[TIED] Re: AfroAsiatic

From: Dennis Poulter
Message: 2614
Date: 2000-06-05

Attachments :
Briefly John, as this is not the place to discuss the origins of Egyptian civilisation, let's drop that one.
I've attached some maps from the University of Southampton (UK) on the palaeo-vegetation (together with the key) of Africa at -18K, -8K and -5K. They are for public use. The site, though, is very interesting : http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tjms/adams1.html
To me the most salient feature is the northward advance after -18K of the tropical grasslands. It seems only natural to me that the people who had been inhabiting this environment moved northwards with it, propelled by the northward advance of the rainforests. The most natural line of advance is along the higher ground of the Enned Plateau-Tibesti Mountains-Tassili n Ajjer which runs from the south-east to south of present-day Tunisia.
The north-west, with its Mediterranean scrub vegetation, does not seem likely as a source of a major population movement.
Thus I see the Capsian industry as a fusion of the meeting of the southern grassland hunters with the northern lithic traditions, probably in the region of southern Tunisia, and thence being transmitted back southwards.
The map at -5K also shows what I had suspected, that the desertification started in the interior of the Sahara at two points, east and west of the central highlands. This would have forced the people in the western Sahara to the mountains of the north-west - the future Berbers, and to the wetter south - the future Chadics, and in the eastern Sahara to the east into the Nile valley - the future Egyptians, and to the highlands of the south - the future Cushites and Omotics.
I still maintain that the Semites took no part in this. Their ancestors migrated rather to the Red Sea region, which was also savannah, and from there crossed to Arabia. That no boats have been discovered is not very surprising. Have any boats been discovered from the presumed crossing of Ibero-Maurusian to Spain? It appears from latest findings that HS has been present along the Red Sea coast from very early times. And we're not talking mass migration and big boats here.
I can only repeat that Capsian is a lithic industry, not a people. I have never heard tell of any Semitic substratum in the Nile valley at the dates you give. And if, as you say elsewhere, that Semitic and Egyptian were not yet distinct, how can you use this as an argument for Semitic migration across the Nile?
How can you say categorically that there were no movements out of Africa between 18,000 and 5,800? If a people brings no new cultural or technical assets to an already inhabited area, how do you distinguish them from the natives? Maybe Semitic hunters were already roaming the grasslands of the interior when the Natufians developed from the Kebarans. Perhaps there was a slow integration and intermixing. Who knows? I only know that cultural/technical changes do not always correspond with population movements and language changes.
Piotr's post (for which I thank you, and apologies for my imprecise terminology) seems to show also that the most archaic phonological features are found in Ethiopia and the Nile valley. As Piotr says, we only have sketchy information on many of these languages, so it's unwise to make any generalised statements about them.
So, I'm sticking with the Ethiopian/East African source of AfroAsiatic, and Semitic crossing into Arabia at an early date, perhaps as early as 12,000BCE, and from there spreading back to Africa, via the Horn and via Sinai with the onset of drier conditions from 6000BCE, as well as spreading northwards to provide the basis of Glen's Semitish. As to whether farming was invented by a Semite or not, we'll never know. But they were very much involved in its early development and dissemination.
On the genetic front, check out this article : http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/daughters000420.html
in which it is claimed that almost all Europeans are descended from 7 mothers, who in turn are descended from one pf the three African "Eves". "Jasmine" is particularly interesting.
As for the city at Tell Harmoukar, all I know is what I've read here :
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/syria000522.html
 
Cheers
Dennis