[tied] Re: New file uploaded to cybalist

Hallstatt D archeological complex and the Celtic homeland question.

The chaotic situation about the IE homeland search is well known, but
even the various sub IE homelands like the Celtic are under scrutiny.
Some quotes from "The Celts," John Davies, 2000, Cassell and
Company, London, United Kingdom. The jacket says Dr. John Davies is
an Honorary Professor at the University of Wales and a specialist in
Celtic history.

"Thus the core area of the Hallstat D sites has been seen as the area
in which a Celtic koine or lingua franca developed. Such ideas are
highly speculative. They owe much to early twentieth century thinking,
which assumed that an archeological complex is equivalent of a culture
and that a culture is a product of a specific people-indeed, in the
opinion of some writers, a specific race. The concept of a people
carried with it the presumption that they had a specific language and
thus the territory of the Hallstatt archeological complex became the
territory of the speakers of Celtic; in turn the territory of the
speakers of Celtic became the territory of the Hallstat archeological
complex. There was more than a tacit assumption that all "Celtic'
artifacts were produced by Celtic-speakers, and that all Celtic
speakers produced "Celtic" artifacts. It therefore followed that the
Celtic language must have evolved in the Hallstatt zone-the "Celtic
Heartland." Later evidence of its presence in regions beyond the
boundaries of that zone was interpreted as the result of the invasion
of those regions by people from the "heartland."

Such theories are now viewed with suspicion. There is a realization
that they involve a considerable degree of circular argument.;
archeologist have taken on trust notions from linguists, as have
linguists from archeologist, causing each to build on the other's
myths (p. 26)."

"Invasionism lost favor from the 1950's onwards-the era, significantly
perhaps of rapid desalinization. Instead, emphasis was placed upon the
capacity of indigenous societies to innovate and develop (p. 26, 28).

posted by M. Kelkar