DOCSLIB.ORG

Bronze- and Iron-Age Celtic-Speakers: What Don't We Know, What Can't We Know, and What Could We Know? Language, Genetics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bronze- and Iron-Age Celtic-Speakers: What Don't We Know, What Can't We Know, and What Could We Know? Language, Genetics The Antiquaries Journal, 92, 2012,pp427–49 r The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2012 doi:10.1017⁄s000358151200011x. First published online 23 August 2012 BRONZE- AND IRON-AGE CELTIC-SPEAKERS: WHAT DON’T WE KNOW, WHAT CAN’T WE KNOW, AND WHAT COULD WE KNOW? LANGUAGE, GENETICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Patrick Sims-Williams Patrick Sims-Williams, Department of Welsh, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY23 2AX, Wales, UK. E-mail: [email protected] In 1998 the author published ‘Genetics, linguistics and prehistory: thinking big and thinking straight’, a critique of late twentieth-century attempts to synthesize the disciplines of genetics, linguistics and archaeology. This paper assesses subsequent progress, using examples from various parts of the world, including Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Frisia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Micronesia, Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands. The growing importance of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, rather than classical population genetics, is emphasized. The author argues that ancient DNA and early linguistic data should be used more. Languages mentioned include Aquitanian, Basque, Celtiberian, Etruscan, Finnish, Hungarian, Iberian, Lepontic, Lusitanian, Pictish, Raetic, ‘Tartessian’, Thracian and the Ladin dialect of the Italian Alps. Aspects of the ancient linguistic geography of Scotland and the Iberian peninsula are discussed, as is the difficulty of deciding the direction of spread of Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages. The potential of ancient place and personal names is illustrated from Celtic. In this article I revisit a topic on which I published a paper, ‘Genetics, linguistics and prehistory: thinking big and thinking straight’, in Antiquity in 1998.1 The Antiquity paper was a critique of what was being hailed as a ‘new synthesis’ of archaeology, population genetics and historical linguistics. By the end of the twentieth century, these three disciplines had each produced vast data sets with some bearing on prehistory. It seemed that they might be combined, especially as two of them, genetics and linguistics, had a superficial similarity. Neither cast much direct light on prehistory; ancient DNA and ancient texts were in short supply and, when available in Eurasia, came from different latitudes, DNA happening to survive better in the colder climates which literacy reached later. Yet genetics and linguistics both worked with ‘family tree’ models by which inter- esting ancient branches and trunks might be inferred from a comparison of the visible ‘leaves’ of modern data. The branches of genetic trees were reconstructed on the basis of genetic mutations in one branch rather than another, while the language trees were best reconstructed on the basis of shared linguistic innovations. Some geneticists and linguists confidently estimated the rates of the relevant mutations, and if they were right we would 1. Sims-Williams 1998a. That paper included some Celtic examples, but on Celtic, see further Sims-Williams 1998b. For an update on the latter, see Rodway 2010. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Athens, on 26 Sep 2021 at 11:36:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000358151200011X 428 THE ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL be able to date the prehistoric branchings. Linguists, however, remain sceptical about all types of ‘glottochronology’,2 and mutation rates even in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are still under discussion3 – the Y chromosome is still more problematical.4 Certainly, so far, neither discipline has attained anything so precise as radiocarbon dating.5 If linguistic and genetic nodes are not securely fixed in time, neither are they easily fixed in space. At one time linguists used to argue that the original locus of a mother language could be deduced from the location of its daughter languages, but this was shown to be fallacious.6 A similar sort of problem arises in genetics: while the ancestor or ancestress of a particular patrilinear (Y chromosome) or matrilinear (mtDNA) lineage might be located at the epicentre of his or her most diverse surviving descendants, nevertheless (to quote Bryan Sykes) ‘the mother of a clan which is twenty thousand