Renfrew's Celtic Scenario

[Stanley Friesen]

At 12:09 AM 2/4/00 -0500, X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:
>Here's a rough chronology of that cultural evidence - very rough now - that
>may help straighten this out with regard to Celtic:

>@7000BC - farming in Anatolia and southern Greece (cultural uniformities not
>yet visible)
>@6500 - 5400BC - the neolithic culture associated with Balkan-Anatolian
>painted ware develops and reaches the Danube.
>@5400BC - early stages of 'Bandkeramik'; beginning of expansion east and
>northwest; beginnings of C-T in the western Ukraine
>@4900BC - early 'Bandkeramik' reaches Holland; evidence for regular trade
>contacts with the Danube - extremely small populations, few settlements,
>'remarkable uniformity' in remains evidenced
>@4600BC - expansion beyond the early narrow Bandkeramik corridor north of the
>Alps and northwestern Europe
>@4200BC - pollen evidence shows first extensive clearances of land in
>peripheral areas, exponential growth in populations and settlements;
>differentiation in local cultures
>@4000BC - megalithic period begins, evidence of metallurgy (smelting) has
>expanded from the Balkans to Denmark, northern Italy and the Ukraine;
>beginnings of the secondary products revolution; beaker and corded ware
>cultures begin to appear

>By 4000BC, there is enough differentiation between regional expressions of
>Bandkeramik to suggest that the former cultural unities are giving way to
>local identities in western Europe and north of the Alps.

Let's see, cultural unity maintained over much of Europe from 4900 BC to
ca. 4000 BC.  I don't believe it! Even 900 years is too long for
maintenance of unity over that scale sans motor vehicles.  The fact that
the Bandkeramik culture *appears* uniform over this span is almost
certainly an illusion due to lack of access to more distinctive sorts of
artifacts (clothing, jewelry, paintings, etc.).

In fact it is the changes at the 4200 and/or 4000 BC levels that are most
likely associated with the spread of PIE.

>@5500BC - 'Wide PIE' splits into Anatolian and "narrow PIE"
>@4900BC - Migration spreads 'Narrow PIE'
>@4600BC - A north western European version of [narrow PIE] arises
>@4000BC - An "early IE language" develops in parts of western Europe and
>north of the Alps.
>@3500BC -  Local differentiation in this 'early IE language' begins

This is even worse.  You now have local differentiation delaying for over
well 1000 years!!!!  That is absurd.  Given normal rates of language
change, this should have happened well before 4000 BC, probably by 4400 or
4500 BC (within your "Narrow PIE").  And an extra time depth of 600 years
from the branching off of Anatolian and the rest of PIE would imply a *far*
more differentiated Anatolian by its attestation ca. 1500 BC.  That's a
4000 year time depth.  That should make Anatolian about as distinct from
Sanskrit as Farsi is from Hindi!

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com