The Barrow as the Symbol of Western Man

 

A free preview episode of Radio North Sea International is now available on Survive the Jive podcast. There is no more potent, holy and enduring symbol of Western man, than the barrow! It links the Iliad, Beowulf, the sagas, the Celts, Germans, Scythians and slavs! 6000 years of excellence!

Anglo-German relations and the Origin of Germans

 

Anglo-German relations were good in the 19th century up until the Boer war, and have been tense ever since. In this talk, historian, Tom Rowsell , explains the deep roots the two nations share in common; the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts, the Bell Beaker folk, The Single Grave Culture and the network of Bronze Age cultures in Northern Europe who traded with each other and shared mutual descent from the Corded Ware culture. The talk was delivered to students in Hamburg in February 2026.

Roots of the Angles // History Documentary

 

Ambushed by Angles by Christian Sloan Hall

 

This film, a sequel to Roots of the Saxons, explores the ancient homeland of the Angles and their beliefs through artefacts, symbols, stone circles and bogs. I discuss the meaning behind these objects and how they connect to old traditions and gods, inviting viewers to uncover timeless wisdom from the past. Filmed in Germany and Denmark, it reveals why wetlands were so important to the Germanic Angles who later invaded Britain and became the English people. 

Sources: 

• McLaughlin, R. (2025) ‘Germania: the Ancient Germans in Greek and Roman Sources: Geography, Society, Warfare, Religion, and Customs’ 
• Finn Rasmussen 2018 
• Aerts-Bijma, A.T. & Sanden, Wijnand & Plicht, Johannes & Streurman, H.J.. (2004). Dating bog bodies by means of 14C-AMS. Journal of Archaeological Science. 31. 10.1016/j.jas.2003.09.012.  
• Skre, Dagfinn. (2024). The Northern Routes to Kingship: A History of Scandinavia AD 180–550 
• Mees, Bernard (1997); A New Interpretation of the Meldorf Fibula Inscription in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur no. 126, pp. 131–39. 
• Holst and Nielsen (2020) ‘Excavating Nydam: Archaeology, Palaeoecology and Preservation. The National Museum [of Denmark]’s Research Project, Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries and University Press of Southern Denmark  
• Cornish Dale, C. (trans), Tacitus, 'Germania: A New Translation and Commentary' (2024) 

Probably other books too which I forgot to put in as i was researching for months. 

Art:

Hand painted by Dom Sefton

• Angle bog offering by Dom Sefton 
• Angle ambush by Christian Sloan Hall 
• wolf warrior by Christian Sloan Hall
• Erce by Alex Cristi 
• Divine twins by Alex Cristi 
• Under militaer beskyttelse by Luplau Janssen 
• Hengist and Horsa l by Graman 
• Historical reconstruction Joan Olivera
• Migration map animation by 1st Aquarian 
• Horned spear dancers by Hungerstein

Music:

• Kulturgeist 
• Freond 
• Khan Kurra 
• 97 Sound Signal
• Bark sound productions 
• Halindir
• Styrkr
• Wodenwyrd 
• Hildigaldra 
• Chris Zabriskie
• Musica aeterna 
• Borg 

 

Roots of the Saxons // History Documentary

The English have roots in Northern Germany. But what was life like for the Saxons in the old country? Why did they want to go to Britain? And what was the relationship of the Old Saxons to the Roman Empire? Find out in this travel documentary in which I visit Lower Saxony and interview a local archaeologist on these important matters.

Sources: 

• Hesse, Stefan. (2009). Grenzen in Archäologie und Geschichte. 
• Hauck. K., Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit (1985) 
• Skre, Dagfinn. (2024). The Northern Routes to Kingship: A History of Scandinavia AD 180–550 
• Taayke, E. (2024) “Meanwhile, in the North...Handmade Pottery beyond the Roman Frontier,” ROMAN POTTERY IN THE LOW COUNTRIES 
• Holst and Nielsen (2020) ‘Excavating Nydam: Archaeology, Palaeoecology and Preservation. The National Museum [of Denmark]’s Research Project, Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries and University Press of Southern Denmark 
• McLaughlin, R. (2025) ‘Germania: the Ancient Germans in Greek and Roman Sources: Geography, Society, Warfare, Religion, and Customs’ 

Probably other books too which I forgot to put in as i was researching for months. 

