John Croft:
>Once again it confirms that a proto-Hurro-Urartuan language
>was the one which began the development of agriculture, spreading its
>seeds widely into Syria, Anatolia, and the Zagros as far south as
>Sumer and Elam (from which the Iranians picked up Anahita i.e.
>Akkadian Anahitu = "Lady Anah").
Yep, it seems that way... Except, even though I can accept this
theory as highly possible, at the same time, I don't want to
encourage the obsession some people have in comparing Tyrrhenian
to HurroUrartian, as if they could be possibly genetically related.
HU might have been the dominant linguistic group in Anatolia at
one time (personal guestimation: c.8000-6000 BCE) but I still have
trouble seeing how Tyrrhenian and HU ever could have a chance to be close
neighbours because of the other languages in the way
(ProtoHattic and Semitish) which I suspect to have been pushed
into Anatolia because of a post-Euxine expansion of Tyrrhenian
hunter-gatherers into the Balkans and Mediterranean coastline
by 5000 BCE.
As for the name of the Goddess figure, I think that there were
different preferences for her name at different times and possibly
different areas. The "Grandmother" name is interesting but on
the other hand, I'm starting to get the feeling that another popular
name might have been simply "Lady". This is because, at least in the
case of Mid IE, I note how *esare "lady" (*-sor) and
*xehstere "star" (*xste:r) sound temptingly similar. This might be
relevant in regards to the genesis of the whole Venus-Goddess
connection in the first place (ie: It's all based on mythological
wordplay).
Just my personal, highly speculative thoughts. Carry on.
John gives some input:
>Regarding neolithic human sacrifice, [...]
Interesting stuff. Thanx, JayCee.
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