Roots of Europe (full name: Roots of Europe – Language, Culture, and Migrations) is an interdisciplinary research centre at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

, focusing on

prehistoric Europe Prehistoric Europe refers to Europe before the start of written records, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional unevenness in cultural development emerges and grows. The region of the eastern Mediterra ...

. It is headed by

Birgit Anette Olsen Birgit Anette Olsen (Rasmussen) (born 2 April 1952 in Denmark) is a Danish linguist, professor at the University of Copenhagen and leader of the Roots of Europe research center. She is an expert on Proto-Indo-European and Indo-European languages ...

(2008-2013 by

Jens Elmegård Rasmussen Jens Elmegård Rasmussen (15 March 1944 – 15 May 2013) was a Danish linguist who served as associate professor of Indo-European Studies and head of the Roots of Europe research center at the University of Copenhagen from its initiation in 2008 u ...

) and involves more than 40 linguists, archaeologists, geneticists and other scholars from universities in Europe and the USA. The centre was initiated in 2008 and is financed through the University of Copenhagen Programmes of Excellence. It has close ties to the local programme in

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

. It is physically based at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics and hosts the departmental collection of Indo-European linguistics handbooks.

Structure and activities

The common research projects are organized from Copenhagen. While the basic working group there mainly concentrates on the linguistic aspects, the external project members deal both with linguistics, religion and mythology, archaeology and genetics. An international advisory board covers all of the basic fields. From 2013 onwards, the centre also functions as an umbrella for several new research projects, which do not form part of the original programme but are founded by the

VELUX VELUX A/S is a Danish manufacturing company that specialises in roof windows, skylights, sun tunnels and related accessories. The company is headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark and is a part of VKR Holding A/S. VELUX Group is a founding partner o ...

foundation and the Danish Research Council for the Humanities. Research results emerging from the projects are published mainly in the book series

Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European () is an academic book series on Indo-European studies and related subjects. The series was founded in 1999 and is published by Museum Tusculanum Press Museum Tusculanum Press (Danish: ''Museum Tusculanums Forla ...

Heads of centre

(2008-2013) *

(2013-)

External links

Official website (in English)

References

{{authority control Multidisciplinary research institutes Linguistic research institutes Research institutes in Denmark University of Copenhagen