Gustaf Kossinna

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 . 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.

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. The apparent similarity of the once outdated theories of Kossinna has been referred to as Kossinna's Smile. Archaeogeneticist David Reich, who worked on a study related to the Corded Ware culture, drew criticism and lost several archaeologist collaborators when they believed that the ancient DNA results promoted ideas similar to Kossinna's. Reich subsequently explicitly rejected Kossinna's theories in order to win them back. Reich noted that while Kossinna suggested a Northern European origin of the Indo-Europeans, his research rather suggested an origin on the Pontic–Caspian steppe.

Selected works Über Die Ältesten Hochfränkischen Sprachdenkmäler: Ein Beitrag zur Grammatik des Althochdeutschen, 1881 Die indogermanische Frage, 1902 Mannus, 1909 Die Herkunft der Germanen: Zur Methode der Siedlungsarchäologie, 1911 Der Goldfund von Messingwerk bei Eberswalde und Die Goldenen Kultgefäze Der Germanen, 1913 Der Germanische Goldreichtum in Der Bronzezeit, 1913 Die Deutsche Vorgeschichte: Eine Hervorragend Nationale Wissenschaft, 1914 Das Weichselland: Ein Uralter Heimatboden Der Germanen, 1919 Die Indogermanen, Ein Abriss, 1921 Ursprung und Verbreitung der Germanen in Vor- und Frühgeschichtlicher Zeit, 1926 Germanische Kultur Im 1. Jahrtausend Nach Christus, 1932 Altgermanische Kulturhöhe: Eine Einführung in Die Deutsche Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 1937