Fw: Re: [tied] Re: Mid-first century BCE Yazigian prerequisites

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "gknysh" <gknysh@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, george knysh <gknysh@> wrote:
> > And evidence to the contrary are stray finds of straying weapons
> > etc.
> >
> > GK: Just shows your hermeneutic incompetence.

The above fancy words serve to express George's exasperation that after so many years Torsten still hasn't learned to fetch.

> Stray finds are just that. If you want to know who is buried in a
> grave you have to study its shape, the body position, the ritual,
> the inventory. Stray finds of Persian goblets or Chinese swords in
> Alanic graves were never interpreted by professionals who know what
> they are doing to mean that a Persian or Chinese was buried there.

Yes, and if George calls something a stray find, it becomes by that very speech act a stray find. Why can't Torsten learn that? Some strange kind of brain damage?

> ****GK: The above is just one meaning of "stray find". There is of
> course another meaning: objects found independently of a formal
> burial (just "lying around" or as part of a hoard or something
> similar). Some such objects may be evidence of something concrete
> depending on the context of the find. For instance a Yazigian arrow
> imbeded in the defense walls of a Zarubinian fortress is properly
> interpreted as proof of a military assault (esp. because there are
> many such in such positions. A single arrowhead might have proved
> very little. Dozens in many places with accompanying evidence
> (burnings) is another matter.) One has to analyze such stray finds
> carefully.

Yes, let's do that. What does a Sarmatian dragon standard and a Sarmatian ring-pommeled sword mean in a Danish bog together with supposedly Celtic equine headgear?

> A sword lying on the ground could mean many things.

A sword lying a a Danish bog means just one thing if you are a professional who knows what he's doing. Weapon sacrifice.

> The more vague possibilities the less secure the conclusion.*****

And that's why since you don't want this secure conclusion you delivered in the last paragraph a number of vague possibilities.


Torsten