Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!sun4nl!mcv
From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: What are Scythians?
Message-ID: <CzJsFu.9I4@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <rsavageCyt0CM.5L7@netcom.com> <sarimaCzE1yE.2w7@netcom.com> <3aen6l$g6b@pilot.njin.net> <sarimaCzJ9tp.n4C@netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 03:59:54 GMT
Lines: 26

In article <sarimaCzJ9tp.n4C@netcom.com>,
Stanley Friesen <sarima@netcom.com> wrote:
>As far as I am concerned, the oldest good evidence for IE speakers
>in Anatolia is Troy II, which has a megalon style building.  This
>at least *suggests* that the IE speakers entered Anatolia from
>the Balkans.

It's always very hard to derive linguistic facts from pottery
or building styles.  Troy II suggests a connection with the
Balkans (Ezero culture), appr. 3000/2700 BC.  Mallory tentatively
puts the "coming of the Greeks" at Early Helladic III (2200 BC).
Our earliest records are from say 1700 BC for Hittite, a millennium 
later, but I just don't think 500+500 years are enough to account 
for the vast differences between Hittite and Greek.

I do not agree with Renfrew in deriving Anatolian directly from
the C,atal-Hu"yu"k culture, but Greek toponyms like `Parnassos'
certainly suggest a relationship between pre-Greek inhabitants
of Greece and the Anatolians.  If there is Balkan connection, I
would be more inclined to look at early/middle Neolithic cultures
like Karanovo/Vinc^a.

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
