Sources for 300 BCE-era migration paths?

As it says on the tin. I'm wondering which sources for tracking migrations into NW Europe and into the US Rust Belt-Northeast Megaopolis regions would be more reliable to do further research on an upcoming TL. Could any of you familiar with the era please reply where best to look for data?

Things I'm primarily interested in:
-Social structure
-Language/ethnic groups
-Rivalries to be wary of
-Population numbers
-Technological development

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
 
Thanks, I'll see how much that costs on Amazon.

I'm really curious about the timing of the arrival of the peoples coming to the North German Plain, as I plan on my ASB-story to involve bribing/recruiting those peoples to emigrate to the OTL US Northeast.

Basic premise is that uptimers set up shop and try (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing) to blend the indigenous peoples of the US and those expanding westwards into Europe. All of this will help Rome secure their read as they grow, as the butterflies of a less populous northern frontier will flap hard if starting from a 300 BCE POD.
 
I would expect the Migrationist's to object to being moved to lands at a civ level as their origin instead of the Roman Empire which flows with mild and honey in abundance - not unlike the 19c. European dream of America!
And then You shouldn't go looking for The Franks as this is about the Migrational period. Actually according to your date of 300 BCE you are looking at the Romans entering NW Europe and I guess there's history aplenty of that and stats. ;)
 
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So basically you're going to have peoples of the Migrations Era move to 300 BCE NEA? I would expect the Migrationist's to object to being moved to lands at a civ level as their origin instead of the Roman Empire which flows with mild and honey in abundance - not unlike the 19c. European dream of America!

The story will be an ASB, where uptimers recruit the migrants and provide them with better tech, as much behind the Romans' backs as possible. On the ATL Pennsylvania side, the Native population will be even more wanked, however they will be bribed into helping the migrant Europeans assimilate. Think Card's "Pastwatch," cranked to 11.
 
The story will be an ASB, where uptimers recruit the migrants and provide them with better tech, as much behind the Romans' backs as possible. On the ATL Pennsylvania side, the Native population will be even more wanked, however they will be bribed into helping the migrant Europeans assimilate. Think Card's "Pastwatch," cranked to 11.

The big problem with North America is that there are no sources for migrations. Archaeology is only a little bit of a help. In a significant part of Eastern North America, it cannot be determined who lived there. Sure, people lived there, but we can't really tell who lived there. And when Europeans first visited in the 17th century (for those first contacted by the French and not de Soto or other Spaniards), they were extinct as a culture. It really doesn't help that these cultures are known to have spoke language isolates like Yuchi, Tunica, Natchez, etc., which leaves things open to the idea that there were more language isolates in the past that presumably were extinct or basically dead by 1600.

In 300 BC, it isn't really possible to tell much about that part of the US. Although presumably, Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian languages, in addition to possible language isolates, would've been the languages spoken. And they shared the Woodland Period culture found throughout the Eastern US. Other than that, it's all hypothetical.

For technology, these cultures of the time are known to have built very nice mounds.
 
The big problem with North America is that there are no sources for migrations. Archaeology is only a little bit of a help. In a significant part of Eastern North America, it cannot be determined who lived there. Sure, people lived there, but we can't really tell who lived there. And when Europeans first visited in the 17th century (for those first contacted by the French and not de Soto or other Spaniards), they were extinct as a culture. It really doesn't help that these cultures are known to have spoke language isolates like Yuchi, Tunica, Natchez, etc., which leaves things open to the idea that there were more language isolates in the past that presumably were extinct or basically dead by 1600.

In 300 BC, it isn't really possible to tell much about that part of the US. Although presumably, Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian languages, in addition to possible language isolates, would've been the languages spoken. And they shared the Woodland Period culture found throughout the Eastern US. Other than that, it's all hypothetical.

For technology, these cultures of the time are known to have built very nice mounds.

Thanks! Been busy, but the area I am concerned with is best described as Potomac-Ohio-Allegheny-Lakes Erie/Ontario-St. Lawrence-Lakes Champlain/George-Hudson-Harlem-East-Long Island Sound, and out 100km from shore, (Long Island included, Bronx not). Your language trees will help, but I may add a bit of hard sci-fi to this AH, giving some not outlandish future tech to 2017-era time travelers for this ASB I want to start working on, (in tandem with my rebooting The Man From Sao Paulo). In Europe, I'll mainly be concerned with Denmark and along the German coast from the Hamburg area, continuing east to the Daugava, mainly in good harbors but with scout outposts along the main rivers. Appreciate the help, thanks!
 
Ok, so I've narrowed down the overall tribal groups for Europe at the time are the Goths and Pomerianians. Iroquioian and Algonquian groups, along with the Adena-based cultural groups along the frontiers, will dominate the area in the OTL US Northeast. Maps are coming soon.
 
To echo what @metalinvader665 said, Algonquian and Iroquoian language groups would presumably have dominated the region you describe in 300 BCE. We know for example that Eastern Algonquian (the group that in 1600 CE included Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohican, Delaware, Lenape, Powhatan, etc.) is a single genetic unit, which in 300 BCE would have still been undifferentiated, and likely occupying a much smaller region than what they would occupy in 1600 CE. In the same way, the Northern Iroquoian languages also likely had not diverged from each other yet (though Southern Iroquoian, the group that includes Cherokee, likely had diverged from Northern by this time), and they may be more specifically limited to the NY/PA region.
There were also a variety of Macro-Siouan languages spoken in the Virginia region, but it's unclear when these arrived; it's likely they were not yet present in the region in 300 BCE.

Finally, as metalinvader pointed out, there were likely a great deal of isolates and small families spoken in this region that were long gone by the time Europeans arrived OTL, so we have virtually no evidence of them or their distribution (although a substrate - traces from these groups - in the Iroquoian and Algonquian languages is likely). The only thing we have from OTL colonial period records was that the Beothuks of Newfoundland possibly spoke a language isolate (if not a divergent Algonquian language), and that there were a variety of languages known from the Carolinas that are of uncertain affiliation, as they went extinct in the 18th century with little to no documentation (one of these must have been the original language of the Lumbees). The only surviving isolate today from anywhere near the Atlantic is Yuchi, known from the Tennessee region but now spoken in Oklahoma. The next nearest attested isolates, such as Natchez and Tunica, were spoken in the lower Mississippi valley. So for your TL, you'd want to start with generalized forms of Eastern Algonquian and Northern Iroquoian. Hope that helps!
 


Yes, thank you! With regards to Europe, I'm also shifting focus west, to stretch between the Rhine and an altered Vistula. (ASB intervention to turn the eastward bend into an expanded oxbow lake, straightening the Vistula massively).

Yes, there will also be prebuilt canals. This is intended to be a bit of a wank, but one done properly.
 
Also, with a preferred "zero sum" means of terraforming, most of the expansion of waterways will be used to:
-Fill in the Great and Little Belts
-Reclaim land in the OTL Netherlands and far NW German coast, raising land enough to redirect the Ems and Weser.
-Sculpt created waterways in a manner which will limit flooding while negating the need for as many locks. Widening and deepening rivers will be preferred, while a primary west-east canal will be flatland.
 
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