Re: [tied] Danubian homeland?

----- Original Message -----

From: Max Dashu

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2001 7:05 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Danubian homeland?

> Why longhouses, linguistically?

 

Let's put it differently -- timber as practically the only building material, and woodworking as one of the most important crafts. In northern Europe there is an unbroken tradition of longhouse building from the Linear Pottery culture to the Germani.

> Doesn't PIE originally show a strong emphasis on livestock raising?

 

Actually, PIE vocabulary shows strong dependence on _both_ agriculture and livestock raising. It also testifies to the existence of a village system. It was only in the secondarily pastoral communities of the steppe zone (the Indo-Iranians) that pastoralism became of paramount importance and much of the common agricultural vocabulary was lost.

> Sorry, I'm are not sure what you mean: are you saying they stayed in the Middle Danube while the others set off for the long march?

 

Not actually a march, in this case, but "demic spread" a la Renfrew, which was relatively fast (maybe up to 5 km/year in Central Europe) since the area was only sparsely populated by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups, the loess belt provided room for any number of farmers and the valleys of the big rivers of the region offered good entry points. We have also discussed here the importance of what Mark Odegard called the Vistula-San-Dniester "conveyor belt" in SE Poland and W Ukraine.

Max

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.