. Other accounts identify the trio as daughters of his wife. Lebor Gabála Érenn states that Badb is one of the two wives of the war god Neit. Less she has been described as the wife of the Fomorian king Tethra. In her role as a terrifying battlefield goddess and harbinger of doom, Badb resembles Nemain. Like Badb, Nemain is identified as a wife of Neit and is sometimes listed as one of the three Morrígna. Writers have sometimes used their names interchangeably, suggesting that they may in fact be a single goddess. On the other hand, W. M. Hennessy notes that Badb and Nemain were said to have different sets of parents, suggesting that they may not be identical figures.
Badb appears to be related to the Gaulish goddess Catubodua, or Bodua. Pointing to variants such as Irish badhbh'hoodie crow, a fairy, a scold,' Early Irish badb,'crow, demon,' Badba, Welsh bod,'kite,' the Gaulish name Bodv-, in Bodvo-gnatus and the Welsh name Bodnod, Macbain suggests *bodwā- as the Proto-Celtic ancestral form. However, Julius Pokorny suggests *badwā- on the basis of similar data. Both MacBain and Julius Pokorny correlate the element with Norse böð, genitive boðvar,'war,' and Anglo-Saxon beadu, genitive beadwe,'battle,' suggesting that the word denoted'battle' or'strife.' Julius Pokorny presents the element as an extended form of the Proto-Indo-European root *bhedh-'pierce, dig.' To this root Pokorny links the Sanskrit bádhate,'oppress,' and the Lithuanian bádas,'famine'. W. M. Hennessy argues that the word bodb or badb meant rage, fury, or violence, came to mean a witch, fairy, or goddess, represented in folklore by the scald-crow, or royston-crow. Peter O'Connell's 1819 Irish Dictionary defines the Badb as a "bean-sidhe, a female fairy, phantom, or spectre, supposed to be attached to certain families, to appear sometimes in the form of squall-crows, or royston-crows" and badb-catha as "Fionog, a royston-crow, a squall crow".
Other entries relate to her triple nature: "Macha, i. e. A royston-crow. Badb catha nó feannóg. Boa Island Clídna Irish mythology in popular culture Mongfind Ó Cuív, Brian. Irish Sagas. Cork: Mercier. MacBain, Alexander. An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language. Gairm Publications. Pokorny, Julius. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch
