My European Family

Finished June 19

My European Family: The First 54,000 Years by Karen Bojs, translated by Fiona Graham

This is a fascinating look at the origins of Europeans, made more approachable by the focus on the author's own family. She looks at where and how the first humans came to Europe, how they migrated across the continent in different waves, from different areas, and how they intermingled. 

The book's introduction talks about the author's mother's funeral and how she spoke there about the earlier parts of her mother's life to round out for her grandchildren the person that they knew in her later years. She talks also about what drew her to wonder about her family origins, and how her work as a science journalist led her to looks at scientific discoveries and techniques to learn more. 

The book is organized into three main sections: The Hunters, The Farmers, and The Indo-Europeans. 

The Hunters covers the history from the first interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans, which happened about 54,000 years ago in the area of Galilee, where contemporaneous remains from both groups have been found to the arrival of farming about 10,000 years ago. This includes aspects of civilization such as music, the domestication of dogs, and the creation of pottery. It covers the Cro-Magnon discoveries, the disappearance of a land area now known as Doggerland, and the end of the Ice Age. 

The Farmers covers the farmers westward migration from Syria, including discoveries on Cyprus, Germany, and Scandinavia. It includes discussion of changes in diet, including the first known beer. I learned about what scientists have discovered from buried graves, the iceman found in the Alps, and clashes between groups. 

The Indo-European includes discussions around the domestication of horses, the creation of battleaxes, and the use of iron. It looks at religious and scientific activities of humans, including the WWII beliefs around Aryans. We see the effect of plagues, the introduction of written records, and changes in burial inclusions. 

Throughout, she takes us through what has been learned from DNA, discussing mitochondrial DNA which is passed down from mothers to children; nuclear DNA which gives much more information on physical attributes; Y chromosomes, a part of nuclear DNA passed by men to their sons; X chromosomes, a part of nuclear DNA which both men and women inherit from their mothers, and women also inherit from their fathers; and autosomal DNA, which is DNA from the cell nucleus that we all inherit from both parents, which is randomly mixed each generation, and which can provide information about familial relationships up to seven degrees of kinship. All of this information and more is thoroughly explained in a Q and A section after the main text. 

The author also includes a bibliography for each chapter, giving the reader citations for additional reading on that chapter's information. 

This was a fascinating read that made me understand the nature of DNA inheritance more thoroughly, and made me curious about my own origins, which are also European.