years old cannot have lived in the north of Scotland, even if that might be where the clan is most varied today, for the very practical reason that Scotland was covered in ice at the time’.7 Here is a question that can be tested: how often does the modern genetic data, unaided, point to environmentally and archaeologically credible epicentres? We all know how the fashion swings between assuming population replacement and population continuity. Only under the latter hypothesis does the use of modern data become attractive. What is badly needed is more ancient DNA (aDNA), problematic and expensive though this may be to analyse.8 Even from a thousand years ago, aDNA is worth its weight in gold. For example, analysis of mtDNA from nine skeletons in a Christian cemetery at Kongemarken, in Denmark, has shown that they were not the homogenous little community that might have been expected; in one case the closest modern relatives were mostly in Siberia and India.9 This could be exceptional, owing to the proximity to the port of Roskilde, but more such work is needed before such a result can be explained away. In favourable circumstances, isotope analysis could shed light on exogamy in such communities.10 More interesting still are the mtDNA analyses of prehistoric remains from the Italian Alps. The sole Mesolithic sequence, from Villabruna (c 14,000 BP), has not been observed in any living person, whereas the two Neolithic sequences (c 6,000 BP, from Mezzocorona and Borgo Nuovo), like that of the famous Tyrolean ‘ice man’ (c 5,300 BP), all resembled modern sequences throughout Europe and were at the same time as diverse among the 11 three of them as any three random modern Europeans. From Neolithic sites (c 7,500 BP) from slightly further north, the mtDNA of all twenty-four individuals also resembled that 2. Renfrew et al 2000; Mallory and Adams 2006, 94; Holm 2007; cf Heggarty et al 2010, 3831. 3. Mishmar et al 2003, 176; Ho and Endicott 2008; Henn et al 2009; Soares et al 2009 and 2010; Kondrashov and Kondrashov 2010, 1171; cf Forster et al 1996; Saillard et al 2000. 4. Wilson et al 2001, 5081; cf Xue et al 2009; Busby et al 2012. 5. Gamble et al 2005, 194, 206. Although I sympathize with Mike Richards’s negative remarks about DNA evidence (Richards 2004), the whole field is in its infancy, as he indicates, and it must be remembered that radiocarbon dating too had its infancy. We are all priceless walking libraries of genetic (and linguistic) prehistory; the challenge is how to read the contents. A century of prehistorians misinterpreting biological evidence (Sims-Williams 2004) suggests that many errors are still to be made. 6. Dyen 1956. See Nichols 1997, 130; Sims-Williams 1998a, 510; McMahon 2004, 8. 7. Sykes 2001, 200; cf Bandelt et al 2002, 102. 8. O’Rourke 2007. 9. Rudbeck et al 2005. 10. Cf Bentley et al 2003 and 2008. 11. Di Benedetto et al 2000. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Athens, on 26 Sep 2021 at 11:36:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000358151200011X LANGUAGE, GENETICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 429 of modern Europeans, according to Haak et al.12 OneMesolithicsampleversustwenty- seven Neolithic ones is not enough to prove a discontinuity between Mesolithic Europe versus Neolithic and modern Europe. Indeed, Haak et al suggestthatsixoftheirtypes have few living parallels because they were swamped by Palaeolithic survivors. But we are at least dealing with solid data here. We just need more of it so as to know whether it is representative or merely anecdotal, a familiar predicament for prehistorians. In August 2008 there was a media frenzy about the successful DNA analysis of forty Bronze Age skeletons of c 3000 BP from the Lichtenstein cave in the Harz Mountains. The media were interested in two local gentlemen who seem to be direct descendants of the cave dwellers; prehistorians may be more interested in contrasting as well as comparing the ancient DNA with that of modern and ancient Europeans. Most recently, analysis of Y-chromosome DNA from Neolithic caves at Treilles near Aveyron (Midi-Pyre´ne´es), France (c 5000 BP), and Avellaner, Cogolls, Catalonia (c 7000 BP), showed more affinities with Neolithic DNA from Germany and the Tyrolean ‘ice man’ than with typical modern European males. The mtDNA, however, resembled typical modern European populations.13 Since I wrote the 1998 paper, geneticists have concentrated less on classical popula- tion genetics, which presented historically ambiguous composite clines, and more on mtDNA and the Y chromosome, which have the advantage of being passed down exclusively through the female and male lines respectively, offering the