Jean Manco. Ancestral Journeys.

Jean Manco. Ancestral Journeys. The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings.

        Now, with the emergence of paleogenetics, all of prehistory can be re-calibrated. One can use DNA analysis of ancient burials and animal skeletons, together with existing radiocarbon dating, new comparative linguistics studies (including historical toponimics, glottochronology, etc.) as well as the new archaeological data abetted by ground-search radars to provide a more complete picture of prehistory like a jigsaw puzzle. While I cannot pronounce any expert opinion on the conclusions of J. Manco, a breadth of the study leaves me in awe. In particular, modern DNA testing available for ancient remains, largely confirms hypotheses of Cavalli-Sforza that technical progress in prehistory spread with spread of the populations rather than through cultural contact. Historians are a rancorous bunch and I doubt that her conclusions will abscond criticism but I am sure that all future studies will make use of the same remarkable array of methods provided by modern science.