My European Family: The First 54,000 Years

370 Pages·2017·3.57 MB·English

by  Karin Bojs

MY EUROPEAN FAMILY
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Durrani and Liz Kalaugher Built on Bones by Brenna Hassett
To Anita and Göran, from whom I inherited all my genes.
MY EUROPEAN FAMILY
THE FIRST 54,000 YEARS
Karin Bojs
Contents
Introduction: The Funeral
PART 1: THE HUNTERS
Chapter 1: The Troll Child: 54,000 Years Ago
Chapter 2: Neanderthals in Leipzig
Chapter 3: The Flute Players
Chapter 4: First on the Scene in Europe
Chapter 5: Mammoths in Brno
Chapter 6: Cro-Magnon
Chapter 7: The First Dog
Chapter 8: Doggerland
Chapter 9: The Ice Age Ends
Chapter 10: Dark Skin, Blue Eyes
Chapter 11: Climate and Forests
Chapter 12: Sami?
Chapter 13: Pottery Makes its Appearance
Chapter 14: The Farmers Arrive
PART 2: THE FARMERS
Chapter 15: Syria
Chapter 16: The Boat to Cyprus
Chapter 17: The First Beer
Chapter 18: The Farmers’ Westward Voyages
Chapter 19: The Homes Built on the Graves of the Dead
Chapter 20: Clashes in Pilsen and Mainz
Chapter 21: Sowing and Sunrise
Chapter 22: Farmers Arrive in Skåne
Chapter 23: Ötzi the Iceman
Chapter 24: The Falbygden Area
Chapter 25: Hunters’ and Farmers’ Genes
PART 3: THE INDO-EUROPEANS
Chapter 26: The First Stallion
Chapter 27: DNA Sequences Provide Links with the East
Chapter 28: Battleaxes
Chapter 29: Bell Beakers, Celts and Stonehenge
Chapter 30: The Nebra Sky Disc in Halle
Chapter 31: The Rock Engravers
Chapter 32: Iron and the Plague
Chapter 33: Am I a Viking?
Chapter 34: The Mothers
Chapter 35: The Legacy of Hitler and Stalin
The Tree and the Spring
Questions and Answers about DNA
References, Further Reading and Travel Tips
Acknowledgements
Plates
Index
INTRODUCTION
The Funeral
My mother, Anita Bojs, died while I was working on this book. Many friends
and acquaintances came to the funeral, considerably more than I had dared to
hope for. But there were only a few family members. All of us fitted into one
pew at the front: my brother and me, our partners, and three smartly dressed
grandchildren.
It was early summer, and the mauve lilac was in bloom in the park next to
Gothenburg’s Vasa Church. Together we sang the hymn ‘Den blomstertid nu
kommer’ (‘The blossom time is coming’), followed by ‘Härlig är jorden’ (‘Fair
is Creation’). I had chosen the latter because it includes two lines that I find
particularly comforting: ‘Ages come and ages pass / Generation follows upon
generation.’
When the time came for the memorial speeches, I addressed myself
particularly to Anita’s grandchildren. I wanted them to feel proud of their
grandmother and her origins, despite the circumstances.
The grandmother they had known was elderly and scarred by life. Her
promising career had come to an end when she was still in her fifties. By then
she already had a long history of serious problems including illness, divorce,
conflicts and addiction.
That was why I told her grandchildren and the other people at the funeral about
the first half of my mother’s life. I told them about the student who scored top
marks at school and landed a place to study medicine at the Karolinska Institute
– although she was a girl and came from a family of modest means. I told them
about her childhood home above the little school in the industrial village where
my grandmother Berta taught. That home had been poor in financial terms, but it
was all the richer in companionship, music, art, literature and the thirst for
knowledge.
I quoted from a diary I had found among my mother’s things. ‘Top Secret’ was