[gothic-l] Re: Old Turkish Runic Alphabet - what are your thoughts?

[Tore Gannholm]

>--- Sahin Ahmet <ahmetsahinn at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>  I am not a member of germanic list and I do not want
>>  to be,
>
>*****GK: It doesn't cost anything, and reading what
>intelligent people have to say about issues of
>interest (if only peripheral) to you will surely do
>you no harm. After consulting the archives you may
>freely leave*****
>
>  > I dont understand why you rule out turkish presence
>>  in scandinavia which may be very temporary.
>
>*****GK: Basically for the same reason any even
>moderately scientifically inclined individual of any
>ethnicity would rule out the presence of Berbers or
>Polynesian seafarers, or aliens from Mars or Planet X
>for that matter: namely, there is not a shred of
>evidence of any kind to back up this idea, neither
>archaeological, nor historical, nor linguistic, nor
>folkloric, nor you name it. The first evidence (though
>not all accept this) known to me of contact between
>Turks and Scandinavians is that adduced by Pritsak
>with respect to the development of the younger futhark
>(I omit the contact between Goths and Huns since only
>a very few of the former might be considered even
>"ex-Scandinavians" let alone the real thing,
>individuals excepted.)******
>


George,
You are very categoric here. Still the matter intrigues me.
We can see from the archaeological material that Gotland has trade
relations with the other side of the Ural back to Bronze age.

I found this on the web:
"At the height of their power the Huns absorbed a number of different
racial strains in their armies and assimilated the characteristics of
the populations of their environment, so that in Europe they
gradually lost their distinct Asian character; but even in their
pre-European period they were highly variable in their physical
characteristics, and of no easily determined ethnic or linguistic
identity. All accounts, however, agree in describing them as an
aggressive nomadic people of great vigor and comparatively low
cultural achievement, who had developed considerable skill in the
techniques of warfare, particularly in military horsemanship.
Before the beginning of their recorded European history, a tribe,
possibly related to the Huns, was known in western China as the
Xiongnu  (Hsiung-nu), during the Earlier Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 8).
Their power in the East was weakened during the following century,
and eventually they separated into two distinct camps, one of which,
amounting to about 50,000 families, went southward, while most of the
remainder, after attempting to maintain themselves on the Caspian
steppes, went west and northwest in search of new homes. Of those who
went northwest, a large number settled for a time on the banks of the
Volga River. In the second half of the 4th century AD, under a leader
called Balamir (flourished 4th century AD), or Balamber, they
advanced into the territories of the Alans, a powerful people
dwelling between the Volga and the Don rivers, and in a battle fought
on the banks of the Don routed the army of the Alans. "

Do we know anything about this?

I also read somewhere that they were good iron smiths. This goes well
with the above statement of considerable skill in the technique of
warfare.

When the Gotlanders were trading they also brought skilled artisans
voluntarily or by force? back to Gotland. That must be one of the
reasons why the Gotlanders were so skilled as Iron smiths, gold
smiths, making picture stones. Having the higest culture in all the
Baltic.

see the summary on
http://www.stavgard.com/Gotland/beowulf_/kontakter/default.htm

Tore



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