hope of unique historical explanations,14 possibly involving separate female and male histories (eg indi- genous Mesolithic females marrying incoming Neolithic farmers).15 Clearly there is plenty of relevant genetic data surviving in modern populations. But if you want to use it to get back to a complete view of prehistory, it has a serious limitation. The mathematical reason was shown by the Revd H W Watson in 1875 in his classic paper ‘On the prob- ability of the extinction of families’.16 He dealt in surnames, but the same process applies to Y chromosomes, and mtDNA too.17 By what is now known as a ‘power law’,18 Watson found that if you start with, say, a million surnames, and (say) one man in three has no sons, one has one, and one has two, even within five generations you expect to lose two-thirds of the surnames.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • KINGS AGAINST CELTS Deliverance from Barbarians As a Theme In
    KINGS AGAINST CELTS Deliverance from barbarians as a theme in Hellenistic royal propaganda Rolf Strootman Ieder nadeel heb z’n eigen voordeel – Johan Cruijff 1 Introduction The Celts, Polybios says, know neither law nor order, nor do they have any culture. 2 Other Greek writers, from Aristotle to Pausanias, agreed with him: the savage Celts were closer to animals than to civilised human beings. Therefore, when the Celts invaded Greece in 280-279 BC and attacked Delphi, Greeks saw this as an attack on Hellenic civilisation. Though the crisis was soon over, the image remained of inhuman barbarians who came from the dark edge of the earth to strike without warning at the centre of civilisation. This image was then exploited in political propaganda: first by the Aitolian League in Central Greece, then by virtually all the Greek-Macedonian kingdoms of that time. The 1 Several variants of this utterance of the ‘Oracle of Amsterdam’ (detriment is advantageous) are current in the Dutch language; this is the original version. Cf. H. Davidse ed., ‘Je moet schieten, anders kun je niet scoren’. Citaten van Johan Cruijff (The Hague 1999) 93; for some interesting linguistic remarks on Cruijff’s oracular sayings see G. Middag and K. van der Zwan, ‘“Utopieën wie nooit gebeuren”. De taal van Johan Cruijff’, Onze Taal 65 (1996) 275-7. 2 Polyb. 18.37.9. Greek authors use Keltoi and Galatai without any marked difference to denote these peoples, who evidently shared some common culture (e.g. infra Pausanias, but esp. 1.4.1; the first mention of Keltoi in Greek literature is in Hdt.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Celtic Scholarship in Russia and the Soviet Union
    THE HISTORY OF CELTIC SCHOLARSHIP IN RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION SÉAMUS MAC MATHÚNA Mr Chairman, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me begin by thanking our distinguished Patron, Professor Karl Horst Schmidt, for agreeing to open this inaugural conference of Societas Celto-Slavica. We are greatly honoured by his presence here today and we thank him most sincerely for his excellent introduction and kind words regarding the formation of the Society. 0. Introduction I thought initially it would be possible in my lecture this morning to give a brief outline of the main works and achievements of Celtic scholarship in the Slavic countries, secure in the knowledge that it would not be necessary to discuss Celtic Studies in Poland as this subject would be dealt with by Professor Piotr Stalmaszczyk in a subsequent paper.1 However, having gathered together a significant amount of material on Celtic Studies in various countries – Russia, Czechia,2 Bulgaria,3 Serbia,4 Croatia,5 and others – I realised that I could not do the subject justice in the time available 1 I wish to thank my colleague, Dr. Maxim Fomin, for his assistance in the preparation of this paper. 2 Czechia has a long tradition of scholarship relating to Celtic Studies. One of the many influential Irish colleges established on the Continent of Europe, which made important contributions to Irish heritage and scholarship, was located in Prague in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (http://www.irishineurope.com). There have also been many fine Czech linguistic and archaeological scholars. See, for example, the works of the talented Celtic scholar, Josef Baudiš (a bibliography of whose works was compiled by Václav Machek in 1948, available online at http://www.volny.cz/enelen/baud/baud_bib.htm), and other eminent scholars, such as the archaeologists Jan Filip (1956, 1961) and Natalie Venclová (1995, 1998, 2000, 2001), and linguists, such as Václav Machek (1963), Václav Blažek (1999, 2001, 2001a, 2003), and Vera Čapková (1987, 1997).
