Before getting into the subject, an overview of European history is far from being a luxury. We start with the 5th millennium BC, between 5000 and 4000 BC.
We are two thousand years before the emergence of the Egyptian civilisation. Europe is mainly populated by hunter-gatherers. The names correspond to cultures known from archaeology. The symbol corresponds to regions of dispersed farmers without any special social culture. The one north of the Alps and the one at Vinča are extensive and cover (at least) the banks of the Rhine and the Danube.
Stone architecture is not well developed and is concentrated in Brittany and Poitou. However, in Anatolia (present-day Turkey and northern Syria), this type of site has existed since at least the previous millennium. Finally, the ancestors of the future Basques were already present in the Pyrenees.
Barnenez is home to the oldest (and largest) cairn in Europe. It is 70 m long and 20–25 m wide and contains 11 burial chambers. Locmariaquer was an inhabited site of several hectares and its population density was high (for its time). Finally, in Carnac, the construction of the alignments began.
Is the proximity of the three sites a coincidence? One could even suggest that Carnac was the construction site, Locmariaquer was the place where the workforce lived and Barnenez honoured personalities of the time. In this case, what Neolithic culture (social organisation) could deploy such resources? And for what purpose?
The site of Carnac is still active. In the middle of the millennium, the construction of Stonehenge began. Finally, the first European fortified city appears in Orkney, an archipelago in the north of Scotland: it is the Ness of Brodgar. The site is three hectares in size and contains, among other things, a 400 m long wall.
The geographical eccentricity of this Ness challenges specialists. How can one explain the presence of the oldest European city on an island of 500 kM2 at the same latitude as Oslo and where 17,000 people live today? Did advanced cultures of the time practise maritime navigation and opt for lands away from the European continent? Finally, are they related to the one in Locmariaquer? Did they come from local farming communities?
The sites of Carnac, Stonehenge and Brodgar are still active. New cultures appear: the Minoan culture in Crete, the Hurrian culture in Anatolia, the Argar culture in Murcia (Spain) and the Corded Ceramic culture in northern Europe. Minoan (the so-called Linear A) is the first known European language and is still not deciphered. Historians do not know whether the Minoans were Indo-Europeans (the Hurrians were not).
The Argar culture site covers an area of 4.5 hectares and contains, among other things, 300 m long ramparts. It is the first known fortified site on the continent. It is less remote than Brodgar, but its geographical location is of interest to specialists.
By the end of the millennium, the world population would have reached 100 million. If we apply the current ratio (5%) between the European and world populations, Europeans are 5 million at that time.
The sites of Carnac and Brodgar become extinct. A new advanced culture appears in Anatolia: the Hatti. Indo-Europeans make their official appearance in Europe (Illyrians, Thracians, Macedonians, Philistines, Achaeans, etc.) and in Anatolia (Hittites, Luwians). Finally, the cultures of the urn fields and Villanova appear. We can also add that the Phoenicians from the Near East have been criss-crossing the Mediterranean since (at least) the beginning of the millennium.
The Scythians were already residing on the shores of the Caspian Sea at the end of the millennium. They are Indo-Europeans, possibly from the Andronovo culture (Siberia).
Thracians found Phrygia and Lydia. Luwians founded (possibly) Lycia. Hatti (already colonised by the Hittites) died out under the blows of the ‘Sea Peoples’ (and the Philistines especially). The Hurrians founded the state of Urartu. Finally, the Iberians appear in Spain and this is the period of the creation of Athens.
Phrygia is the victim of a Cimmerian incursion. Urartu had to admit defeat to the Scythians and Armenians. Lydia cannot resist the Persians and the table is set for the future Greco-Persian Wars. The Hallstatt culture succeeded that of the Urnfield culture.
Finally, the last chapter of this essay will introduce the Fomoraig, Fir Bolg, Tuatha De and Gaels.