Lothar Kilian (12 October 1911 – 12 March 2000) was a German

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, who researched

Balts The Balts or Baltic peoples (, ) are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea who speak Baltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-day Lithuanians (including Samogitians) and Latvians (including Latgalians ...

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

and the

Proto-Indo-European homeland The Proto-Indo-European homeland was the prehistoric homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), meaning it was the region where the proto-language was spoken before it split into the dialects from which the earliest Indo-European langu ...

Biography

Lothar Kilian was born in Nidden, Prussia, Germany, (after 1919 Memelland (

Klaipėda Region The Klaipėda Region () or Memel Territory ( or ''Memelgebiet'') was defined by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and refers to the northernmost part of the German province of East Prussia, when, as Memelland, it was put under the administr ...

), then

Nida, Lithuania Nida (, Kursenieki language, Kursenieki: ''Nīde'') is a resort town in Lithuania, the administrative centre of Neringa municipality. Located on the Curonian Spit between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, it is the westernmost point of Lit ...

) on 12 October 1911. He gained his Ph.D. in archaeology at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

in 1939. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Kilian worked at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

and at the

Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier The ''Rheinische Landesmuseum Trier'' is an archaeological museum in Trier, Germany. The collection stretches from prehistory through the Roman period, the Middle Ages to the Baroque era with a strong emphasis on the Roman past of Augusta Trevero ...

. Kilian authored a number of works on the origins of the

and

, and the

. His studies on these subjects were important. He died on 12 March 2000.

Selected works

* ''Haffküstenkultur und Ursprung der Balten'', 1955 * ''Zu Herkunft und Sprache der Prussen:'', 1980 * ''Zum Ursprung der Indogermanen'', 1983 * ''Zum Ursprung der Germanen'', 1988

References

1922 births 2000 deaths Balticists 20th-century German archaeologists Germanic studies scholars Indo-Europeanists 20th-century German linguists University of Königsberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Bonn Lithuanian emigrants to Germany {{Germany-archaeologist-stub

Biography

Selected works

See also

References