File: <shardana)> Archeology Index <Bronze Age Index> <American Archeology>

ORIGIN OF ETHNIC GROUPS IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND

AND NORTHERN EUROPE

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The origin of the ethnic groups of Ireland, Scotland and Northern Europe, requires a look back in history to the events that took place in the lands on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This was a region, which supported a large population of diverse ethnic groups from long before the time of the Christian Era. Among them were the Sea Peoples that are believed to have settled there in prehistoric times. According to some authors, they were Norsemen who arrived initially in the 12^th Century bce. from lands bordering the Baltic and North Seas (see Sea Peoples and Fig. 193).

Edo Nyland [email] (personal communication) has suggested that Ramesses III, who reigned from 1188 to 1165 bce, called the Sea Peoples living in the area at that time Shardana. Their exploits are elaborately carved on his funerary temple at Medinet Habu, perfectly preserved. They along with the Berbers were master astronomers and spoke an early form of Basque-Saharan. This has been confirmed by Apollonius of Rhodes. In fact, the mummy of Ramesses II was very blond, as well as some of the other pharaohs and high officials. The Shardana, derived from the word Sharma Dana signifies “good looking - all: "All good looking". They lived along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt and Libya and had a formidable fleet trading with the Black Sea Peoples.  They populated the Dniepr valley from where they became the Poles, Baltic peoples, Friesians and Vikings, all the same genetic background. They also settled northeastern Turkey as the Kaska (meaning head), where they still live today as the Kirrukaska (meaning blond heads) or Circaskians. After Mohammed's death the Four Caliphs conquered Libya and Egypt. The Gnostic Christian people living there at the time were given a choice, either to convert to Islam or leave. Thus, after 600 AD most of them launched their ships and sailed to southern France, Ireland and western Scotland, not as conquerors but as a population migration. Those that reached Scotland were called the Askotza, the aSKOTZa, meaning “multitude”, and now called Scots. Some venturesome people even went to West Virginia where they wrote their Ogam script on some walls, [see the Horse Creek Petroglyph].

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For further detail, please refer to:

 Nyland, Edo. 2001. Linguistic Archaeology: An
  Introduction. Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.

ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p. [ see abstract & summary]

Nyland, Edo. 2002. Odysseus and the Sea Peoples: A

Bronze Age History of Scotland Trafford Publ., Victoria,

B.C., Canada. 307 p. [see abstract & summary].