Leaving aside the issue of the origin and nature of
Anatolian IE, perhaps one might discuss another aspect
of Piotr Gonsiorowski's interesting and original
theory of Indo-European beginnings. I have read it in
a few posts on this forum (esp. that of 10 August
2000). As PG notes, the difficulty of the
Gimbutas-Mallory view of things is that there is no
devastatingly clearcut continuity between the "kurgan"
cultures of the East and the CW cultures of the West
and NW: there are similarities as to certain cultural
items but nothing conclusive. There may be a way out
of this if one does not insist on maintaining a strict
"invasion" scenario, but let's not get into this just
yet.== The alternative explanation by PG has some very
attractive features, but unfortunately it also breaks
down, and even more severely than Gimbutas-Mallory,
because there is no convincing evidence of eastward
continuity which would explain the emergence not only
of the Indo-Aryans,Iranians, and Nuristanis, but also
that of the proto-Greeks and proto-Armenians, and
perhaps other groups as well. Let me put it as
succinctly as possible. The LB Pottery culture which
PG posits as a starting point only reached the
westernmost areas of contemporary Ukraine, and petered
out with no discovered archaeological continuations
there (if one believes Ukrainian archaeologists and
why not?). It has no direct links to
Trypilja-Cucuteni(Tripolye) and to the steppe cultures
of southern and eastern Ukraine. The Funnel Beaker
culture has also no such links, even though it did
spread a little further to the east than LB. Only the
easternmost Globular Amphorae c. exhibits some
similarities to the steppe cultures, but it arrives on
the scene a considerable time after Serednyj Stih
(Sredny Stog), so the shared cultural traits move from
east to west here and not the other way around.
Serednyj Stih for its part develops to a large degree
from the Dnipro-Donetz culture whose own antecedents
are in the mesolithic cultures of Eastern Europe (and
partly of the area close to the Baltic coast) and not
in either LB or FB. So for the time being PG's
scenario looks archaeologically very problematic.== A
key point would be to solve the "Trypiljan" problem
which no one has so far managed to do. That most of
this population was intrusive from the south and
southeast has long been thought probable because of
the affinities between its cult objects and those of
Anatolia and the Balkans. The skeletal remains of
those who did not practice cremation have recently
been "fleshed out" and show a physical type closer to
the Mediterranean than to that of the more massive
denizens of the north (as in Dnipro-Donetz). DNA study
is next. And we still don't know for sure what
happened to the Trypiljans. Study of ancient weather
patterns might help. There was a phase [ca. 4000-3500
BC] when this population clustered in what
archaeologists call "proto-cities" (relatively huge
population concentrations just west of the middle
Dnipro). And then all this dissipated (due to weather
change?) and the steppe people started to move
westward. Anyway the mystery remains nearly whole.
Despite the domestication of the horse Serednyj Stih
did not develop into a warlike culture, and co-existed
peacefully with Trypilja for centuries. In the latter
phases of Trypilja there is evidence of the growing
influence of steppe culture and economics and a
partial transformation of the culture towards
"proto-corded ware battle axe". But then it mostly
disappears or is assimilated, both from the east and
from the west. So there we are.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com