Introduction
It has long been posited by scholars and other professionals that the early civilizations in Greece and in other parts of Europe were initiated because of the presence of Africans who had migrated to Europe from Northern Africa. The North Africans were said to have moved to Europe through the Mediterranean and settled in different places in Europe and even in Central Asia. This short paper will examine the literature that provides proof that there was indeed quite a strong African presence in Europe even during ancient times.
Africans as the Source of Ancient Greek Civilization
Even the Greek philosopher and scholar Herodotus wrote in the 5th century B.C. Along with other Greek scholars, he theorized that civilizations in Ancient Greece could be attributed to the notion that Ancient Greece was a colony of people from Ancient Egypt. Cultural borrowings by these people from their own native Egyptian cultures were the source of the rise of civilization in ancient Greece (Grinker, Lubkemann and Steiner, 2004, 26).
There is also the “Out of Africa” hypothesis which states that modern humans had their origins in Africa, and that they migrated from Africa first to Europe and then to the rest of the world. Proof of this theory can be found in genetics, archaeology, geology and dendrochronology or tree-ring dating, and the proof all supports the conclusion that human population first evolved in Africa about 100,000-200,000 years ago, thereafter moving outside the African continent around 80,000 years ago. In the website of Worldology, it is also stated that the study of sediment layers or of stratigraphy shows that the earliest modern human fossils are found in Africa, and that the oldest human fossils of other regions around the world can be attributed to more recent dates. Furthermore, all modern humans show at least one of three major genetic mutations found in African populations, while African populations do not show the later genetic mutations that are exhibited by non-African populations.
The “Out of Africa” theory postulates that some 70,000, a group of individuals carrying the mitochondrial haplogroup L3 traveled from Eastern Africa to the Near East (Yashon and Cummings, 2010, 321). Evidence of this event is found in ancient tools dug up in the United Arab Emirates, revealing the presence of humans thereat sometime between 100,000 and 125,000 years ago. The migration is thought to have occurred in the range of 90,000 to 130,000 years ago. It is said that Europe was first reached by the Cro-Magnon man some 40,000 years ago (Goebel, Waters, O’Rourke, 2008, 1497-1502).
Archaeological Proof of Africans in Ancient Europe
The oldest Europeans were not White. Studies suggest that the ancient Europeans, whose bones have been found in Romania, were of dark skin and had features similar to that of Africans. In the website of Political Blindspot, it is mentioned that the 35,000 year old remains were surely not those of a Caucasian individual, and far different from the Neanderthals who occupied certain parts of Europe at the time. Aside from the dark skin, the other features are similar to those originating from the African continent.
One more piece of evidence of the presence of Africans in Europe during the ancient times is the story of the Grimaldi African man. In the website of Race and History, it is stated that the Grimaldi skeletons were found in rock shelters near Ventimiglia in Italy, and radiocarbon dating determined the skeletons to be about 25,000 years old. The Grimaldi skeletons showed a body different from the Cro-Magnon man, with the skeletons being slender and very gracile, and shorter than the Cro-Magnon. The skulls were quite elongated, characteristic of Black individuals, and their faces had wide nasal holes and did not possess the rectangular orbitals of the Cro-Magnon. The conclusion then during the time of discovery was that the Grimaldi skeletons were of the “”negroid” type (Wells, 1920, 65-70). Once more, the discovery of the Grimaldi skeletons indicates that Africans were indeed able to travel to the other edge of the Mediterranean Sea in ancient times.
Just recently, the bones of an African man were found in Spain. According to the website of Live Science, the bones were dated as being 7000 years old, and reconstruction and analysis of the same reveals a man who had dark skin but was blue-eyed. This discovery reveals that Africans were indeed in Europe during ancient times, and that being light-skinned evolved not only as adjustments to the new light conditions in Europe, but that this also evolved due to the changing diet of humans then, who became involved in agricultural activities as opposed to being hunter-gatherers. This is also proof that Africans indeed moved to the European continent before the medieval times.
It is also said that the original Celts were Black people. The Greek historian Ephorus is said to have made this claim. As proof of this, the Ivory Bangle Lady of York in England (350 AD) is an African. Linguists have also indicated that the language spoken by the Basque people in Spain (where Celts settled around the 1st millennium) possesses a Niger-Congo substratum. These two languages were found to share some pronouns, numbers and some vocabulary words. Genetics has also linked these two groups, and that the genetic ancestry of the Basques point out to the Black Celts. The same is true for the original 8th century Vikings of Scandinavia. The drawing in the Oseberg depiction reveals Black seafarers who were different from the fair-skinned and talk Viking men of legends (Imhotep, 2012, xviii).
