The Language of the Leubingen Community-Unetice Culture Part 5

 In this essay I wish to discuss the language spoken by the people of Leubingen and its subsequent development. The development of language in the Unetice cultural areas is inextricably linked to the DNA of their populations. As Gustav Kossinna demonstrated in his The Indo-Germanics: An Outline: Part 1: The Proto-Indo-Germanics and The Origin of the Germanics: On the Method of Settlement Archaeology (both translated into English from German by Trevor Sutcliffe), a material culture in its entirety is ultimately linked to and is the possession of the people who created it and the same can be said for language, in my opinion.

                       'Sharply defined archaeological cultural areas correspond unquestionably

                        with the areas of particular people or tribes.' (Kossinna's Law)

In other words, a unified culture is the product of a unified ethnicity, not withstanding that individual elements of that culture may be present in other ethno-cultures through trade or copying. The key word to emphasise here is unified. I believe that DNA studies are finally vindicating Kossinna's theory.

Returning now to the issue at hand, the language spoken by the Unetice culture or more specifically the community at Leubingen. In 1950 BCE, the approximate date of the Leubingen burials, the Germanic and Celtic languages did not yet exist, but obviously the ancestors of those who spoke those languages did exist and so did the ancestral language(s) of Germanic and Celtic. Proto-Celtic, the hypothetical original language of the Celtic dialects did not arise until about 1300-800 BCE, and Proto-Germanic is even later at 500 BCE to 200 CE. Thus Proto-Celtic (southern branch of Unetice) broke away from Proto-Indo-European (Proto-Indo-Germanic, as it is known in the German speaking world) much earlier than Proto-Germanic (northern branch of Unetice) and for this reason Celtic civilisation is much older than the Germanic.

Proto-Celtic started to emerge with the Urnfield and the early Hallstatt cultures. Prior to this point in time the ancestor of Proto-Celtic is an early Northwest Indo-European dialect, from which Proto-Germanic and Proto-Italic also emerged. An alternative name for 'North-West-Indo-European' (NwIE) is 'Italo-Celtic-Germanic'. This was the language likely spoken by the inhabitants of the Unetice Bronze Age community at Leubingen. I believe that it would be appropriate to call this language-'Celtic-Germanic'. Proto-Germanic started to emerge with the Nordic Bronze Age and Jastorf cultures. 

Just as Proto-Celtic and Proto-Germanic developed from NwIE so did the peoples themselves, the Celts and the Germanics, and this is reflected in their similar DNA, consisting of shared Yamnaya derived steppe ancestry, Neolithic European Farmer ancestry and Western Hunter Gatherer ancestry. It is the Yamnaya ancestry, the largest shared element which was the Indo-European speaking component and is reflected in R1b and R1a lineages. Across the Germanic and former Celtic speaking worlds these two haplogroups are dominant, most especially R1b which is shared by people of Germanic and Celtic ancestry. Both Proto-Celts and Proto-Germanics descend from the Bell Beaker, Unetice and Tumulus cultures. By the time that the Germanics and Celts developed into separate and distinct cultures their genetic admixtures changed slightly but the shared deep ancestry remained as it still does today.

The cause of the breakdown of NwIE is due to the subsequent geographical isolation of the Proto-Germanics with the onset of the Nordic Bronze Age, creating different trade networks from the Proto-Celts with their Urnfield and Hallstatt networks. The dramatic sound shifts which affected the northern branch of the Unetice culture was responsible for the development of Germanic into a separate language (Grimm's Law, Verner's Law, et cetera). As Proto-Germanic and Proto-Celtic developed into separate languages so did their material cultures along with slight changes in genetic admixtures.

The Unetice culture is a fascinating one as it represents a culture from which both the Germanics and Celts descend from and is thus worthy of more study and discussion, which I intend to continue (the gods willing) on this blog.

Family Groupings of Unetice Leubingen Burials-Unetice Culture Part 4

 Geneticists have identified five distinct multigenerational family groups from the DNA of the 46 burials from Leubingen. The DNA of the 'prince' is unobtainable. His burial stands apart from all the others due to the prominence of the tumulus and its rich contents. By comparison the rest of the burials were clearly of the non-elite mass. Nevertheless a social hierarchy can still be distinguished from the siting of the common burials and their juxtaposition to the princely burial as well as the individual grave goods. By way of illustration I shall use my own 13 DNA sample matches from these burials.

