> >What alternative reasoning would you put forward for the
> >probable linguistic affiliation of the Kaski?
>
> I have already suggested that the Kaskian could be
> "Semitish" descendants that journeyed from the Balkans
> circa 5000 BCE. But don't worry. I realise that this theory
> is no more superior to that which you mentioned.
>
> It seems that I think that people moved counter-clockwise
> around the Black Sea (that is, from the Euxine event onward)
> and you seem to think that people moved clockwise. Would
> there be any archaeological finds in Turkey showing
> movement either way?
>
>
> - gLeN
>
Emmeline Plunket:
Calendars and Constellations of the Ancient World:
"
The resenblance, however, between Medo-Persian and Ninevite art is in
many instances so striking that some way of accounting for it must be
sought, and those who are dissatisfied with one explanation will
naturally look about to find some alternative suggestion.
The alternative suggestion I would now propose is that _the
progenitors of the Assyrians at an early period of the world's
history borrowed Tauric and other religious symbolisms from the
ancestors of the Medes_.
In support of tis theory the following considerations are put forward:
Tauric symbolism, if it is at all astronomic, points us back to a
very remote date for its first institution, to a date considerably
earlier that at which the existence of the Assyrian people as an
independent nation is generally put. The symbolism already discussed
must, at the latest, have been originated about 2,000 B.C. Of the
Assyrians as a nation we have no onumental proof earlier than 1,700
B.C.
But further, in the symbol of Ahura and Assur, I believe an
astronomic reference may be traced to the position of the colures
amongst the constellations, a reference which points us back not
merely to a date between 4,000 and 2,000 B.C. but rather, and with
curious precision, to the furthest limit of the time period
mentioned, namely to 4,000 BC.
"
The astronomical argument is rather long, I'll save that for another
posting. It hasn't escaped my attention that the bull word, Taurus,
etc, is shared between IE and AfroAsiatic only. Was it borrowed at
the same time as the star-word, as the name of the zodiacal bull?
Ms Plunket suggests that (the progenitors of) the Assyrians live for
a long time as southern neighbours of (the progenitors of) the Medes,
until they finally conquered their land and started worshipping some
of their gods (Assur, before s->h in Iranian). How does this (if
true) fit in with your Semitish?
Torsten