As a general rule the early forms of human civilization appeared and developped along the great rivers in the world and clearly on those areas with a favourable clime. So, respecting this pattern all traces of early civilizations in the world have been found along the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates,Gange,Amazon and so on...The reasons are to obvious to insist on them... So ,what's definitelly true for Africa,Asia,South America will be logically true for Europe,too. The largest river in Europe is the Danube ,so the first traces of human civilization clearly appeared and developped preferentially along its middle and lower course.Finally this is not a logical way only but doubled by archeological discoveries along the time ,as well.
It is logical and normal that all forms of early human social organizations appeared and developped there such as gentes,clans,tribes etc.and from there spreading across Europe in all directions carrying with them their form of social organization which eventually ,lattter on,have evolved to a bigger and more complex forms of organizations such as kingdoms. However ,regarding some older and newer archeological discoveries we can find the oldest traces of human civilization in Europe on the territories of Romania,Bulgaria,Ukraine,Moldova,Former Yugoslavia,Hungary,Austria,Slovakia,and some parts of Germany.These are clearly the oldest ones. This was the best area for human life from its begining and later developping in Europe. So,if is up to find the oldest kingdom in Europe we must look along the Danube and its neighboring areas first of all. If you are not an European (as you're not...) you should consider that few tens of thousands years ago the most Northern part of Europe was covered by ice thus not beeing suitable for human life in general . So that's why first traces of human existence and civilization appeared and developped on Southern and Central Europe which had a milder clime and plenty of rivers.
However,there is plenty of traces from that old civilizations but we can suppose only they been organized as gentes or eventually tribes. Nothing about any Kingdom from that time. Some very late time we found in the Ancient Greek legends and mythology about the people of Pelasgians - which Greeks found them once they arrived in Europe - as beeing the first people. Clearly those Pelasgians had a very evolved civilization and possibly have been organized as a union of tribes or even a kingdom. Some old inscripted clay tablets have been discovered at village of Tartaria, Cluj county in today's Romania and are possibly related with the Pelasgian culture. However those clay tablets have been dated and revealed an age of approx. 5500 years old. Similar tablets with similar or identical inscriptions have been discovered in Ukraine ,Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia. That symbols have not been deciphered yet but their stylistical similiarities and the area of spreading (on the middle-lower course of Danube)make us facing the oldest possible writing in the world anticipating at least with 1000 years those tablets found on Mesopotamia.However this still under excited debate in the scientific world. But we should consider that extended area over which all these tablets have been found in Europe and we should face a superior social organization (such as a kingdom) once they will be deciphered and then this will be probably the oldest kingdom in Europe ! (5000-6000 years old).
Anyway, onto more recent times the Greek Herodotus says about The great Family of Thracians which counts more than 100 Peoples and they were the most numerous in the world after the People(s) of Indians. He talk about the Ancient World ,of course. Same Herodotus says that Thracians are known under a multitude of names according to place where they living but all speaking the same language and having the same religion. However, Thracians were spreaded from Central Europe to Central Asia and from Scandinavia to Mediterranean Sea. They been practically surrounding the Black Sea going as South as Minor Asia and even more to the South. That's why the old name for the Black Sea was Mare Thracicum meaning the Sea Of Thracians. Many names of regions,mountains.rivers etc. have been left since the time of Thracians (i.e. Dardanelles Strait comes from the old Thracian People of Dardans). However the Thracians have never been entirelly united under a single Kingdom. The only time when some of Thracian Peoples have been united under a single King was under the King Burebista and this creating big matters of concern for Iulius Caesar (who was rulling the Roman Empire by that time).One of that multitude of Thracian Peoples were the Dacians which old Greeks often called them Daoi,Dakoi or Danaoi (and many other variations ,more likely...)and their land Dakia or Dania. Anyway ,it could be a name relation given by the Greeks to this Dacian People as they were described by Herodotus as "the most brave and honest from the Peoples of Thracians" and the old Pelasgian People (as straight line ancestors)which worship Danu Godess, Surya God,Apaya and so on...
If the cult of Danu is or have been so spreaded in Europe (and not only...) this is clearly because the Pelasgian inherritance . Some of these Pelasgian People eventually migrated to the East arriving as far as India and even further. This eventually has been described in Ramayana and Mahabharatta poems but this will be another hard work not for archeologists only but for some joint team of historians,linguists etc.Eventually some linguistival traces have been left in many European languages,sanskrit and modern Hindi as well in geographical names.
Coming back to Dacians : their war standard was the "Draco" or the "Dracon" which was represented by a fantastic creature having a wolf head and a snake body and its role wasn't mystical only but practical( by generating a sound close to that made by an wolf encouraging own troops and inducing fear onto enemies).However this sort of standard was typical for all Thracians as part of their culture.
We can eventually find the "Draco" name on the very late war ships of the Vikings :the "Drakkar" or the "Drakker" which somehow it could reproducing the Thracian/Dacian war standard. Some of old chronicles described the Danish as Danes which came from Dania or Dakia. Is this just a confusion...!? Strange enough ,isn't it...?
Strange enough that some of the earlier Spanish Kings they entitled themselves Kings of Dacia/Dakia/Dania ,too...Why ?
......................................................... Professor John Hawks is just making an error of interpretation when he says the best agriculture has been practiced in Northern Europe by the Danes.
Any European knows that the best agriculture in Europe is along the Danube and its neighboring areas with the peak of land productivity on the lower course of Danube such as Ukraine,Moldova,Romania,Bulgaria. Even these days the natural properties of these soiles over enumerated countries are exceptionally good and there's no need for fertilisers to obtaian huge harvests.Let's talk about that Romania was always known as the "Wheatfield of Europe" and huge quantities of top quality Romanian earth has been exported to Germany and Israel to enhance their ground fertility. In comparison North-West Europe doesn't really have a clime and fertile soil to encourage a good agriculture.Let's don't add that there are a lot of species of plants which will never grow there so the agricultural variety of North-Western European countries is rather poor.Any harvest obtained in Northern European countries is rather done with huge consumption of chemical fertilisers ,intensive machinery work and finally after such a struggle their production it's within modest limits. So ,Professor Hawks wrongly interpreted the Danes as Danish ! In this case the Danes are the Dacians from Dacia/Dakia/Dania which was placed mainly over the territories of enumerated countries plus few more. Indeed there are some ancient Greek descriptions about the Dacian agriculture which says : "it is rather difficult to see a man riding a horse on a wheatfield". So ,this can give someone an idea about the natural fertility of land and how advanced was the agriculture of Dacians some few thousands years ago.
So, as a brief revission : good clime ,fertile land plenty of water .Compulsory conditions for agriculture ! Where was ever possible an agricultural civilization to appear ? On the hostile clime and poor land of North Europe or in the mild clime and fertile soil of Central/Eastern Europe on lower course of Danube?
Don't bother finding other answer than human beeings found it themselves thousands and thousands of years ago !