Art:

• CGI Odin by Skellyboi 
• Kivik CGI by Robert Molyneaux 
• Hengist and Horsa and Sutton Hoo funeral by Graman 
• Wading through Hell by Jack Jones 
• Historical reconstruction art and photography by Samson Goetze, Joan Oliveras, Jonas Radtke 
• Nordic Bronze age map by Maptism 
• Migration map animation by 1st Aquarian 

Music:

• Kulturgeist 
• Freond 
• 11 Eastern 
• Faunus Amadeus Loki 
• Khan Kurra 
• 97 Sound Signal
• Bark sound productions 
• Halindir

The Future of History with Bronze Age Pervert

 
 

Bronze Age Pervert (BAP) joins Tom Rowsell to discuss ancient history and how the heroic ideals of the past can shape our future. This is your chance to hear BAP’s unfiltered thoughts on the classical antiquity that inspires his philosophy, from the vitality of the Bronze Age to the inspiration of the Renaissance. We also talk about Plato and religion and in the second half we also discuss the misinterpretation in population geneticists of ancient cultures and elite dominance models of cultural replacement.

Sagas of the Raven Land: Viking History Documentary

To gain a deeper understanding of medieval Icelandic stories called sagas, historian Tom Rowsell journeys to Iceland, immersing himself in the landscapes that inspired these tales. He rides native horses across the fells, bathes in hot springs, and traces the footsteps of legendary Viking heroes like Eirik the Red and Egill Skallagrimsson.

Survive the Jive in Greece

 Three videos in which I visit the ancient temples of the Greeks in Athens and the surrounding area. 

SUN CULT in a Nordic Bronze-Age Tomb at Kivik, Sweden

The rock art from the tomb of Bredarör at Kivik in Sweden is a window into the forgotten world of the Nordic Bronze Age. In this film I interpret all the esoteric imagery, including; sun-wheels, solar crosses, war chariots, armed warriors and ritual axes and boats. With the latest archaeological data, 3D scans and new CGI animations of the art, this film gives a new perspective on a tomb which is 3400 years old!

Arvid Fougstedt 1936

Art: 

CGI by Robert Molyneaux
Bronze age rites at dawn, Indian chariot, hellhounds, Wolf Viking by Christian Sloan Hall
Kivik reconstruction by Arvid Fougstedt 1936
Bronsåldern by Nils Asplund
Fra Bronsåldern by Rasmus Christiansen 1925
NBA king by Beaker Lady
Bronze age map by Dan Kogosov
Beaker Koryos by Moccus Art 

Sources: 

Bertilsson, Ulf et al. “The Kivik Tomb: Bredarör enters into the digital arena” New Perspectives on the Bronze Age (2017): 289–306.
Froncek, T., ‘The Northmen’ 1975.
Goldhahn - Bredaror on Kivik: a monumental cairn and the history of its interpretation 2009
Kaliff, Oestigaard ‘Werewolves, Warriors and Winter Sacrifices Unmasking Kivik and Indo-European Cosmology in Bronze Age Scandinavia’ 2022.
Kveiborg, Ahlqvist, Vandkilde. (2020). Horses, Fish and Humans: Interspecies Relationships in the Nordic Bronze Age. Current Swedish Archaeology. 75-98.
Nordquist, Gullög & Whittaker, Helene. (2007). Comments on Kristian Kristiansen and Thomas B. Larsson (2005): The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Norwegian Archaeological Review. 40. 75-84.

From Runes to Ruins (2014) / Watch Online

Watch From Runes to Ruins (2014) online for free.

White Tarim Mummies, Tocharians and other Indo-Europeans of China

Discovery of mummies in the Taklamakan desert of Western China dating back 4,000 years has captivated the imaginations of researchers, who were surprised to discover that they were caucasians from Europe. The answers to the mystery of who these white mummies were might be found in the later history of Xinjiang province; in the Chinese written records of blue eyed and red bearded merchants such as the Yuezhi and the Sogdians from the West and in the manuscripts written in a mysterious Indo-European language known as Tocharian. Clearly there were both Iranic and Tocharian peoples living in Western China in later times, and the Tarim mummies must have been the ancestors of some if not all of them.

The inhospitable Tarim basin became a vital route for merchants, at the crossroads between East and West, the basin is skirted by oasis towns which were stations for anyone traveling on the Silk Road.The caucasian, Europoid mummies and the ancient Indo-European languages of the region challenge popular misconceptions about the limits of European civilisation in the Bronze Age. The material excavated suggests the area was active for thousands of years, with diverse languages, lifestyles, religions, and cultures present.

