According to Philostratus [Life of Apoll. 3.20], Indians founded sixty cities in sub-Saharan Africa 1500-1100 BCE, and according to Juba of Numidia [Plin. Nat. 2.34.97], there was an Indian colony in West Africa before 50 BCE. According to Cornelius Nepos [Geog. 3.5], an Indian tribe had sailed to Germania to do commerce, and according to Scymnus [Perieg. 167], the land of the Indians was located west from Sardinia, which would locate Indian colonies into Iberia.
Were these ancient writers referring to people who originated from India, or was the word "India" just a confused term to refer to all dark skinned people? If the latter interpretation is correct, who were these Africans who were claimed to have populated also western Europe before 150 BCE?
P.S. If you have good comments to these questions, you are warmly welcome to participate to the peer review of the India-Africa-Europe theory, which has been published at https://agilepublishing.fi/books/atlas-and-herakles
Dear Pasi,
many thanks for your input. That Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia and large parts of the African continent were quite well connected by trade and other networks in ancient times - and arguably even well before - is a well known, but indeed often underestimated and sometimes even forgotten historiographic fact. While I do think that many dimensions of these networks are still to be uncoverered, I'd urge a little caution with the word "Indian" in Latin and Greek - and related - sources. Ancient authors tended to lump ethnically, culturally and linguistically quite diverse groups of people together under very broad terminological categories or names. These often only partly (if at all) match with today's understandings of these ethnonyms. But I am looking forward to future publications by your research group!
Best,
Julius
Dear Julius,
thank you for your comments! I have been wondering the same - the possibility of calling all dark skinned people as "Indians". However, these "Indians" who lived in Iberia, called themselves as Indigetes or Indicetes, and their capital was "Indika". This seems to suggest some ethnic connection to India.
In addition, Juba of Numidia reported an Indian colony in tropical West Africa. As he was an African, it is unlikely that he would have confused dark skinned people with ethnic Indians.
Looking forward to additional discussion on this theme.
Best regards,
Pasi
Dear Pasi,
many thanks for this clarification. Have you already published formal papers on this? I'd be very interested to have a look - especially to inspect the original sources (Greek or Latin should be fine).
With best wishes from Germany,
Julius
PS: Spanish-language sources from the Iberian peninsula would be fine, too :-)
Our book has been published as a freely downloadable PDF file at https://agilepublishing.fi/books/atlas-and-herakles. Chapter 5 contains the central genetic, archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence that supports the existence of Indo-African migrations to Western Europe 3000 - 150 BCE. The genetic evidence and argumentation of the book has been peer reviewed, but we still need more reviews from archaeological, linguistic, and onomastic point of view.
The PDF contains references to ancient texts, and hyperlinks are also provides, as most of the sources are already available in the web.
Dear Pasi Malmi , thanks for the link to this interesting paper. The Indian presence is corroborated by linguistics, religion, archaeology and genetics. You will find a link to the summary of my findings, with a link to my main study, which was peer-reviewed and published in Scientific Culture;
Preprint Did Indo-European languages as Gaulish stem from an original...
Dear Pasi Malmi , thanks also for quoting my studies in your interesting book.
Xavier Rouard, I read your text with great interest! Could you please clarify this sentence from your text: "African genes spread mostly in Southern Europe (10% in Spain and 7% in Italy)", maybe providing also some sources?
Also, on what basis do you call haplogroup H2 as Dravidian?
Thanks Pasi Malmi , as concerns your first question, my source is Khvorykh, G. et al. (2020) Global Picture of Genetic Relatedness and The Evolution of Humankind, Biology (Basel). 9(11): 392
As concerns your second question, several genetic studies underline the Indian, and more particularly Dravidian, origin of haplogroup H, including H2. You can find more references in my main study Article DID INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES STEM FROM A TRANS-EURASIAN ORIGI...
Mr.malmi pahali baat har ek insaan ek hi hai bas colour ka fark hai aur good habits and things ka baaki shabi ek samaan hai Africa ke logo ke andher jo acchi aadte hai wo Europe me kisi me bhi hai to wo Africa ke te yesse pata lagho aap
Dear Pasi Malmi thaks for reading my paper. I recommend you one of my sources Article A Southeast Asian origin for present-day non-African human Y...
I have re-analyzed the quote of Scymnus, and it seems to be a false lead. I will remove it from my references. An updated evidence summary is included in the attached image.
Some Germanic linguists have linked the evolution of Germanic languages with prehistoric contact with speakers of early Afro-Asiatic languages. Theo Venneman (2000) links this contact to sailing voyages from the Mediterranean Europe to Northern Germany or Scandinavia. In my opinion, the genetic, linguistic, and archeological support is weak. See St. Clair 2021: 46. Botanical evidence supports prehistoric sea trade between Africa and India as early as 4,000 years ago. As a result of this exchange, farmers in India began to cultivate finger millet and pulses such as cowpeas, crops that they had received from Africa. East Africans, in turn, received chickens as well as Asian crops such as bananas, yams, and taro (see Fuller 2006; Crowther et al 2017). However, large scale settlement or colonization of Africa by a population in India is not supported by linguistic or genetic data (St. Clair 2021: 103-104). Interestingly, the linguistic and genetic data support the idea that seafarers from Indonesia colonized Madagascar roughly 2,200 years ago. See St. Clair 2021: 135-136.
Crowther, Alison et al. 2017. “Subsistence mosaics, forager-farmer interactions, and the transition to food production in eastern Africa.” Quaternary International 489: 101-120.
Fuller, Dorian Q. 2006. “Agricultural origins and frontiers in South Asia: a working synthesis.” Journal of World Prehistory 20: 1-86.
St. Clair, Michael R. 2021. The Prehistory of Language: A Triangulated Y-Chromosome-Based Perspective. Stuttgart, Germany: The Genetic-Linguistic Interface. https://genlinginterface.com/wpcontent/
uploads/2021/11/St-Clair-2021.pdf
The nature of the Indian Ocean is that it is a body of water that is surrounded by almost continues landmasses on three sides and blessed with the gift of the monsoons. Land migrations from Africa to Asia and to Australia were followed by numerous movements in all directions, but the most impactive anti-clockwise migrations was that of Austronesian-speakers to the Comoro Islands and Madagascar around 2000y.a. Of course there are attested historical movements of less impact of Africans to Asia and Asians to Africa. But ancient mariners from the Indian sub-continent did travel to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea - often transmitting their goods overland to travel down the Nile to Egypt. Therefore the Greek understanding of "Indians" in Africa may be reference to the goods and peoples of India arriving through Egypt (ie. Africa) or simply the confusion over the similar physiognomy of the Berbers of North Africa (including the Ifri/Afri people who provided the name for the continent) and people from the Asia which at that time meant present-day Turkey Eastwards. Agree with you Michael St.Clair.
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