In European

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, a descent from antiquity (DFA or DfA) is a proven unbroken line of descent between specific individuals from

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

and people living today. Ancestry can readily be traced back to the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

, but beyond that, tracing to historical figures from antiquity is impractical due to insufficient documentation of the ancestry of the predominantly new royal and noble families of the period. Though the subject of ongoing effort, no well-researched, historically-documented generation-by-generation genealogical descents are known to exist in Europe.

Past claims

The idea of descent from antiquity is by no means new to genealogy. Hellenistic dynasties, such as the Ptolemies, claimed ancestry from deities and mythical figures. In the Middle Ages, major royal dynasties of Europe sponsored compilations claiming their descent from

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

, and in particular the legendary heroes of

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

(see also

Euhemerism In the fields of philosophy and mythography, euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that histo ...

). Such claims were intended as propaganda to glorify a royal patron's ancient and noble ancestry. These lines of descent included not only mythical figures but also outright invention, much of which is still in wide circulation today.

Current efforts

The distinguishing feature of a descent from antiquity compared to a traditional pedigree is the intent to establish a historically verifiable generation-by-generation descent, unlike the legendary descents found in medieval genealogical sources and modern pseudogenealogy in books like ''

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'', published as ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' in the United States, is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London as an unoffici ...

'' and ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

''. DFA research has focused on the ancestries of royal and noble families, especially the possible genealogical links between the new dynasties of western Europe from which well-documented descents are known, such as the

Carolingians The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid ...

Robertians The Robertians (sometimes called the Robertines in modern scholarship) are a proposed Frankish noble family and royal dynasty, whose members were ancestors of the Capetian dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of France and several other countries ...

, Cerdicings, and the Astur-Leonese dynasty, back through the ruling families of the post-Roman Germanic dynasties and Franco-Romans, all the way to the gentility of the Roman Empire, or in the Eastern Mediterranean linking the royal Armenian wives of some

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

emperors through the ruling families of the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

to the rulers of the

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, Parthian, and Roman-client kingdoms of the Middle East. The phrase ''descent from antiquity'' was used by

Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (bapt. 19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as ''The Adventures of Roderick Random'' (1748), ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'' ...

in the 18th-century newspaper '' The Critical Review''. Reviewing William Betham's ''Genealogical Tables of the Sovereigns of the World, from the earliest to the present period,'' he wrote "From a barren list of names we learn who were the fathers or mothers, or more distant progenitors, of the select few, who are able to trace what is called their descent from antiquity." The possibility of establishing a DFA as a result of serious genealogical research was raised in a pair of influential essays, by Iain Moncreiffe and

Anthony Wagner Sir Anthony Richard Wagner (6 September 1908 – 5 May 1995) was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He served as Garter Principal King of Arms before retiring to the post of Clarenceux King of Arms. He was one of ...

. Wagner explored the reasons why it was difficult to do and suggested several possible methods. The following years have seen a number of studies of possible methods by which an appropriately documented ancestry might be found. These methods typically involve either linkages among the ruling dynasties of the post-Roman Empire Germanic states, or those between the ancient dynasties of the Caucasus and the rulers of the Byzantine Empire. Though based largely on historical documentation, these proposed methods have invariably resorted to speculation based on known political relationships and onomastics; for example, the tendency of families to name children in honor of relatives is used as evidence for hypothesized relationships between people bearing the same name. Proposed DFAs vary greatly both in the quality of their research and the degree to which speculation plays a role in their proposed connections. No European DFA is accepted as established. The outlines of several ''possible'' ancestries that could become DFAs have been proposed, but they each lack crucial evidence. Nonetheless, the pursuit of DFAs has stimulated detailed inquiry into the

prosopography Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line a ...

of ancient and early medieval societies.

Notes

References

*I. Moncreiffe of that Ilk & D. Pottinger, ''Blood Royal'', (Nelson, London, 1956). *T. S. M. Mommaerts-Browne, 'A Key to Descents from Antiquity', ''Journal of Ancient and Medieval Studies'' III, (1984–85) 76–107 *Walter Pohl, in Walter Pohl, ''et al.'', eds., "Genealogy: A Comparative Perspective from the Early Medieval West", in ''Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia: Comparative Approaches'', Brill, 2016, , *N. L. Taylor, "Roman Genealogical Continuity and the 'Descents from Antiquity' Question: A Review Article", ''

The American Genealogist ''The American Genealogist'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic disc ...

'', 76 (2001) 129–136. Also available a
Roman Genealogical Continuity
* A. R. Wagner, "Bridges to Antiquity" in ''Pedigree and Progress: Essays in the Genealogical Interpretation of History'' (Phillimore, London, 1975)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Descent From Antiquity Genealogy Antiquity

Past claims

Current efforts

See also

Notes

References

External links