From: jpisc98357@...
Message: 8335
Date: 2001-08-05
All I know is that there are archaeological traces of people living
here long before there was anything that could be called Germanic
languages. Some of them have left beautiful rock carvings (1000 BC) on the
Swedish west coast. They must have belonged to some other, possibly
extinct, language family, but who they were and what they spoke is unknown.
Dear Hakan,
I suspect these pre-Germanic peoples were those intrepid flint knappers
of the Danish and Swedish Neolithic who produced fine axes and daggers well
into the period when the rest of Europe was well into the Bronze Age. My
suspicion is that some pockets of this more ancient culture survived and
thrived on islands like Gotland that were large enough to support an
independent economy, probably based on fishing.
I would assume that they would have slowly adopted the metals
technology of their new neighbors.
An interesting question to pose might be whether the oldest German
tribes were already Bronze Age when they colonized Scandanavia? Did they
simply infiltrate the existing Late Neolithic areas peacefully or did they
conquer the area and displace the local residents? Did a small band of
warriors intrude into the area and simply become overlords of the
indiginous population? I am copying friends with extensive knowledge of the
Neolithic weapons and hope they will find these questions interesting and
be able to shed some light on the questions.
I am a historian looking at these questions from a differing perspective
than our linguist friends. Perhaps they can find some language clues that
will shed some light on the subject.
Best regards, John Piscopo
http://www.johnpiscoposwords.com
PO Box 137
Western Springs, IL 60558-0137
(708)246-7111