Pre-History
Perhaps the very first residents of Frisia were the Corded Ware people. This loosely-knit culture, named by an uncreative archeologist for the decorations on their clay pots, migrated to Northern Europe as early as 3000 BC. Besides the pots, they’re also known for their battle axes, and for their unique practice of burying their dead in a single grave. They were also the first group to introduce metal into Northern Europe. (Archeological side-note—I think calling this pioneering people group the “Corded Ware Culture” is both demeaning and depressing. A whole culture, a whole way of life, reduced to a clay decoration. Think if that happened to us. I picture an archeologist from the year AD 7800 giving a lecture to his students at the University of Mars. He talks about American civilization around AD 2000, but he only knows it from a collection of random junk. No records of our art or architecture have survived except for some twisted metal around the base of a Wal-Mart. “Their building materials consisted of low-grade steel and a crude early form of glass” he declares to his enraptured students. No literature remains—Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy have all been lost. The only writings are scraps of a phone book, “The keeping of numerical records was evidently of the utmost importance. The exact function of these listed names and digits is unknown. Whether they corresponded to astrological charts, told primitive fortunes, or suggested lucky numbers pleasing to their gods is a matter of conjecture.” They also found a partial copy of a novel, “That the writing system of these people was undeveloped is evidenced by what was probably their greatest literary achievement, a work about lusty blood-sucking teenagers roughly translated as ‘Evening,’ or ‘Twilight.’” Since they found a box of twinkies next to a clump of ding-dongs, they call us the “cellophane wrapper” civilization. There. Now don’t you feel bad about the Corded Ware?)
The Corded Ware culture eventually gave way to other people with uncreative names, such as the Bell-Beaker culture. Whether any of them were direct ancestors of the Frisians is debatable. But it is clear that the region of modern-day Frisia was populated by at least 750 BC. That’s when we find the first evidence of terpen, which were artificial mounds of earth built to keep buildings safe from floods.
During this time, the Frisians emerged as a unique Germanic tribe. They were, however, closely related to other tribes. Roman historian Tacitus listed them as a sub-group of a larger German people called the Ingvaeones, which also included the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. The Frisians later joined forces with these tribes to conquer Britain. Modern DNA studies confirm that all Germanic people, including the Frisians, are ethnically very similar.
The Corded Ware culture eventually gave way to other people with uncreative names, such as the Bell-Beaker culture. Whether any of them were direct ancestors of the Frisians is debatable. But it is clear that the region of modern-day Frisia was populated by at least 750 BC. That’s when we find the first evidence of terpen, which were artificial mounds of earth built to keep buildings safe from floods.
During this time, the Frisians emerged as a unique Germanic tribe. They were, however, closely related to other tribes. Roman historian Tacitus listed them as a sub-group of a larger German people called the Ingvaeones, which also included the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. The Frisians later joined forces with these tribes to conquer Britain. Modern DNA studies confirm that all Germanic people, including the Frisians, are ethnically very similar.
