From: gknysh
Message: 67457
Date: 2011-05-02
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Torsten" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
/message/66953
> Personally I think Galindi is a Germanic name
> http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/66904
> which meant the same as the Iranian name 'Bastarnae' "the bound ones" ie. "the (sons of) slaves". That would identify the Galindi as Bastarnae.
****GK: At any rate the Galindi were in the Baltic sphere culturally.
I wonder if the Iranic solution (if acceptable) might in fact be a later Sarmatian "popular etymology" for the hated Bastarnae. The real Bastarnae were obviously not connected with the people of Herodotus' story, i.e. the original "Scythian slaves" [as a matter of fact even the Herodotus story is a bit ambiguous, since it mentions at some point (I paraphrase) that the Paralatae considered all other "Scythians" as their slaves (this would include the descendants of the first two brothers?), though elsewhere the impression is that it is the non-Iranic population which is in that category, and maybe its aristocracy was also exempted]. The historical Bastarnae of Roman times were clearly distinguished from "Scythian slaves" (and the "Scythae degeneres et a servis orti" of Pliny were evidently a different group from his Bastarnae or Peucini). So all in all I still tend to favour some sort of Germanic explanation a la *bastjans for the original term. And surmise that it would have been a kind of alliance of Germanic and Celtic groups (with the former increasingly predominating linguistically) in a Getic environment. Or it might have referred to a symbiosis of Germanics (Yastorf) and Illyrians(Venets) with Celtic associates. I don't think one will stop talking about various possibilities here any time soon.
BTW what is the usual Iranic (Old or New) term for "slave"? "bast" seems a secondary one (?)*****