File: 
<shardana0)>                                                                                                                                                       <Archeology
Index    <Home>    
 
 
| ORIGIN OF ETHNIC GROUPS IN IRELAND, SCOTLAND AND
  NORTHERN EUROPE (Contact)             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 12th Century bce. from lands bordering the Baltic
  and North Seas (see Sea Peoples
  and Fig. 193).             Edo Nyland (personal
  communication) suggested that the Sea Peoples living in the area at that time
  were called Shardana by Ramesses III, who reigned from 1188 to 1165 bce.
  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].   | 
 
==========================================
For further detail, please
refer to:
 
          Nyland, Edo.  2001.  Linguistic Archaeology: AnIntroduction. 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].
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------