    [Show full text]
  • The Cath Maige Tuired and the Vǫluspá
    Connections: the Cath Maige Tuired and the Vǫluspá Convergence of cultures, history and myth Angelina Kjerstad Johansen Master's Thesis History of Religion UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Autumn 2015 1 Copyright Angelina Kjerstad Johansen 2015 Connections: the Cath Maige Tuired and the Vǫluspá – Convergence of cultures, history and myth Angelina Kjerstad Johansen http://www.duo.uio.no Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo 2 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Jens Braarvig, for having the patience to deal with me and my strange ways of doing things. Thank you to Jan Erik Rekdal and Karl Johansson for giving me the idea for this thesis and to my fellow students for great discussions. To all my friends and my amazing family, you know who you are, I love you more and more each day. And to the artists and musicians that make my life bearable, you do not know who you are, but without you I would truly go insane. A special thanks goes to my sister, Monica, for being my co-conspirator and for helping me bore every other member of our family with our academic discussions. May we continue to do so in the future! To Rita, whom I miss beyond words. I dedicate all my triumphs to you 4 5 Introduction The topic of the thesis is the Irish myth Cath Maige Tuired - "The Second Battle of Mag Tuired", which is the story about the battle between the Túatha Dé Danann, the gods of pagan Ireland, and their enemies the Fomoire. What I wish to focus upon in the Cath Maige Tuired is not the battle in itself, which has been compared to the war between the Aesir and the Vanir in Scandinavian mythology1, but a passage at the end of this myth, where the goddess Mórrigan (here in the form of a mortal) comes with a prediction of the end of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Mexico and Spain on the Eve of Encounter
    4 Mexico and Spain on the Eve of Encounter In comparative history, the challenge is to identify significant factors and the ways in which they are related to observed outcomes. A willingness to draw on historical data from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean will be essen- tial in meeting this challenge. — Walter Scheidel (2016)1 uring the decade before Spain’s 1492 dynastic merger and launching of Dtrans- Atlantic expeditions, both the Aztec Triple Alliance and the joint kingdoms of Castile and Aragón were expanding their domains through con- quest. During the 1480s, the Aztec Empire gained its farthest flung province in the Soconusco region, located over 500 miles (800 km) from the Basin of Mexico near the current border between Mexico and Guatemala. It was brought into the imperial domain of the Triple Alliance by the Great Speaker Ahuitzotl, who ruled from Tenochtitlan, and his younger ally and son- in- law Nezahualpilli, of Texcoco. At the same time in Spain, the allied Catholic Monarchs Isabela of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragón were busy with military campaigns against the southern emirate of Granada, situated nearly the same distance from the Castilian heartland as was the Soconusco from the Aztec heartland. The unification of the kingdoms ruled by Isabela and Ferdinand was in some sense akin to the reunifi- cation of Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior of the early Roman period.2 The conquest states of Aztec period Mexico and early modern Spain were the product of myriad, layered cultural and historical processes and exchanges. Both were, of course, ignorant of one another, but the preceding millennia of societal developments in Mesoamerica and Iberia set the stage for their momentous en- counter of the sixteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Language in Shetland
    Language in Shetland We don’t know much about Pre-300AD the people of Shetland or Before the Picts The history of their language. Pictish people carve symbols 300AD-800AD language in into stone and speak a ‘Celtic’ Picts language. Shetland Vikings occupy the isles and introduce ‘Norn’. They carve S1-3 800AD-1500AD symbols called ‘runes’ into Vikings stone. The Picts and their language are then wiped out by Vikings. Scotland rule gradually influences life on the islands. The Scottish language 1500AD onwards eventually becomes the Scots prominent language. The dialect Shetlanders Today speak with today contains Us! Scottish and Norn words. 