Re: [tied] Re: First iron swords on mass scale

Piotr Gasiorowski wrote:

> My own pet idea is that since the 6th century BC or so the
> Veneti controlled the Amber Route from the northern end of
> the Adriatic via the upper Elbe to the Oder and the Baltic
> coast, hence the "Tyrrhenoid" features of some N European
> cultures. They may have survived on the Baltic long enough
> for Germanic peoples to misapply their name to the Slavs.

Do you think the Venedians mentioned by Pliny the Elder, Tacitus and Ptolemy
were Slavs. As far as I know, there is no data supporting this theory. The
hypothesis about their possible relations with Veneti from northern Italy
seems attractive. However, if they controlled the Amber Route, I would
expect the connections Veneti-Venedi being noticed by Roman and Greek
historians describing the people settled on the Baltic Sea. And what is your
opinion about the origin of another "Veneti" group (in northwestern Europe)
mentioned by Julius Caesar?

> As for the Bastarnae, their migration from Mecklenburg and
> Thuringia across Poland left an archaeological signature in
> the form of characteristic Jastorf culture finds. The
> Poieneshti-Lukashevka culture in Moldova belongs to the same
> tradition and can be attributed to the Bastarnae who settled
> along the outer edge of the E Carpathians.

Could you compare the burial customs in both cultures (i.e. Jastorf and
Poieneshti-Lukashevka)? Or maybe you know a good reference?

Michal