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Kossinna's smile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2017

Volker Heyd
Volker Heyd*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK (Email: volker.heyd@bristol.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Two recent palaeogenetic studies have identified a movement of Yamnaya peoples from the Eurasian steppe to Central Europe in the third millennium BC. Their findings are reminiscent of Gustaf Kossinna's equation of ethnic identification with archaeological culture. Rather than a single genetic transmission from Yamnaya to the Central European Corded Ware Culture, there is considerable evidence for centuries of connections and interactions across the continent, as far as Iberia. The author concludes that although genetics has much to offer archaeology, there is also much to be learned in the other direction. This article should be read in conjunction with that by Kristiansen et al. (2017), also in this issue.

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Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 356 , April 2017 , pp. 348 - 359
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Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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