2 THE PICTS Ogham alphabet Some carvings are part of an The Picts spoke a Celtic The Picts lived in mainland alphabet called ‘ogham’. Ogham language, originating from Scotland from around the 6th represents the spoken language of Ireland. Picts may have to the 9th Century, possibly the Picts, by using a ‘stem’ with travelled from Ireland, earlier. Indications of a shorter lines across it or on either Scotland or further afield burial at Sumburgh suggest side of it. to settle on Shetland. that Picts had probably settled in Shetland by There are seven ogham ogham.celt.dias.ie 300AD. inscriptions from Shetland Picts in Shetland spoke one of (including St Ninian’s Isle, The side, number and angle of the the ‘strands’ of the Celtic Cunningsburgh and Bressay) short lines to the stem indicates the language. Picts also carved symbols onto and one from a peat bog in intended sound. Lunnasting. stone. These symbols have been found throughout These symbol stones may Scotland—common symbols have been grave markers, or This inscribed sandstone was dug they may have indicated up from the area of the ancient must have been understood by gathering points.
    [Show full text]
  • The Economy of the Tyle State
    SAVAGE BUSINESS – The Economy of the Tyle State One would imagine that an invasion by hundreds of thousands of barbarians would have a catastrophic effect on a region’s economy. However, this presumption has been challenged in recent years by the archaeological and numismatic data emerging from the territory which fell under the control of the ‘barbarian’ Tyle state in eastern Thrace during the 3rd c. BC. The traditional description of the Celtic tribes who arrived in this area has been one of ‘thirsty savages’ or ‘gangs of mercenaries’ (latest Emilov 2007, 2010), and we have been repeatedly informed that ‘their aim was not to settle, but money and booty which could be aquired in different ways … by attacking wealthy cities, and by ravaging the countryside’ (Nixon 1977, cited by Mitchell 1993; most recently Emilov 2010). However, repeating a simplistic stereotype does not make it true, particularly when the depiction of a culture directly contradicts all the available archaeological and historical evidence. In this case the facts tell a rather surprising tale – a barbarian invasion that brought political stability and economic prosperity in its wake. Eastern Thrace – 3rd c. BC THE ‘BARBARIAN BOOM’ Recent archaeological evidence has clearly shown that no destruction accompanied the Celtic migration at the beginning of the 3rd c. BC and, even more surprisingly, in none of the regions which fell within the limits of the Celtic Tyle kingdom can an economic downturn be detected (Lazarov 2010: 110). Indeed, it is precisely in the wake of the establishment of the Celtic state that the main Hellenistic economic centres in eastern Thrace and the Black Sea coast such as Kabyle, Mesambria and Odessos flourished and trade boomed.
    [Show full text]
  • Lo Canario, Lo Guanche Y Lo Prehispánico
    UNIVERSIDAD OE L» LAGUNA BIBLIOTECA Foll. 27 S»-va.t3lica,eloiies <±m la. ^isa.1 Sooied.a.d. C3-eog^rá,íxca, Serle B Número 387 Lo canario, lo panche y lo pretiispánico POR Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez Académico Correspondiente de la Real de la Historia M ADKID S|. AüUlRRE TORRE, IMPRESOR Calle de! Gral. Alvarez de Castro, 38 1 » í 7 ^ .^ ¿^ Lo canario, lo guanche y lo prehispánico SEBASTIAN JIMÉNEZ SÁNCHEZ Académico Correspondiente de la Real de la Historia Desde hace tiempo se viene dando impropiamente el nombre de guanches a los habitantes primitivos de las Islas Canarias, en su épo­ ca prehispánica, y con él a todo el exponente de su cultura milenaria, material y espiritual. Porque estimamos necesario aclarar el uso in­ correcto del nombre guanche, empleado por algunos escritores e in­ vestigadores, escribimos estas líneas para más ahondar en el tema y dar luces sobre el mismo. La palabra' guanche, ya considerada como nombre sustantivo o como nombre adjetivo, tiene especialísima significación, limitada sólo a los habitantes y a la cultura de la isla de Tenerife en su período preüispánico, aunque erróneamente literatos y ciertos investigadores no bien formados en los problemas canarios, especialmente extran­ jeros, hayan querido encontrar en la voz y grafía guanche el nom­ bre genérico que conviene y agrupa a los primitivos habitantes del archipiélago canario. El pretender emplear la palabra guanche en tal sentido está en pugna con el rigorismo histórico y con el proceso racial de las Islas, como fruto de las oleadas y de los cruces de remotos pueblos invasores.
