Re: The complexities of Bastarnia

From: Torsten
Message: 67565
Date: 2011-05-19

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
>
> Here's a preliminary view (I have yet to consult Pachkova's latest
> /2006/ opus on the Zarubinian culture, but have incorporated
> conclusions mentioned in passing in other articles). I will
> concentrate on the northern Bastarnae (i.e. Zarubinia) for the
> moment, since they are now considered to have been the major players
> in the Balkan campaigns of 179-168 BCE.

> The linguistic evidence, such as it is, is twofold: (a) documentary,
> and (b) topo/hydronymic. The archaeological evidence is somewhat
> helpful when coordinated with (a) and (b). All is very tentative of
> course, but the hypothesis has a strong level of plausibility.
>
> 1. Re (a) Strabo's account (7,3,17) is almost certainly drawn from a
> source which discussed the Bastarnae of Mithradates' time frame
> (i.e. first half of the 1rst c. BCE), since he admits he has no
> recent knowledge of them.

I can't find that?

> The Peucini might, however, be an exception to this (after all they
> were a border people for areas of Roman interests), and so his
> tentative mention of the B. as within the "Germanic" fold might
> refer to that particular group. This would then be in line with (a)-
> type documentation from the 1rst c. CE (Pliny and Tacitus). But
> Strabo's information about the Bastarnae of the "interior" would be,
> possibly, less certain for his time.

Strabo 7, 3, 17
'In the interior dwell, first, those Bastarnians whose country borders on that of the Tyregetans and Germans — they also being, one might say, of Germanic stock; and they are divided up into several tribes, for a part of them are called Atmoni and Sidoni, while those who took possession of Peuce, the island in the Ister, are called "Peucini," whereas the "Roxolani" (the most northerly of them all) roam the plains between the Tanaïs and the Borysthenes.'

I find your interpretation of Strabo strained. Peucini Germanic, Atmoni and Sidoni not? I'm not convinced.


> 2. Earlier Greek authors (e.g. Polybius, and Livy's source for the
> 168 BCE events) counted the B. among the "Galatae", which may or may
> not mean Celts.

Locus, please? I can't find it.


> We know that the prince of these northern Bastarnae,
> throughout the Balkan campaigns) was one Clondicus. And this sounds
> Germanic

My interpretation of the word actually made it Aestian/Venetic but with a long presence in Germanic and Slavic.


> (for the Greeks the term "Galatae" would also cover this
> group at the time).

Source, please?


> Livy's source states that these Bastarnae could
> communicate with the Scordisci.

Livy 40, 57
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy40.html

The only way I can make sense of that information is by assuming that the common language was Venetic or Thracian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scordisci#Origins

'The ethnic affiliation of the Scordisci has been debated by historians. Some refer to them as Celtic, Thracian or Illyrian or a Celtic mix of the above. The Scordisci were found during different timelines in Illyria,Thrace and Dacia sometimes splitting into more than one group like the Scordisci Major and the Scordisci Minor.

Andras Mocsy clarifies their ethnic character, suggesting that they were not a Celtic tribe per se, but a "Celtic political creation". They were formed after 278 BC, as some of the survivors of the Celtic invasions of Greece settled the abovementioned region imposing themselves as a thin, yet powerful, ruling class. Rather quickly, they were subsumed by the numerically superior natives, although the Celtic tribal name was retained, albeit the Illyricized version Scordistae was often used after the 2nd century BC. According to onomastic evidence, Scordiscan settlements to the east of the Morava river were Thracianized.

Extensive La Tene type finds, of local production, are noted in Pannonia as well as northern Moesia Superior, attesting to the concentration of Celtic settlements and cultural contacts. However, such finds south of the Sava river are scarce.'

That would in turn imply that the Bastarnae was not fully Germanic in speech in the 2nd century BCE, at least not the rank and file of their army (who were the ones who had to do the provisioning from the local Scordisci). Note the Dacian/Thracian/Venetic(?) -sk-/-st- alternation in the name of the Scordisci/Scordistae (Strabo 7, 3, 2).


> At first (and perhaps second)
> glance, this might suggest that there were important Celts among the
> leadership. But there is one complication: the Scordisci were a
> "mixed" group, Celto-Illyrian and/or Celto- Thracian. The language
> of Bastarnian-Scordiscan communication could hardly have been
> Germanic (proto- pre- or whatever) in 179 BCE. It could have been
> Celtic, but it could also have been Illyrian, or (perhaps less
> likely) "Thracian". The case here rests on (b)-type documentation.
> The topo/hydronyms of northern Bastarnia are (today) solidly Slavic.
> But for the period prior to 500 CE, investigators have also
> discovered Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, "Illyrian", and also "Thracian"
> remnants. By "Illyrian" BTW Ukrainian linguists mean not only those
> of the Balkans but also the population from the area of the old
> Lusatian culture in Poland (sometimes also called "Veneti") which
> they believe to be linguistically related. So the Livy evidence is
> ambiguous, and remains so even after coordinations with
> archaeological evidence.