A — R1b‑L2	LEU060, LEU041	Paternal family
B — R1b‑P312/U152/L151	LEU024, LEU025, LEU040	Extended paternal clan
C — R1a‑Z645	LEU031, LEU009	Paternal family
D — U5/V7/H2b	LEU046, LEU039, LEU059	Maternal kin cluster
E — T2b11	LEU050, LEU031	Maternal family
Ungrouped	LEU007, LEU023	No kinship links

As you can see from the above table, one of the sample matches (LEU31) appears in two family groups via both his paternal and maternal haplotypes. Two of the sample matches (LEU007 and LEU023) are unrelated to the five families.

Family Group A

The princely grave (Fürstengrab) sits slightly to the north of the centre of the cemetery. Family Group A is situated the closest to the prince (82-115ft away), buried in the northern cluster of graves, indicating that they had the highest status in the community after the prince. My two matches in this group were very closely related, id est father and son, paternal uncle and nephew or paternal half brothers (different mtDNA). As there was a generational difference father-son or uncle-nephew are the more likely relationships. The grave goods of LEU060 included a bronze awl or pin, a small ceramic vessel, some flint tools and remnants of textile or leather. LEU041 was buried with a bronze knife, a ceramic pot, a bone or antler tool and some pins.

Family Group B

This family were located in the central and eastern sectors of the cemetery. Like Family Group A they were located close to the princely tumulus (130-180ft away, not as close as Group A) and enjoyed a mid to high level status, which was slightly less than Group A's.There is some evidence of a decline in status with the later generations. The grave goods of LEU024 included a bronze dagger, a ceramic vessel, a bone or antler tool and some small personal items such as pins. LEU025 was buried with a bronze awl or pin, a small ceramic pot, a stone tool and some textile traces. LEU040 was buried with a bronze knife, a ceramic vessel, a bone implement and some minor personal items. My three DNA matches within this group share a common paternal ancestor but their familial relationships were not as close as Group A's and were more multigenerational. LEU040 is representational of the oldest branch of the paternal lineage of this group. LEU024 and LEU025 had a closer genetic tie but were not as close as brothers. It is likely that they were cousins, uncle-nephew or granduncle-grandnephew. It would be more correct to refer to Family Group B as a 'clan', rather than a nuclear family. This demonstrates that they had a long and established respected local lineage.

Family Group C

My two DNA sample matches in this group shared a common paternal lineage but were not as closely related as Group A. Their likely relationships were either paternal half brothers, paternal cousins, uncle-nephew or granduncle-grandnephew. This group had a modest but respectable social status. The grave goods of  LEU031 included a bronze knife, a ceramic vessel, a bone tool and some personal items such as pins. LEU009 was buried with a bronze awl or pin, a ceramic pot,a stone tool and some minor personal items. Group C were buried in the southern cluster of the cemetery, 230-295ft from the Fürstengrab, much more distant than Groups A and B. Both of my matches appear to have moved into the community as adults and had a Corded Ware ancestry (R1a-z645). This makes Family Group C a migrant family.

Family Group D

Unlike groups A,B and C, Family Group D was a maternal kin group. Their relationships were either second degree in nature, id est aunt-niece, grandmother-granddaughter, maternal half-siblings or maternal cousins and third degree, id est first cousins once removed or grandaunt-grandniece. Three of my DNA matches belonged to this group. It would be helpful to break down the individual possible relationships separately.

LEU046-LE039:

Second degree maternal relatives.

LEU046-LEU059:

Third degree maternal relatives.

LEU039-LEU059:

These three women were a maternal kin group, not sharing a direct maternal lineage but extended family of the third or fourth degree. 

This family group are clustered together in the western part of the cemetery, associated with the lowest social level and situated 280-360ft from the Fürstengrab. LEU046 was buried with a simple ceramic pot and a bone tool. LEU039 was buried with a small plain ceramic vessel and LEU059 buried with a plain ceramic pot. None of these graves contained any bronze items. Their lack of any expensive grave goods and their burial so far away at the periphery of the cemetery is indicative of being of the lowest social status and being on the margins of the community and lacking a paternal family structure.

Family Group E

This group was buried 200-295ft away from the Fürstengrab in the southern and south-central part of the cemetery and their grave goods are indicative of a middle level status in the local hierarchy.

LEU050 (female) was buried with an undecorated pot, typical of the Unetice culture and functional in purpose, a small bronze pin or awl and a bone tool. LEU031 was part of this family group through his maternal ancestry but was buried with his paternal relatives in the group C cluster. 

