Course Description

Instructor: Michael McDavid

Current data indicate that modern humans, homo sapiens, have inhabited Europe for about 45,000 years. In the past decade archaeologists and particularly geneticists have acquired tremendous knowledge on the origins of our species, their journeys from Africa to Europe and Asia, and the cultures they created. In this course we will focus on the last “wave� of migrations into Europe by people from the steppes of Russia. Beginning 4500 years ago these people we now call the Yamnaya, riding horses, driving chariots and using metal weaponry, would spread their culture and genes throughout the continent. Their language, religion, and worldview would become a template for their future Greek, Roman, Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic descendants. In the course we will examine the ancestral culture of the pastoral Yamnaya, identifying common origins of their “daughter civilizations� and paying particular attention to religion, mythology, language, and cultural beliefs.