[gothic-l] Re: Germanic Migrations

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

Bertil,

there is no ranking of disciplines. History uses written documents as 
source of study. If there are no written documents, historians cannot 
contribute very much. In the time frame and area we are speaking
about there are practically no written sources that means that 
archaeologists and linguists must uncover the evidence. That does not 
mean that a historian cannot attempt an interpretation on the basis
of later written documents, if the written sources are not too far 
removed in time. By the nature of things, a historian cannot research 
the culture of Scandinavia in say 1000 BC, there is simply nothing
for him/her to study. Thus it is the disciplines that can work with 
the primary evidence which should foreward theories on such an issue. 
The people cited here are at the centre of this research. The material
has certainly found its way into the literature, as the evidence 
itself constitutes literature. Also, a new idea (that may be better 
than the old literature) is by definition not represented in the old 
literature. This does not discount the value of the idea. If it is 
better the single idea is worth more than the old literature. The only 
way to see whether the new ideas are better is to engage with the 
evidence and provide counter evidence.

Dirk

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> Dirk,
> 
> In my opinion the three categories are
> 
> 1) historian
> 2) archaelogist
> 3) linguist
> 
> Of course linguists have their importance and
> as a matter of fact their methods often can learn
> historians and archaeologists one or two things.
> The linguistic material you present are of course
> interesting but I think you are drawing to wide
> conclusions from them. To be of real value
> they have to be combined with the views of
> historians and archaelogists. It would be interesting
> to know if any of the material you are introducing
> has found its way into history books in England
> and Germany. I can assure you that it hasn't in Sweden.
> You may well call me speculator if you want, I still
> think historic research counts, and counts importantly.
> 
> Germanically
> 
> Bertil
> 
> > linguist are often in the happy situation of working with 'the 
real 
> > thing'. As you know, names, i.e. place names are the graveyards
of 
> > languages and linguists can be the archaeologists of languages. 
For  
> > scientists such as the mentioned persons who have all presented 
major 
> > , recent contributions to the field by presenting real evidence, 
being 
> > called 'speculators' is quite insulting to them. I think it would 
be 
> > better to engage with the evidence and provide counter evidence 
> > otherwise you could run danger of being called a speculator 
yourself.


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