Note to the readers:
This project is an outgrowth of the “Early Europeans” class at Marin Academy in the Spring of 2004. Our inquiry began around 6000-4000 BCE, with the postulated existence, based on grave sites and language study, of a tribe known as proto Indo-Europeans. Nearly all the peoples of Europe, and their off-shoots (e.g. the USA, Australia, etc) are linguistically and culturally “related” to this proto Indo-European group. (One might say, with perhaps a bit of stretching, that we are talking about “white people” here.) Interestingly, modern day Iranians, some Hindus, and many other people of Central Asia are also related to the proto Indo-Europeans.

While scholars can catalogue the Indo-European language group with some degree of confidence, tracing cultural roots is much more difficult, for two main reasons:1) these people did not have a written language until much later in history, and what we know of them comes from their “enemies;” and, 2) the early Christians deemed it necessary to stamp out “pagan” rituals and religions wherever and whenever possible. Thus, what is known as the loss of pagan culture includes the loss of a significant chunk of “white people’s” culture and traditions as well.

Each student represented here picked a particular aspect of that culture and researched it, but this information should not in any way be taken as definitively complete. In fact, there are vast areas of material which we did not have time to get to, and we hope people reading this page will be stimulated to add to it perhaps. We sought to create a kind of tutorial page, in that these presentations are in PowerPoint and not in a web-page format. Our intent was to slow the reader down and prevent the random clicking of links. In short, we’ve made this site sophisticated and accessible, but above all educational. Each student is completely responsible for the text and design of their own presentations. We hope you take the time to slow down and enjoy the learning. Please consult the bibliographies at the end of each section if you are interested in pursuing your studies.

Note to teachers: This project took five computer lab sessions for searching, presentation construction etc. Each student also put in significant time on their own. It also helped considerably to have a knowledgable student construct the actual web page and serve as a liaison with our director of technology. Congratulations and many thanks to Emma Stein; it would not have happened without her.

*When you click on these links, the file will be downloaded to your computer. You can open the presentation in powerpoint, and click "view show" to see the slide show. Use the space bar or arrows to move from slide to slide.