Ungrouped

My two ungrouped DNA matches were not part of any of the five family groups at Leubingen and were buried on the periphery of the cemetery. LEU07 was buried 295-395 from the Fürstengrab on the north-northwest periphery and his grave consisted of a solitary plain ceramic vessel. These factors indicate that this individual was of a low status. LEU023 was buried 295-395ft from the Fürstengrab on the eastern periphery. His grave goods were likewise very meagre, consisting of a plain ceramic vessel. Like LEU07 this was a low status individual, poor in resources and having no kin, being buried on the very edge of the cemetery, marginal to the society both in life and in death.

My Personal Genetic Connection to the Unetice Culture-Unetice Culture Part 3

 I will be posting further essays on the fascinating subject of the Unetice Culture of central Europe in the coming days and weeks, having already posted two recent essays. Before I proceed with this ongoing work I wish to explain my own connection to the Unetice Culture or as it is known in German, Aunjetitzer Kultur, one of the most advanced human cultures of prehistoric Europe, stretching from the German Harz mountains into Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. 

As many of my old readers will know, my late mother's ancestry is rooted in the Harz mountains, where she was born in 1918 in a small village called Langelsheim, near Goslar in Herzogtum  Braunschweig (Duchy of Brunswick) which since 1946 has been in present day Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). I know from what she told me in general about her ancestry that it was rooted in the Harz region so it comes as no surprise to me to learn that I am genetically related to 14 of the 46 recovered bodies from Leubingen in Thüringen, less than 30 miles away from the foothills of the Harz. Interestingly, geneticists were unable to obtain sufficient DNA from the princely remains in order to determine Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups. There is a moral in that story if you care to look for it!

A study carried out in 2024 identified five distinct family groups, 12 of my sample matches being derived from each of the groups. It should be made clear that with the exception of the prince's grave, none of the others excavated were buried with any distinct grave goods. All my sample matches were buried in simple burial pits, representative of the broad mass of the non-elite. In my next post I intend to analyse the family relationships of all 14 of my DNA matches,

These are my genetic sample matches from Leubingen:

Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU060 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: T2b

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a2b1 (L2/S139)

Genetic Distance: 6.8896
Sample Match! 91% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU040 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: I1a1

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a (L151/PF6542)

Genetic Distance: 6.9358
Sample Match! 94% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU031 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: T2b11

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1a1a1b (PF6162/S224/V1754/Z645)

Genetic Distance: 7.3709
Sample Match! 96% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU024 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: U5b2b2

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a2 (P312/PF6547/S116)

Genetic Distance: 7.9007
Sample Match! 94% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU059 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: H2b

Genetic Distance: 8.4423
Sample Match! 84% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU039 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: V7

Genetic Distance: 8.4755
Sample Match! 68% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU041 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: U5a1a1+16362

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a2b1 (L2/S139)

Genetic Distance: 8.5258
Sample Match! 89% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU046 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: U5a2c

Genetic Distance: 8.6899
Sample Match! 76% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU007 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: T2a1b1a

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a1 (M405/U106/S21)

Genetic Distance: 8.7015
Sample Match! 95% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU025 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: H2a1

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1b1a1b1a1a2b (PF6570/S28/U152)

Genetic Distance: 8.7746
Sample Match! 90% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU050 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: T2b11

Genetic Distance: 9.8614
Sample Match! 96% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU023 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: U4d1

Genetic Distance: 10.697
Sample Match! 99% closer than other users

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Bronze Age Unetice Thuringia Leubingen Sommerda Germany

 LEU009 (1950 BC) 

mtDNA Haplogroup: U5a1b1

Y-DNA Haplogroup: R1a1a1b (PF6162/S224/V1754/Z645)

Genetic Distance: 11.406
Sample Match! 95% closer than other users

Wotans Krieger Recommends: My True Ancestry

My readers may be interested in the following website, which allows you to upload your autosomal DNA from any testing website and obtain an initially free analysis of how your DNA matches those of ancient tribal peoples. It will also show you your closest ancient 'matches'. For people like me, this is far more interesting than discovering some living 4th cousin, 3 times removed or the rather inaccurate autosmal analysis regarding modern nations that is often the case with DNA companies, who struggle to discern the difference between German and English DNA! This analysis goes beyond the artificial constructs of 'nations' and identifies with precision, the tribes which you are descended from.

The free analysis will only remain on your account for just over two days unless you pay a nominal fee for the data to be retained. You have the option to choose from 13 levels of membership, so the more you pay, the more detail and the more ancient matches you will receive. What you have already paid will count towards any future upgrades, making this a cost effective way of researching your Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Age and mediaeval tribal make up.

My True Ancestry 

Another particularly interesting feature is an analysis of your descent from various Y-DNA haplogroups, not just your own direct paternal line.

 

As well as mtDNA haplogroups: