--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@...> wrote:
> >(T) Any relation of the Jastorf culture?
>
> *****GK: Basically, Przeworsk= Pomorska (Late
> Lusatian)+Jastorf+ La Tene. Jastorf, of course, is
> taken to represent the Germanic element. I'm sure the
> maps in the works on the way will indicate the
> relative strength of the various components in their
> areas of settlement. We have some historical
> information about the collaboration between Celts and
> Germanics in the east decades prior to the
> full-fledged constitution of Przeworsk. In the
> so-called "Decree in honour of Protogenes" issued by
> the authorities of Olbia on the Black Sea about 230
> BC, there is a mention that the city had twice been
> attacked in the previous years by warbands composed of
> "Sciri" and "Galatae". I suppose the former would have
> been Jastorf and the latter La Tene. ******
>
I have a basic question here. I can see that archaeologists have no
trouble assuming that a particular culture was mixed, made up of
distinct components known from other cultures. On the other hand, in
linguistics, as opposed to common use, languages are never mixed,
they are grafted, so to say, that is, an existing language is
modified and a large part of the vocabulary is replaced by that of
another language. In other words, how should one translate an
archaelogical statement of the presence of a mixed culture into a
linguistic statemenet about an overlaid language (the most famous
example is of course the English language, except its genesis in
historical times).
Obviously the authorities in Olbia had no trouble telling the
components apart. All those Pontic inscriptions are in Greek, I
assume?
The northern limit of Celtic settlements did not move in the time
Peschel covers (later than the decree), but an impoverished branch of
Jastorf grew towards and met that area from Thuringia. Basically that
Celtic limit seems to correspond to the present cultural border that
the Germans refer to as "der Weisswurst-Äquator".
Torsten