Würm Ice Age (110 000 – 10 000 BCE)
Würm Ice Age : Chronology
Würm Ice Age : Climate Record
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Holocene : Climate Record
The Three Diffusion Models of the IE Languages
Ursprache (proto-language)
Urvolk (first people)
Urheimat (homeland)
Hypothesis I : Invasionist
Hypothesis II : Farming
Hypothesis III : Continuity
Archaeologic Cultures in
Western Europe during the
Holocene
Model I : Invasionist (Kossinna)
• Theoretician : Gustav
Kossinna - 1911
• Homeland : Northern Germany
• Date : 4000 BCE
• Expansion Mode : Military
Conquest → Horse + Bronze
Weapons + Wheel
– Indigeneous Population
(AltEuropäische) = peasants +
matriarcal (Mother Goddess)
– Proto-Indo-Europeans :
Nomadic Warriors + patriarcal
Model I : Invasionist (Kossinna) - map
Model I : Invasionist (Gimbutas)
•
•
•
•
Theoretician : Marija Gimbutas
Homeland : Ukraine 1960
Date : 3000 BCE
Expansion Mode : Military
Conquest → Horse + Bronze
Weapons
– Indigeneous Population
(AltEuropäische) = peasants +
matriarcal (Mother Goddess)
– Proto-Indo-Europeans :
Nomadic Warriors + patriarcal
Model I : Invasionist (Gimbutas) - map
Objections
Which proofs does the Invasionist Model requires ?
• An archaeologic culture stretching from the homeland to
western Europe and India. No.
• Items attesting the use of horses in combat. No.
• Archeologic attestation of significant battles. No.
• A good reason to move from the homeland : why should
they bother to go anywhere else ? No. « The need for
conquest ».
• A highly hierarchized society allowing the constitution of
a warrior caste. No.
What do we actually have ?
• A common lexical stock BUT
– Very few words are common to ALL the IE languages (around
10)
– Some words may have been borrowed from neighbouring
languages (ex; the numbers) : inheritance vs. borrowing.
• Common grammatical features (verb and noun flexion,
affixation) : very little chance of borrowing
Model II: Neolithic Dispersal Theory (Colin Renfrew)
•
•
•
•
•
An archaeologic culture stretching
from the homeland to western
Europe and India : the spread of
farming from the Fertile Crescent
to North-Western Europe (-7000/3000 BCE)
Items attesting the use of horses
in combat. No combat
Archeologic attestation of
significant battles. No battles
A good reason to move from the
homeland : the demographic rise
occasioned by agriculture.
A highly hierarchized society
allowing the constitution of a
warrior caste. No hierarchized
society needed.
Model II: Neolithic Dispersal Theory : principles
-
-
Hunter-Gatherers : 10km² = 1
people. One side = 3,3km. 30
people = 30 x 10 = 300km². One
side = 17km
Farming : 1km² = 10 people.
300km² = 3000 people
Objections :
-
-
-
Many PIE roots are connected
with farming. Renfrew’s urvolk did
not know farming originally
No IE toponymy in the Near-East.
No correlation between the
alleged migrations and the
languages phylogeny
*aretrom (plough): aratrum, arazr,
ardhr (VI), arklas (Lit), ralo (Pl)
*gwrawon (millstone): yugam (Sk),
breo (Br.), kvern (Is), zrunuvi (OS)
*yugom (yoke): yugam (Sk), igo
(OS), juk (Got), ieo (Br), yukan
(Hit).
Model III: Palaeolithic Continuity Theory
• Theoretician : Mario Alinei
1990
• Homeland : Refugees in Ice
Age Europe (Spain, Balkans,
Ukraine)
• Date : 20 000 BCE
• Expansion Mode : No
expansion
• Objection :
- Where do the substrata
languages (Iberian, Basque,
Etruscan, Minoan, etc.) come
from ?
Summary
• I- Invasionist : 3000 BCE in Ukraine, military conquest of Europe
and Asia (Kossinna – Gimbutas)
• II- Neolithic Dispersal Theory: 6000 BCE in the Near East, pacific
spread of farmers (Renfrew)
• III- Palaeolithic Continuity Theory : 20 000 BCE in Europe, without
migration.