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Credits

Tocharians and Tarim mummies art by Andrew Whyte

Andronovo chariot art by Christian Sloan Hall

OST by Deor (his website coming soon)

Sources:

• Adams, D., (2019) ‘Tocharian C: its discovery and implications’ 
• A dictionary of Tocharian B 
• Gray, Russell & Atkinson, Quentin & Greenhill, Simon. (2011). Language Evolution and Human History.
• Good, I., ‘A Social Archaeology of Cloth some preliminary remarks on prehistoric textiles of the Tarim Basin’ (Peabody Museum)
• Hollard, C. et al. (2018). New genetic evidence of affinities and discontinuities between bronze age Siberian populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 167 (1): 97–107.
• Katariya, A., ‘Ancient History of Central Asia: Yuezhi-Gurjar History’, Article No 01
• Mair, V., ‘Ancient Mummies of the Tarim Basin’
• Ning, et al. (2019), ‘Ancient Genomes Reveal Yamnaya - Related Ancestry and a Potential Source of Indo-European Speakers in Iron Age Tianshan’ 
• Wenkan, X. (1996) ‘The Tokharians and Buddhism’
• Xie, M. et al, (2013) Interdisciplinary investigation on ancient Ephedra twigs from Gumugou Cemetery (3800 B.P.) in Xinjiang region, northwest China. 
• Yang, Y. (2019), ‘Shifting Memories: Burial Practices and Cultural Interaction in Bronze Age China A study of the Xiaohe-Gumugou cemeteries in the Tarim Basin’
• Selections from the Han Narrative Histories 

The Medieval Mind and Academic Bias - with Rachel Fulton Brown

Professor Rachel Fulton Brown from the Department of History at the University of Chicago joins me on Jive Talk to discuss the medieval mind and how academic bias in the field of medievalism might prevent us from understanding how people used to think and see the world. Rachel is known on YouTube as fencing bear at prayer #Medievalism

The Genetic Impact of Christianity on Ethnocentrism

A new paper (LINK) has caused quite a stir! Schulz et al 2019 relies on the observation that Europeans are more trusting of outsiders and less nepotistic. I recall a study on the reactions of diverse babies left in the care of people that were markedly different genetically from the baby, with the result that most babies got very upset. The baby that was least upset by this was one from Saxony. Despite the evidence, any study that asserts that Europeans are distinguishable from any other population is likely to raise eyebrows and hair among those in the Humanities (especially a study like this that implies the differences are actually culturally advantageous or superior).

The study attributes this European tendency to the Western Church:

"they focus on how the Church broke down extended kin-based institutions and encouraged a nuclear family structure. To do this, the authors developed measures of historical Church exposure and kin-based institutions across populations."

It argues that the rise of agriculture in the Neolithic favoured kinship based societies in which forms of cousin marriage (not just 1st cousins which would be genetically problematic, but also 3rd and 4th cousins which pose no genetic threat), but that "The Church’s family policies meant that by 1500 CE, and likely centuries earlier in some regions, Europe lacked strong kin-based institutions and was instead dominated by relatively independent and isolated nuclear or stem families."

This church-led social change is thus, they argue, the reason for higher rates of openness to strangers, individualism and independence among Europeans. I have no doubt there is some truth to this but I can see a major flaw, which I will get to later. First let's see how other people reacted. The left wing historians threw their toys out of the pram, of course. Here'e one guy who has blocked me even though I don't know who he is:

this is very, very bad scholarship. @sciencemagazine should be absolutely ashamed for publishing this. #medievaltwitter #twitterstorians https://t.co/ayQ61ju1I2

— Mashed Potato Gabriele (@prof_gabriele) November 8, 2019

He says the scientists should have consulted historians (they obviously did though).

holy shit am I angry

— Mashed Potato Gabriele (@prof_gabriele) November 8, 2019

Geneticists seem somewhat bewildered by the reaction of historians...

i'm moderately skeptical of the paper in question because it aims to answer an audacious observation re: western europe's special path. we should always be cautious.

but the historians expressing rage/"I can't even" ... smh https://t.co/V87Kt90Xgt

— Razib🥥 Khan (@razibkhan) November 9, 2019

However, I must say this historian below makes some good points in her counter argument against the geneticists. She throws up numerous obfuscations, which, although a frustrating left wing technique for clouding an argument, actually includes some valid points in this case.

I see the paper as fundamentally misunderstanding causality. Seeing a pattern: European societies gradually became less structured around kinship groups at around the same time the church focuses on consanguinity. Ok. How do we know these two things are connected?

