[gothic-l] Re: Germanic Migrations

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

Bertil,

any student of history learns in his/her first lecture at University 
that  the field of study of an historian is the historic era of 
humankind. And that the historic era starts whenever first contemprary 
written sources appear for that particular culture. Historian need 
historical sources to study, if there are no historical sources to 
study, they have to rely on evidence and interpretations supplied by 
archaelogists, linguists and other disciplines. A historian would  
never try to write the history of pre-historic people. Perhaps we have 
one or two historians on the list who could quickly confirm that.

Dirk




--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> Dirk,
> 
> Can just regret that you give the historians
> no role in writing on pre-history. I just think
> it is a unusual standpoint. In all well stocked
> libraries - private and public - are many multi-
> volume world histories. In my own private library
> there are several. These multivolume world
> histories always start with a volume on pre-
> history.
> 
> Just curious? Should the volumes on pre-history
> be excluded? Should historians limit themselves
> for instance to writing about Scandinavian history 
> from 200AD?
> 
> Personally I am an author and member of the
> Swedish Authors' Association. What would your 
> background be?
> 
> Germanically
> 
> Bertil
> 
> 
> 
> > First, I am not a linguist, which invalidates most of your 
statement 
> > below. Second, historians by definition - and no self-respecting 
> > historian would object - cannot contribute a lot to what are 
> > essentially pre-historic times in our geographic area of interest. 
> > What kind of material (original resources) can a historian study 
if 
> > there are no historical resources? Linguists and archaeologists do 
> > not need written sources for their research so they must uncover 
the 
> > material and the interpretations. I am sure you will not object to 
> > this, as we are otherwise enter a level that is too low to merit 
> > dicussion on this list.


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/3/_/3398/_/973503969/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html