The Choctaw are a Native American tribe originally from the southeastern region of what is now Mississippi. Belonging to the Muskogean language family, the Choctaw language closely resembles that of the Chickasaw, suggesting the Choctaw may be a branch of that group. By the mid-18th century, an estimated 20,000 Choctaw lived in 60–70 settlements along … Read more
Senegal has a rich and ancient history. Early human settlements left behind Paleolithic and Neolithic tools, while the central region contains stone circles dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 16th century CE—now a UNESCO World Heritage site. By the 11th century, the Fulani and Tukulor peoples had settled in the lower Senegal River … Read more
Basque People The Basques are an ancient ethnic group native to the western Pyrenees, inhabiting regions in both northern Spain and southwestern France near the Bay of Biscay. As of the late 20th century, approximately 850,000 Basques lived in Spain and 130,000 in France, with significant diaspora communities in South America and the United States. … Read more
The Neolithic Period represents the final stage of the Stone Age and is characterized by major technological and cultural developments. This era saw the refinement of stone tools through grinding and polishing, the domestication of plants and animals, the rise of permanent settlements, and the emergence of crafts such as pottery and weaving. It followed … Read more
Numidia Numidia was an ancient region in North Africa, roughly corresponding to modern western Tunisia and eastern Algeria, during the Roman Republic and Empire. Its early population consisted of tribes and clans, physically indistinguishable from other indigenous North Africans, later broadly categorized as Berbers. Beginning in the 6th century BCE, Carthaginians established coastal settlements and … Read more
Cimbri and Early Germanic PeopleThe Cimbri were an early tribe from what is now Denmark, likely originating from the Jutland Peninsula. Around the 2nd century BCE, environmental pressures such as overpopulation and encroaching seas forced them to migrate south. As they moved, they were joined by other tribes, including the Teutoni, and began a large-scale … Read more
The Mari are a European ethnic group of about 670,000 people (late 20th-century estimate), primarily residing in the Republic of Mari El, in the middle Volga River valley of Russia. Smaller Mari communities are also found in neighboring regions and in Bashkortostan, where nearly 100,000 live. They speak Mari, a Finno-Ugric language, and traditionally refer … Read more
Finno-Ugric Peoples and Early Settlement in FinlandThe Finno-Ugric peoples, part of the larger Uralic language family, dominated two major settlement regions in what is now Finland. Those who arrived in southwestern Finland via the Gulf of Finland were the ancestors of the Hämäläiset (Tavastians), who settled mainly in the southern and western parts of the … Read more
Villanovan Culture The Villanovan culture was an early Iron Age civilization in Italy, named after the village of Villanova near Bologna, where its distinctive cemeteries were first discovered in 1853. Emerging around the 10th or 9th century BCE, the Villanovans descended from the Urnfield cultures of eastern Europe, known for their practice of cremation. Their … Read more
An Eskimo Boy’s Fight for Justice in Old New York In the fall of 1897, famed Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary returned to New York aboard the Hope, bringing with him six Inuit from Greenland—at the request of anthropologist Franz Boas—to be studied at the American Museum of Natural History. Among them was a cheerful … Read more