Gustaf Kossinna

Gustaf Kossinna
Gustaf Kossinna, 1907
Born(1858-09-28)September 28, 1858
Tilsit, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia
DiedDecember 20, 1931(1931-12-20) (aged 73)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityGerman
Education
Known forTheories on settlement archaeology
Scientific career
FieldsPhilology, archaeology
Institutions
  • Humboldt University of Berlin

Gustaf Kossinna (28 September 1858 – 20 December 1931) was a German philologist and archaeologist who was Professor of German Archaeology at the University of Berlin.

Along with Carl Schuchhardt he was the most influential German prehistorian of his day, and was creator of the techniques of settlement archaeology (German: Siedlungsarchaeologie).[1] His nationalistic theories about the origins of the Germanic peoples and Indo-Europeans influenced aspects of National Socialist ideology. Though politically discredited after World War II, Kossinna's methodological approach has greatly influenced archaeology up to the present day.[a]

In the years following World War II, Kossinna's theories of settlement archaeology were widely dismissed as pseudoscience. Recent discoveries in archaeogenetics have prompted a renewed discussion of Kossinna's legacy and the significance of migration in prehistory.[b][c][2][3]

  1. ^ Klejn 1999, p. 233.
  2. ^ Callaway 2018.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Editorial was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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