Archaeology and Language

Archaeology and Language PDF Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521386753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
In this book Colin Renfrew directs remarkable new light on the links between archaeology and language, looking specifically at the puzzling similarities that are apparent across the Indo-European family of ancient languages, from Anatolia and Ancient Persia, across Europe and the Indian subcontinent, to regions as remote as Sinkiang in China. Professor Renfrew initiates an original synthesis between modern historical linguistics and the new archaeology of cultural process, boldly proclaiming that it is time to reconsider questions of language origins and what they imply about ethnic affiliation--issues seriously discredited by the racial theorists of the 1920s and 1930s and, as a result, largely neglected since. Challenging many familiar beliefs, he comes to a new and persuasive conclusion: that primitive forms of the Indo-European language were spoken across Europe some thousands of years earlier than has previously been assumed.

Archaeology and Language

Archaeology and Language PDF Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521386753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book

Book Description
In this book Colin Renfrew directs remarkable new light on the links between archaeology and language, looking specifically at the puzzling similarities that are apparent across the Indo-European family of ancient languages, from Anatolia and Ancient Persia, across Europe and the Indian subcontinent, to regions as remote as Sinkiang in China. Professor Renfrew initiates an original synthesis between modern historical linguistics and the new archaeology of cultural process, boldly proclaiming that it is time to reconsider questions of language origins and what they imply about ethnic affiliation--issues seriously discredited by the racial theorists of the 1920s and 1930s and, as a result, largely neglected since. Challenging many familiar beliefs, he comes to a new and persuasive conclusion: that primitive forms of the Indo-European language were spoken across Europe some thousands of years earlier than has previously been assumed.

Archaeology and Language: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses

Archaeology and Language: Correlating archaeological and linguistic hypotheses PDF Author: Roger Blench
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415117616
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
Using language to date the origin and spread of food production, Archaeology and Language II represents groundbreaking work in synthesizing two disciplines that are now seen as interlinked: linguistics and archaeology. This volume is the second part of a three-part survey of innovative results emerging from their combination. Archaeology and historical linguistics have largely pursued separate tracks until recently, although their goals can be very similar. While there is a new awareness that these disciplines can be used to complement one another, both rigorous methodological awareness and detailed case-studies are still lacking in the literature. This three-part survey is the first study to address this. Archaeology and Language II examines in some detail how archaeological data can be interpreted through linguistic hypotheses. This collection demonstrates the possibility that, where archaeological sequences are reasonably well-known, they might be tied into evidence of language diversification and thus produce absolute chronologies. Where there is evidence for migrations and expansions these can be explored through both disciplines to produce a richer interpretation of prehistory. An important part of this is the origin and spread of food production which can be modelled through the spread of both plants and words for them. Archaeology and Language II will be of interest to researchers in linguistics, archaeologists and anthropologists.

Linguistic Archaeology

Linguistic Archaeology PDF Author: Edo Nyland
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1460280814
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Edo Nyland shares with us his research on the evolution of European and other languages and his conclusions offer fresh perspectives to challenge traditional views entertained by the linguistic establishment. Nyland's research was inspired by a CBC presentation by historian Edward Furlong who suggested that Odysseus may not at all have been travelling in the Mediterranean but rather in Scotland and Ireland where the climate and topography fit far better the descriptions in the Odyssey. Nyland set off on an odyssey of his own, visiting the proposed locations and while he found much to support Furlong's thesis he felt more evidence was needed to confirm it. He began by examining place names mentioned in the Odyssey and he began to wonder if they might be telling a story. But from what language were they derived? Greek, Latin and Gaelic dictionaries were no help. He discovered a clue in the work of geneticist Luigi Cavalli-Sforza who had suggested that there might have been early migrations of the peoples living along the Atlantic coast, from Morocco to Scotland and Ireland, even Arctic Norway. Of these only the Basques still spoke their original Neolithic language, and in choosing a Basque dictionary to translate coastal place names Nyland found that they did indeed yield remarkably fitting descriptions. In visiting Bronze Age ruins Nyland came on the Ogam inscriptions carved into standing stones of Ireland. These had not been deciphered but Nyland began to suspect they might encode elements of the Basque language. Cracking the code became his mission and in this volume he describes how he did it. After applying his method successfully to such languages as Spanish or German, Sanskrit or Sumerian, Nyland concludes that Basque isthe core language from which so many more were derived.

