Steve in reply to
> Mark Odegard (who) wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > From: Steve Woodson
> >
> > Does anyone have any information on Nordwestblock? Are
> > there any books, articles, sites, anyone knows of, on the
> > subject? Thanks for any help.
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I've asked this question myself in other places. There does not seem
> > to be too much available. As I understand it, the Northwest Block is
> > just term invented for a supposedly non-IE language spoken north of
> > Celtic and east of pre-Germanic. This could be the non-IE language
> > responsible for the Germanic substrate. --
> > Mark Odegard
> > markodegard@...
You wrote
>Mark,
> Thanks for the response. Considering the hypothetical location of
>Nordwestblock I'm wondering if the Harpstedt culture might trace it's
>differences, from the Jastorf culture, to it, or if it is strictly a
>linguistic difference. Thank you again.
> Steve
You might also like to check the Times Atlas of World History which
gives a map of the area stretching from the Alter and the Saal in the
east, north through the Thuringian forest to the Somme bend in the west.
It states "Prelude to German Expansion - place names between the Atler
and the Sommeshow the presence of a language neither Celtic or German -
the last traces of a prehistoric people squeezed between the expanding
Celtic and Germanic groups. Even this culture had adopted many
features of the Celtic groups." This is precisely the area that Caesar
recognised as the "Belgae". The expansion of the La Tene culture saw
this group becoming "more Celtic than the Gauls". They also had strong
cross Channel connections. Of the tribes involved the Atrebates had
the strongest connections in Britain. Caesars War tells how. You can
access this online at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Aphi%2C04
48%2C001&query=init.
The Belgae Menapi were known to have settled in Ireland as the Fir
Bolg, where, after the Gaelic *p-g shift, were known as Monaghan.
These Nordwestgrupen also seem to have been the related to the remnants
of the Middle Bronze Age cultures of France and the north German plain
which the same Times Atas suggests spoke "unknown languages".
Hope this helps
John