    [Show full text]
  • Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – a Dynamic Group Peder Gammeltoft
    Shetland and Orkney Island-Names – A Dynamic Group Peder Gammeltoft 1. Introduction Only when living on an island does it become clear how important it is to know one‟s environment in detail. This is no less true for Orkney and Shetland. Being situated in the middle of the North Atlantic, two archipelagos whose land-mass consist solely of islands, holms and skerries, it goes without saying that such features are central, not only to local life and perception, but also to travellers from afar seeking shelter and safe passage. Island, holms and skerries appear to be fixed points in an ever changing watery environment – they appear to be constant and unchanging – also with regard to their names. And indeed, several Scandinavian researchers have claimed that the names of islands constitute a body of names which, by virtue of constant usage and relevance over time, belong among the oldest layers of names (cf. e.g. Hald 1971: 74-75; Hovda 1971: 124-148). Archaeological remains on Shetland and Orkney bear witness to an occupation of these archipelagos spanning thousands of years, so there can be little doubt that these areas have been under continuous utilisation by human beings for a long time, quite a bit longer, in fact, than our linguistic knowledge can take us back into the history of these isles. So, there is nothing which prevents us from assuming that names of islands, holms and skerries may also here carry some of the oldest place-names to be found in the archipelagos. Since island-names are often descriptive in one way or another of the locality bearing the name, island-names should be able to provide an insight into the lives, strategies and needs of the people who eked out an existence in bygone days in Shetland and Orkney.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Canary Islands: a Prospective Analysis of the Concept of Tricontinentality
    The “African being” in the Canary Islands: a prospective analysis of the concept of Tricontinentality José Otero Universidad de La Laguna 2017 1. Introduction Are the Canary Islands considered part of Africa? Instead of answering directly this question, my intervention today - which is a summary of my PhD dissertation- will go over the different responses to that question by local intellectual elites since the conquer and colonization of the Canary Islands. There are certain connections between Africa and the archipelago and I would like to present them from three different perspectives: 1) Understanding the indigenous inhabitant of the Canary Islands as an “African being”. 2) Reconstructing the significance of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic slave trade and its effects on some local artists in the first decades of the twentieth century. 3) Restructuring the interpretation of some Africanity in the cultural and political fields shortly before the end of Franco’s dictatorial regime. 2. The guanches and Africa: the repetition of denial The Canary Islands were inhabited by indigenous who came from North Africa in different immigrant waves –at the earliest– around the IX century B.C. (Farrujía, 2017). The conquest of the Islands by the Crown of Castile was a complex phenomenon and took place during the entire XV century. Knowledge of indigenous cultures has undoubtedly been the main theme of any historical and anthropological reflection made from the archipelago and even today, the circumstances around the guanches provokes discussions and lack of consensus across the social spectrum, not just among academic disciplines but in popular culture too.