Archaeology, Language, and the African Past

Archaeology, Language, and the African Past PDF Author: R. Blench
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759104662
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Scholarly work that attempts to match linguistic and archaeological evidence in precolonial Africa

Tracing the Indo-Europeans

Tracing the Indo-Europeans PDF Author: Birgit Anette Olsen
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1789252717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Recent developments in aDNA has reshaped our understanding of later European prehistory, and at the same time also opened up for more fruitful collaborations between archaeologists and historical linguists. Two revolutionary genetic studies, published independently in Nature, 2015, showed that prehistoric Europe underwent two successive waves of migration, one from Anatolia consistent with the introduction of agriculture, and a later influx from the Pontic-Caspian steppes which without any reasonable doubt pinpoints the archaeological Yamnaya complex as the cradle of (Core-)Indo-European languages. Now, for the first time, when the preliminaries are clear, it is possible for the fields of genetics, archaeology and historical linguistics to cooperate in a constructive fashion to refine our knowledge of the Indo-European homeland, migrations, society and language. For the historical-comparative linguists, this opens up a wealth of exciting perspectives and new working fields in the intersections between linguistics and neighbouring disciplines, for the archaeologists and geneticists, on the other hand, the linguistic contributions help to endow the material findings with a voice from the past. The present selection of papers illustrate the importance of an open interdisciplinary discussion which will gradually help us in our quest of Tracing the Indo-Europeans.

Archaeology and Language IV

Archaeology and Language IV PDF Author: Roger Blench
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780415518710
Category : Historical linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Archaeology and Language IV examines a variety of pressing issues regarding linguistic and cultural change. It provides a challenging variety of case-studies which demonstrate how global patterns of language distribution and change can be interwoven to produce a rich historical narrative, and fuel a radical rethinking of the conventional discourse of linguistics within archaeology.

The Indo-Europeans

The Indo-Europeans PDF Author: Jean-Paul Demoule
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019750647X
Category : Archaeology and history
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
The existence of an Indo-European linguistic family, allowing for the fact that several languages widely dispersed across Eurasia share numerous traits, has been demonstrated for several centuries now. But the underlying factors for this shared heritage have been fiercely debated by linguists, historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. The leading theory, of which countless variations exist, argues that this similarity is best explained by the existence, at one given point in time and space, of a common language and corresponding population. This ancient, prehistoric, population would then have diffused across Eurasia, eventually leading to the variation observed in historical and modern times. The Indo-Europeans: Archaeology, Language, Race, and the Search for the Origins of the West argues that despite its acceptance and use by most researchers from different disciplines, such a model is inherently flawed. This book describes how, beginning in the late eighteenth century, Europeans began a quest for a supposed original homeland, from which a small conquering people would one day spread out, bringing their language to Europe and parts of Asia (India, Iran, Afghanistan). This quest was often closely tied to ideological preoccupations and it was in its name that the Nazi leadership, claiming for the Germans the status of the purest Indo-Europeans (or Aryans), waged genocide. The last part of the book summarizes the current state of knowledge and current hypotheses in the fields of linguistics, archaeology, comparative mythology, and genetics. The culmination of three decades of research, this book offers a sweeping survey of the historiography of the Indo-European debate and poses a devastating challenge to the Indo-European origin story at its roots.

Archaeology and Language III

Archaeology and Language III PDF Author: Roger Blench
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134855869
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Archaeology and Language III interprets results from archaeological data in terms of language distribution and change, providing the tools for a radical rewriting of the conventional discourse of prehistory. Individual chapters present case studies of artefacts and fragmentary textual materials, concerned with the reconstruction of houses, maritime technology, pottery and grave goods.

Archaeology and Language III

Archaeology and Language III PDF Author: Roger Blench
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134855850
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Archaeology and Language III interprets results from archaeological data in terms of language distribution and change, providing the tools for a radical rewriting of the conventional discourse of prehistory. Individual chapters present case studies of artefacts and fragmentary textual materials, concerned with the reconstruction of houses, maritime technology, pottery and grave goods.

Linguistics and Archaeology in the Americas

Linguistics and Archaeology in the Americas PDF Author: Eithne B. Carlin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047427084
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This book offers a state of the art overview of current linguistic and archaeological research from the Caribbean and Meso America, through Amazonia and the Andes to Argentina, ranging from historical comparative through descriptive and socio-linguistics to new discoveries in archaeological research.