— Georgia Henley (@georgiahenley) November 9, 2019

My area is the conversion of the Germanic peoples and I can give the example of how the church banned, as incestuous, the custom among the Norse whereby sons would inherit their step-mothers. That shows a concern with breaking up kinship ties, but it isn't at all related to biological incest. In fact the prohibition against incest was not introduced to the Germanics by the church at all. Although incest occurs in mythological contexts, such as the gods Freya and Frey, or the incestuous relationships among the Volsung clan which were intended to create a supernatural semi-divine being by distilling the blood of Odin through incest. In both cases, the incest is quite a shocking and unusual element and associated with taboos that even gods aren't supposed to break (Loki shames the divine twins Frey and Freya for the alleged incest).

I do not recall any discussion of consanguineous sexual relationships in any of the papers on Viking or Anglo-Saxon DNA I have read. This could easily be determined from existing samples. I doubt incest was at all common even before Christianity arrived. One Germanic region where people have been marrying third or fourth cousins for centuries is Iceland - this occurred out of necessity due to isolation and a small population. 

Icelandic researchers reporting in a 2008 issue of Science, found that marriages between third or fourth cousins in Iceland tended to produce more children and grandchildren than those between completely unrelated individuals. The researchers suggested that marrying third and fourth cousins may be optimal for reproduction because this degree of genetic similarity may produce the best gene pool. Really close relations like siblings and first-cousins would have detrimental inbreeding mutations, whereas couples genetically far-removed from each other could have genetic incompatibilities. Third- and fourth-cousin couples, though, are the goldilocks middle ground genetically, tending to be more genetically compatible while having no serious inbreeding problems.

Iceland not only produces more published authors per capita than anywhere else, but also more of the world's strongest men! Their breeding practices have certainly not hurt them, in fact they seem to have been beneficial and if these marriages result in more children, then those who favour them will outcompete those who don't in terms of number of children. That suggests selective pressure FOR consanguineous marriages, at least in Iceland...and the church did not break them up.

I am sure some right wing pagans would like to use this study as evidence for how the church destroys ethnic identities and prepares the world for globalism but I am not sure that this has been proven. I believe these prohibitions against close inbreeding were always there in many places in Northern Europe, that third cousin marriages still occurred long after conversion and that kinship networks were not maintained by third cousin marriages anyway, but by complicated rituals of gift exchange, and feasting.

It may surprise the reader to learn I dislike Western chauvinism, particularly arguments for the uniqueness of Western civilisation based on our supposedly more progressive outlook. But if we accept this premise, we must also conclude that the aforementioned tendencies of openness, individualism and independence, are higher in the North than the South of Europe, despite the North being the last place to receive the Christian doctrine. Clearly the argument falls flat. I personally consider such traits to be socially disadvantageous (in the current environment) mutations that actually emerged long before Christianity arrived in Europe, and which are more likely adaptations for small populations distributed over large areas in harsh regions of Northern Europe, where there was a selective pressure favouring those willing to cooperate with whoever they came across and also for more independent and individualistic people who would find long periods of isolation more tolerable.

  

Cheddar man and other Mesolithic Europeans

Nordic Boats and Aryan Chariots

Pagan Barrows and Catholic Frescoes in Sweden

The Indo-Europeans of Lycia

The Ridgeway Path Public Information Film.

Documentary: Kenneth Clark's Civilisation: Grandeur and Obedience

Catholic and pagan cultures of obedience vs Semitic cultures of the will. The former appreciate the balance of male and female in the order of the universe, the latter do not and are therefore incapable of producing art of a standard anywhere near as impressive.

Documentary: Anglo-Saxon Paganism

This is the teaser trailer for an upcoming film on Anglo-Saxon paganism that I am making called From Runes to Ruins. The film is still in production, but will explain how the paganism of our ancestors lives on the landscape and the people. There are landmarks, place names and aspects of our language which are remnants of Anglo-Saxon paganism. It is from Woden, the god of war, that we take the name for the third day of the week, Wednesday (Woden’s day).

There are features of the landscape that take us right back to pagan times and give us insight into how people used to think. Burial mounds such as Cwichelm's barrow in Oxfordshire were thought to be haunted by the ghosts of the dead warriors they contained. Further up the Ridgeway is 'Wayland's smithy', a Neolithic long barrow which the Anglo-Saxons believed was built by Wayland, the blacksmith of the gods.

Despite the significance of Anglo-Saxon paganism to the history of Britain, no one has ever made a documentary exclusively on this subject. Until now.

Edit 2020: the film is now available to watch online for free

Durham - Old English Anglo Saxon Poem