Re: [tied] Nakh Daghestan and the origins of agriculture

From: Joao
Message: 29934
Date: 2004-01-23

This theory sounds good. Hephaistos x *Xapshwe? So, Hephaistos would go back to an older *Ha:pHas-istos < *Xa:pHas-
 
* Xaphshwe is Xaps^we or XapsHwe ?
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander Stolbov
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 6:27 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Nakh Daghestan and the origins of agriculture


We consider Hattic as a NWC language, don't we?
Hatti (or the group they belong to) are unique due to inventing the iron
metallurgy which remained a secret for foreigners until the downfall of the
Hittite empire. Ethnographical evidences show that iron making belongs to
the sacral sphere and takes a very special place in Abkhazian and Adyghian
rites. According to S.Starostin, the names of the smith-gods in Abkhazian
(Shashwa) and in Adyghian (Lepsh) go back to the Proto-Ab-Ad form *Xapshwe,
which can be cognate to the Hattic name Hashmil (with the name suffix -il-)
and, BTW, to Greek Hephaistos.
Thus, in all probability, Proto-Ab-Ad left Asia Minor for the NW Caucasus
only in the Iron Age, in 2,500 years after the Maikop c. appeared there.