Historic Origins.

In the previous chapter we examined the genetic origins of the humans from which the Vogelzang family originate. This chapter will look at it from its general historic perspective.

With the formation of the different haplogroups, different population groups came into existence. The word “race” is unpopular anymore because of the racial abuse it is associated with. However, without deeming any population groups superior over the other, for the sake of convenience we shall us the word “race” in this chapter.

The Vogelzangs are of Frisian stock. The Frisians in turn are of the Germanic group of people. They also include the Anglo Saxons, the Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedes,- the Germans. They lived primarily in North Western Europe. At around 5,000 B.C. the Germanic people moved from Southern Russia from the area near the Caucasian mountains; hence the expression that they belong to the “Caucasian” race. What prompted them to migrate is not really known. Some scholars believe it was caused by a massive flood caused by the breaking of a land dam near what is now the Bosporus near Constantinople and which created the Black Sea. By extension, they claim it is the origin of the biblical flood story where with the exception of Noah, then known mankind was wiped out. A more plausible explanation is that with the retreat of the ice sheets at the end of the last ice age the world’s oceans rose as much as 100 meters causing massive changes in climate and thus living conditions.

Scientists claim that on Jun 23, 3123 BC the area around the Middle East and following the 28th through 31st parallel was hit by a comet, causing enormous fires and severe droughts. This in turn affected the growth of vegetation and was one of the reasons for people to move north away from the drought. The comet apparently sheared off some of the mountain peaks in Austria and finally hit near the Dead Sea, thus causing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Whether or not this is true is a good question. Truth is that the migration took place over several millennia, starting in the time indicated and lasting till about 500 B.C. What is interesting is that the migration of the haplogroup M70 was in two directions- going west along the Mediterranean and going east towards southern Russia. Hence the genetic record is confirmed by provable history.

Leaving the Black Sea Basin the Nordic Indo European peoples invaded Europe and Asia. Europe was settled by four main groups: The Celts, the Germans, the Balts and the Slavs. In the south they settled pre-dynastic Egypt and the Middle East, and penetrating India form the Indo Aryans; in the east Afghanistan (Aryans) and China (Tocharians) and Japan (Ainu). The reason for the differences in the appearance of these population groups is probably caused by the mixing of dissimilar peoples.

Where people come from a common area, it is reasonable to expect some commonality in language as well. This is exactly the case. All European languages have what is called an Indo European origin. Studies done in the late 1800’s based on words in different languages succinctly show that, as different as they may sound to day, European as well as Mid and Near East languages had a common origin. Over the millennia this common language developed in different ways, forming the current languages. The further one goes back in history, the greater the amount of time exists in which language could diverge. Similarly, the closer in time related population groups were together the more commonality exist in their languages.

For this reason many words in English, Dutch, Frisian, German, Danish, and Norwegian have clearly recognizable similarities. For instance:

The peoples that moved from the Black Sea area had a considerable level of civilization and knowledge that moved along with them as they spread out over the areas inidicated. For instance the builders of Stonehenge in Southern England commenced this project between 3500 BC and 3000BC, a good 1000 years before the building of the great pyramids in Egyptian civilization. The knowledge they displayed of the working of the solar calendar and the sophistication of their method of building is remarkable.

Similarly there is evidence that the predecessors of these Black Sea peoples could draw on the culture and knowledge of earlier civilizations. For instance, bow and arrows were invented around 9000 BC. It created a huge step forward in the killing of prey and in inter-tribal warfare. Sewing needles were invented during that time, making it easier to fashion clothing. Stone blades were used as tools such as scrapers to clean hides, which in turn could be used for garments or tents.

As early as 26000 BC fired ceramics have been found of very over weight women representing fertility goddesses. The fact that they could bake ceramics showed that they could control the use of fire- a huge step forward on the road to civilization. As early as 3000 BC the first houses made of mammoth bones, wood and hides have been found in the Russian area from which the great migrations of the 5000’s BC occurred.

As the peoples moved from the Russian Caucasus, they often displaced existing peoples with their own form of civilization. In addition as they inter mixed with these natives they formed a complex intertwining of the races and peoples; a complexity which retains the ability to recognize basic characteristics such as build and physical features of the individuals, but also creates so many different nuances in culture, language and bloodlines, that they are near impossible to follow.

In Europe three distinct subgroups of Caucasian peoples exist. The Nordic characterized as tall, blond, blue eyed individuals; the Alpine characterized as shorter, muscled, darker haired individuals with brown and green eyes, and the Mediterranean which tend to be darker skinned as they have over the ages been more exposed to inter mixing with Arab and other Semitic peoples.