> 3. The archaeological evidence shows that the northern Bastarnae
> were divided into three distinct groups. There were important
> "sharing" characteristics (esp. in a part of their ceramics, and in
> their fibulae inventory and burial setups), but there were equally
> significant distinctions, which archaeologists believe to have been
> the result of distinct substrate elements (more or less powerful) in
> the three areas. The "incoming migrants" were themselves of two
> archaeological categories: Late Pomeranian (=Venetic or "Illyrian",
> but also Celtic.NB: there is some but very little "pure La Tene"
> east of the Carpathians, so the explanation of the Celtic
> topo/hydronyms is today that incoming Celts were among the Late
> Pomeranian elements) and Yastorfers (=Germanics). These migrants
> were not equally distributed in all three areas either as a whole re
> the "locals", or with respect to each other. Also: there was no
> territorial continuity between the three groups, i.e. large areas of
> archaeological "nothingness" extended between the territories of
> group 1, group 2, and group 3. The economic relationships of the
> three groups also differed significantly. And the historical fate of
> the groups after 50 BCE and esp. after 50 CE were different. Group 1
> was located south of the Prypjat' (Pripet) river, straddling today's
> border between Ukraine and Belarus in the area of the Horyn and
> Styr. Group 2 extended along the Middle Dnipro, from north of Kyiv
> to south of the Ros' river and even further almost to the steppes.
> Group 3 was located on the upper Dnipro between the Sozh and the
> Berezina, in eastern Belarus.
>
> 4. Before the arrival of the western "migrants" the territory of
> group 1 was inhabited by representatives of the Lusatians (with a
> first wave of Late Pomeranians settling in the 4th c.) in the west,
> and Milohradians (a Baltic unit) in the east. The territory of group
> 2 was shared by Pidhirtsovians (the Ukrainian label for
> Milohradians) in the northern section above Kyiv, and "Scythians" in
> the south. These "Scythians" were likely a Thrakoid group whose
> aristocracy had been largely incorporated into the Aukhata
> ("agricultural Scythians") in classical Scythian times. The
> territory of group 3 was completely "Baltic" but under some
> "Scythian" influence from the south. These were the "local"
> substrate populations of northern Bastarnia.
>
> 5. The migrants (Late Pomeranians and Yastorfers) settled more
> densely on the territory of group 1, somewhat less so on that of
> group 2 (archaeologists estimate that there were three times as many
> "migrants" among the population of group 1, relative to the whole
> population of the group, as among that of group 2. Very few
> "migrants" settled in the group 3 area, and the Zarubinian culture
> spread there apparently by voluntary "local" acculturation and by
> some movement northward from group 2 "acculturated" ex-"Scythian"
> elements. The "migrants" constituted approximately 25% of the total
> population of group 1 (as reflected in the examined archaeological
> sites) , and perhaps 10% of that of group 2.

So the top might have 10 - 25% might have spoken Germanic, the rest Venetic and Slavic?

> Their social power was clearly much greater than their numbers,
> since it is their culture which created the key distinguishing
> characteristics of "Zarubinia" esp. in "prestige" ceramics, funerary
> patterns and "aristocratic" apparel (esp. fibulae). It's difficult,
> of course, to estimate language use in such societies, but it seems
> plausible to postulate long epochs of stable multi-lingualism.

Cf. the Austrian and Ottoman empires.

> Besides Celtic, Germanic, "Illyrian", "Thracian", and Baltic (or
> BaltoSlavic?), Iranic and Greek might also have been languages of
> use among some sections of the population. Iranic in group 2 which
> had strong economic ties with Scythia to the south esp. the Lower
> Dnipro cities (there was a colony of Zarubinians there and a colony
> of Scythians later settled in a northern fortress near Kyiv). North
> Zarubinia also continued to be an area of attraction for migrants
> from the west: newer Yastorf (or already Elbe Germanic), Przeworsk,
> and even Oksywie elements have been found among group 1 and 2
> locations for the first c. BCE.

So there was an immigration-driven increase in Germanic-speakers in Bastarnia in the 1st cent. BCE.

> And in the 2nd c. there will be substantial Przeworsk in- migration
> into group 2 locales. Again it's hard to estimate. but it seems that
> a case can be made for there being a little more Celto-Illyrians
> than Germanics in the north (numbers wise) and the reverse in the
> south (in the Poeneshti-Lukashovka area). In the phase 200-50 BCE
> this made no discernible difference.
> (to be continued)

Note Martynov's hypothesis here
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/1220
and note that the Latin correspondences contains many words with -a- and -ae- in the root. Ernout-Meillet calls those words 'mots populaires', Douglas and I ascribe them to a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine
(thus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabellic )
layer in Latin.

Similarly, Hans Kuhn proposed that there is an early Italic influence in Germanic, later a Celtic one, meaning the Germani met those Italics (Veneti) earlier than they met Celts.


Torsten