Lactose Intolerance/Renfrew

Geoffrey Summers summers at metu.edu.tr
Wed Apr 18 05:20:42 UTC 2001


If an archaeologist may comment:

Steve Long wrote

> But again why couldn't Hattic be intrusive?

I accept that we are not (yet?) able to associate archaeological
evidence with languages. However, with regard to Hattians, it might be
pointed out that the Early Bronze burials at Alaca Höyük (and elsewhere
in the central Pontus) have clear links with the Varna culture on the
Blak Sea in Bulgaria. The precise nature of those links and an exact
chronology is lacking, although there are many opinions. It would not be
implausible to suggest that the burials at Alaca represent Hattians,
since this is the very area, very close to Hattusa, that the Hittites
invaded.

I have often wondered if Hattic and the language(s) of the Gashga/Kashka
tribes were related. Am I correct in thinking that there is still no
evidence?

> What's worse is then when I cited bit-wear on teeth at Derevika I got this
> back: "Actually you gotta throw the Derevika horse [bit evidence] out.
> Anthony and Brown (2000) Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian
> steppes, ANTIQUITY, 75-86, has C14 dates from it...  The most recent dates on
> it put it up around the 1st century BC.  As they note, it looks like it was a
> pit deposit that had nothing to do with the Neolithic levels of the site."

> So now there's not even evidence in the Ukraine.

That would appear to be correct. It would seem that the arguments over
bit wear are settled, yes it was bit wear on the teeth. The one horse in
question is now dated to the Iron Age. If ever a horse had egg on its
face it was this one.

> now they're finding even more true horse bones at Catal Huyuk.  So there's
> not a lot left to connect early European steppe culture with early
> horse-related innovations in the rest of Europe.

These are wild horses, along with asses and onagers. They were hunted
for meat. Equids do appear on the Catal wall paintings, but none (yet
found) form the cental focus of a hunting scene. Wild horses were hunted
in central and easten Anatolia well into the chalcolithic period. They
then appear to have become extinct (I would suggest that the evidence is
somewhat scanty, but they must have become rare animals) and were
reintroduced fully domesticated.

Best wishes,

Geoff

--
Geoffrey SUMMERS
Dept. of Political Science & Public Administration,
Middle East Technical University,
Ankara TR-06531, TURKEY.

Office Tel: (90) 312 210 2045
Home Tel/Fax: (90) 312 210 1485
The Kerkenes Project Tel: (90) 312 210 6216
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