In 2010, it was reported in the website of the Daily Mail of the United Kingdom that the remains of an African man was found in Ipswich in England. His death is estimated to have taken place at around 1190. It is said that he was a man in intense pain who suffered from an abscess in his back. The man was buried in a medieval Christian friary in Suffolk. An examination of an area in the double helix of his DNA indicated that his ethnicity was consistent with a man from North Africa or towards the eastern boundary of the Mediterranean Sea. The man suffered from intense back pain, and most likely died in the friary. It is thought by anthropologists that this man took refuge at the friary as he sought treatment and palliative care for his infection. Based on the examination of his bones and the reconstruction of his face and body, he is thought to look like a modern Morrocan man. His bones show evidence of having eaten a healthy and balanced diet during his lifetime, and his infection was perhaps caused by bruising, and the consequent abscess developed since there were no antibiotics during this time. This is therefore proof that there were Africans residing in Europe in medieval times.
The Pelasgians
As early as in the 16th century, there has already been mention by scholars of what is known as the Pelasgians, or the early settlers of Ancient Greece. They are known as the initiators of the first civilization in Grecian history. The Pelasgian civilization is said to have taken root first in 2500 BC, and these people belonged to the Hamitic people who were Black-skinned. They first settled in Northern Africa and then moved onward across the Mediterranean into Southern Europe. These Pelasgians were described as dolichocephalic or long-headed. They were short, dark haired and had dark-colored eyes. Many pieces of Ancient Greek sculptures portray figures of men and women with African features – curly hair, thicker upper and lower lips, and wider nostrils, hence, the conclusion that early Hellenic culture was actually brought to the Greek isles by African immigrants from North Africa (Berlinerblau, 1999, 62-63).
Conclusion
It is not too much of a wonder to think about the first Europeans being African in features and structure. As genetic experiments have recently proven, mankind as we know the same today originated on the African continent. From there, waves of migration led humankind to scatter over the various parts of the world. The different factors such as weather, climate, diet and nutrition, and other elements then combined to provide for mutations in the genetic makeup of the different races that have evolved today. Therefore it is not too hard to grasp that these Africans or the first homo sapiens, moved out of Africa and onto the Near East first, owing to the nearness of the Mediterranean Sea, and then from the Near East moved on to the European continent, and to Central Asia, and soon to the other ends of the earth.
There is also irrefutable proof that the early Europeans during sometime later were all dark-skinned like the Africans. This only means that the Africans were able to reach places such as England, Scandinavia, Italy and Romania because of trade, or because their nomadic life caused them to desire to look for alternative places to settle in and prosper. Now one is exposed to the knowledge of the Black Celts and Vikings, whereas in one’s mind, the Celts and the Vikings were big bad blond men who had cool blue eyes and milky-white but muscle-bound skin. These types of truths do tend to jar one’s thinking and memory. The knowledge also that the ancient Greeks descended from Africans with elongated brain cavities and skulls in an exciting thought, and that they brought elements of their culture with them such that other people would soon come to learn of their own indigenous culture. Thus Africans reached the European continent as early as the time of the first movement of homo sapiens on this continent. They founded other civilizations, and later on, some of them coming from the “home’ continent continued to move into Europe, trading with the people there, and interacting with them, such that today, mankind is a true mix of the genes of the old and original, and the new or evolved.
Works Cited
Berlinerblau, Jacques. (1999). “Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals”. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Daily Mail, UK. (2010). “He Was an African Who Had a Strong Jaw and Bad Back So What Was He Doing in Ipswich in the Year 1190?”. Web. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1275339/He-African-strong-jaw-bad--So-doing-Ipswich-year-1190.html
Ghose, Tia. (2014). “7000 Year Old Human Bones Suggest New Date for Light-Skin-Gene”. http://www.livescience.com/42838-european-hunter-gatherer-genome-sequenced.html
Goebel, Ted, Waters, Michael, O’Rourke, Dennis. (2008). “The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas”. Science 319 (5869).
Grinker, Roy, Lubkemann, Stephen and Steiner, Christopher. (2004). “Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation”. NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Imhotep, David. (2012). “The First Americans were Africans: Documented Evidence”. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Political Blindspot. (2013). “Scientists Reveal the First European Faces Were not White”. Web. http://politicalblindspot.com/scientists-reveal-the-first-european-faces-were-not-white/
Wells, H.G. (1920). “The Later Postglacial Paleolithic Men, the First True Men”, in The Outline of History, USA: George Newnes.
Worldology. (2009). “Out of Africa Hypothesis and the Concept of Race”. Web. http://www.worldology.com/Europe/Europe_Articles/Out_of_Africa.htm
Yashon, Ronnee and Cummings, Michael. (2010). “Human Genetics and Society”. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
