Re: Indicia of Danubian Origins

--- In cybalist@..., george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
> --- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> > But if the new state of affairs was the result of a
> > discussion
> > between indigenous leaders, isn't it strange that
> > the outcome on Fyn
> > should the introduction of inhumation
> > (predominantly) east-west (as
> > Iranian-speakers would do), while on nearby
> > Langeland inhumation
> > graves are mostly north-south (as with certain
> > unmentionable peoples
> > in the Caucasus)?
>
> *****GK: Note that there is no "set" orientation in
> the Iranic inhumations from the territory of Ukraine,
> whether Scythian, "Sarmatian", or Alanic (from the 7th
> c. BC through the 4th c. AD). Scythian inhumations
> "tend" to be west-oriented, but there are also many
> which are north- and some that are south-oriented
> (including a few southwest- and southeast-). Later
> Iranic graves "tend" to be north-oriented (esp. in the
> 2nd and 3rd cs.) but some are west- and others
> south-oriented. Otherwise the inventories are quite
> similar for graves of the same epoch. It would seem
> that no clear conclusions can be drawn from such
> orientations. Focusing on grave shapes is slightly
> more helpful.******
>
>

Unless of course one wants to (over?)interpret the informations given
by a certain author to the point of ascribing to the non-east-west
graves a connection with a sub-ethnos (eg. from the Caucasus) living
within the majority Iranic-cultured people, eg. as the result of war
and subsequent exchange of hostages, the timing of which would then
be set by the appearance of the first non-east-west graves. But this
is a matter of conjecture and personal choice, at least until such
conjectures are needed for further interesting theorizing.
But if we ascribe the variation in orientation to chance, how can we
then account for the differences between the graves on Fyn and on
Langeland?

Torsten