A history of ancient Greek : from the beginnings to late antiquity

Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò – Marek Węcowski (eds.): Change, Continuity, and Connectivity. North-eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age. Philippika 118. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2018, 376-418.

North-Eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the Bronze Age and in the early Iron Age Edited by Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò and Marek Węcowski Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.

The worldview outlook aspect of the formation of the Yamnaya cultural-historical complex S. Ivanova, A. Nikitin, In the V-IV millennium BC the tradition of erecting burial mounds (kurgans) began to spread in various parts of Europe. A wide distribution of this tradition is associated with the tribes of the Yamnaya culture (YC) in the early Bronze Age. An analysis of the main components of the YC shows that the carriers of the YC were primarily united by the commonality of the worldview and religious-mythological ideas. Reflected in a unified funeral rite, the "new ideology" became the basis for the formation of a new cultural and historical community, characterized by the bringing together a diverse population based on the reception of an innovative worldview. There are obvious differences between the territorial groups of YC, which are manifested in ceramics and other artifacts. The data from anthropology and genetics also show the heterogeneity of the carriers of the YC, at the same time indicating certain similar features that most likely reflect the common origin of the representatives of the YC from the Meso-Eneolithic Ponto-Caspian populations with the genetic admixture of the farming populations of Anatolia and Iran, as well as hunters and gatherers of northern Caucasus.

The problem of the Pre-Greek substratum has been an important point of debate from the late nineteenth century until now . Here, I am not going to review all the theories that appeared on this subject: Mediterranean and non-Indo-European substratum, Anatolian and the so-called Pelasgian Indo-European Substratum .

Journal of Greek Linguistics, 2020

This summary presents the main findings of my DPhil. thesis, written under the supervision of Andreas Willi at the University of Oxford, on the linguistic relationships (with a particular emphasis on language contact) between Greek and the Anatolian languages between the second millennium and the first half of the first millennium BCE.

Marco Merlini, Neo-Eneolithic Literacy in Southeastern Europe: an Inquiry into the Danube, Biblioteca Brukenthal XXXIII, Ministery of Culture of Romania and Brukenthal National Museum, Editura Altip, Alba Iulia, 2009

Special Note: Out of 54 pages of the 560 page "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations" document, I have extracted data that is reaching 40 pages! I thought there might be pattern(s) that would clarify the movement of Indo-Europeans and their interaction with other linguistic groups. While the data all look like chaos, it is surprising how much of an affect the extinct Akkadian language (last spoken ~3,000 years ago!) has had in our European and Asian linguistic foundations. Hittite, a dead language since 1150 B.C., also plays a big part in the formation of our modern European and Asian languages. Akkadian is one of the oldest Semitic languages and Hittite is considered to be the oldest Indo-European language. It is clear that the patterns shown on Akkadain and Hittite will continue to dominate our search. Hoping to see patterns involving Georgian, Basque and Armenian, I broke them into separate linguistic "correspondences." As will be seen in Part I, "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations," Basque is highly influenced by Latin and corresponds with Slavic, English, et. al. Armenian is not as associated with Greek as linguists would have us believe and Georgian corresponds with Eurasian languages more than expected. However: This discussion, Part II of "Eurasian Linguistic Foundations," attempts to make sense out of the data base of linguistic patterns in Part I. Part II is a work in progress and will be updated and is expected to exceed 200 pages. Part I of this document consists of a data base showing correspondences among Indo-European, Akkadian, Basque, Georgian, Finnish-Uralic, Altaic, and Traditional Chinese, languages. We also include extinct languages, such as Etruscan, Lycian, Milyan (Mylian), Luvian, Tocharian and Hittite. The corresponding words in Part I did not emerge as I expected, and there are many anomalies that need to be addressed which will be presented in Part II of this work. The greatest anomaly involves Akkadian, an extinct and the oldest Semetic language. It is named after Akkad, a major center of the Mesopotamian civilization(s). It was spoken from the 3 rd millennium B.C. until its replacement by Old Aramic by the 8 th century B.C. The language was the lingua Franca of much of the Ancient Near East until the Bronze Age Collapse ~1180-1150 B.C., when major capitals were destroyed, such as Troy, and the Hittite capital, Hatussa. By the Hellenic period the Akkadian language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known cuneiform text in Akkadian dates from the 1 st century B.C. (See Wikipedia.org). Because of its central position, such as during the Assyrian Empire (2025-1522 B.C.), traders were no doubt coming from afar to exchange goods with the civilizations of the Near East. Some of the curious affiliations that need to be explained include the Basques (who are located in Iberia (Spain) and southwestern France). They were known as the Vascones by Rome. While the Basque language generally corresponds with Latin-based languages, that we color "red" in Part I, there are many peculiar correspondences with Akkadian. Another language, Finnish-Uralic, displays similar anomalous features relating to Akkadian. Any connection that these or other languages may have to Akkadian would have to be well before the 8 th century B.C. I recommend that an informative application of this data base Eurasian Linguistic Foundations-Discussion on anomalous patterns of cultural exchange.

The Classical Review, 2007