    [Show full text]
  • A Funerary Relief of a 'Barbarian' from Soufli In
    doi: 10.2143/AWE.16.0.3214934 AWE 16 (2017) 63-95 A FUNERARY RELIEF OF A ‘BARBARIAN’ FROM SOUFLI IN THE ALEXANDROUPOLIS COLLECTION (GREECE)* DIMITRA ANDRIANOU Abstract Relief no. 4 from the Alexandroupolis Collection is an exceptional relief in many ways. It is part of a register-stele (Stockwerkstele), now partially preserved. The lower and better preserved register depicts a rider hunting in the heroic fashion; a smaller figure stands above the legs of the horse. Certain details allow us to identify the rider as a soldier in the Roman auxilia and the smaller figure as his clerk. The relief is important not only for its iconogra- phy, but also because it provides evidence for the presence of auxilia in the Hebros region in the late 2nd or 3rd century AD. Aegean Thrace, a modern, conventional designation, is the south-western and small- est section of ancient Thrace, bordered by the Nestos river to the west, the Hebros river to the east, Mt Rhodope to the north and the Aegean Sea to the south, all natural borders.1 Being a fruitful plain, it was already inhabited in the Palaeolithic period and according to the literary sources and the rapidly emerging archaeological evidence, various Thracian tribes dwelt in the area before Greek colonisation and lived side-by-side with the Greek colonists. The literary sources clearly state that Thracians resided on Thasos and Samothrace before the arrival of the Greeks and were their adversaries at Abdera and in the Strymon valley.2 The first Greek settlers arrived before the middle of the 7th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape
    Additional information requested by ICOMOS regarding the nomination of the Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape for Inscription on the World Heritage List 2018 November 2018 1 Index This report includes the additional information requested by ICOMOS in its letter of the 8th October 2018 concerning the nomination process of Risco Caido and Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape. It includes the information requested, along with the pertinent comments on each point. 1. Description of de property p. 3 2. Factors affecting the property p. 54 3. Boundaries and the buffer zone p. 59 4. Protection p. 68 5. Conservation p. 79 6. Management p. 87 7. Involvement of the local communities p. 93 2 1 Description of the property ICOMOS would be pleased if the State Party could provide a more accurate overview of the current state of archaeological research in the Canary Islands in order to better understand Gran Canaria's place in the history of the archipelago. The inventory project begun at the initiative of Werner Pichler which mentions the engravings of the north of Fuerteventura with 2866 individual figures and the work briefly mentioned in the nomination dossier of several researchers from the Universidad de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife, and the Universidad de Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria could assist in this task. Table 2.a.llists all the attributes and components of the cultural landscape of Risco Caldo and its buffer zone (p. 34). However, only part of the sites are described in the nomination dossier (p.
    [Show full text]
  • 192 Book Reviews / Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18 (2012) 183-194
    192 Book Reviews / Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 18 (2012) 183-194 Lyudmil F. Vagalinski (ed.), In Search of Celtic Tylis in Thrace (III C. BC). Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium Arranged by the National Archaeological Institute and Museum at Sofia and the Welsh Department, Aberystwyth University, Held at the National Archaeological Institute and Museum, Sofia, 8 May 2010. Sofia, NOUS Publishers Ltd., 2010, 129 pp., many black and white photographs, drawings, plans and maps. Paperback. ISBN 978-954-92566-2-8 The present proceedings contain important contributions, which provide an updated over- view and study on the Celtic settlement in Early Hellenistic Thrace and discuss the enig- matic location of Tylis, the royal residence of the Thracian Galatians, which was mentioned by Polybius (4.46.2) and Stephanus Byzantinus (640.20-21). The first introductory article “Celtic – Definitions, Problems and Controversies” by Simon Rodway is dealing with the complex debate about the existence of Celtic ethnicity and its regional distinctions. The whole issue is heavily influenced by modern political agenda and nationalistic propaganda, which is well recognizable in certain publications. While one can hardly imagine the existence of a monolithic Celtic ethnos, located in the vast area from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the West to the Balkans and Asia Minor in the East, a number of ancient historical sources and archaeological data allow us to conclude that various tribal groups who shared similar languages and material culture occupied extensive regions of Iron Age Temperate Europe and gradually migrated far beyond their original tribal territories, being designated as Keltoi, Galatai and Galli by the Greek and Roman authors during the second half of the 1st millennium BC.
    [Show full text]