> > I need a little time to organize my thoughts on
> > that, but very good
> > question.
>
> ****GK: No problem. Take all the time you need. I will
> humbly defer to our linguists on the relevant elements
> of the topic and hope that your answer will be of
> interest to them.****
> >
To begin with, this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benrath_line
might be relevant to the 'colonization history' we've been discussing.
If it is, the question is how the previous linguistic Przeworsk
dialect continuum was shaped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Przeworsk2.PNG
BTW note in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastorf_culture
the paragraph
"The southern extend of Germanic cultures beyond Jastorf has recently
been accounted for at the final stages of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, with
the paucity of Late-Laténe bracelet-types in Thuringia and
northeastern Hessen proposed to suggest population movements between
the central-Elbe/Saale region, Main-Franconia and the edge of the Alps
and to have been triggered by the spread of the Przeworsk culture.[3]"
So the idea is recent.
Also in
http://www.urgeschichte.de/htm/eisen2.htm
"Vorherrschende Bestattungsform bleibt weiterhin die Verbrennung der
Toten und die Beisetzung des Leichenbrandes in Urnengräbern oder in
Brandgrubengräbern (die Reste des Scheiterhaufens werden mit
Leichenbrand und Beigaben in einfache Erdgruben gefüllt).
Vereinzelt treten jetzt Körpergräber auf. Besonders die Oberschicht
scheint diese Bestattungsform bevorzugt zu haben."
Cremation stays the norm, but inhumation graves appear in the upper
crust after the change Jastorf -> Elbe-Germanic. New upper crust?
Torsten