Ancient Europe (language research)

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The term Old Europe has been used in archeology, historical ethnology and linguistics for the period of prehistory and early history in Europe since the 19th century, in particular for cultures and peoples that were assumed to exist before Indo-European cultures were detectable in Central and Western Europe . A strict distinction is to be made between this and the period of ancient Europe proposed in historical studies .

General

The discussion is linked to the question of the origin (“ original home ”) of the Indo-Europeans and the course of the expansion of their culture and language or the immigration of Indo-European peoples. The theory of pre-Indo-European Old Europe depends on the assumption that the spread of the Indo-European language was accompanied by physical immigration of a new population. Therefore, European cultures are referred to as "old European" before the Indo-Europeans. Archaeological evidence for the spread of an Indo-European original language during the Neolithic was provided by Colin Renfrew's Anatolia hypothesis . Marija Gimbutas accepted an Indo-European immigration in the early / late Neolithic .

The term in the combination of old European hydronymy is to be distinguished from the old European term, as used by Gimbutas or Renfrew . In name research, this refers to water names that come from early or prehistoric times, which, however, according to some researchers, are Indo-European, according to other researchers, however, pre-Indo-European. As an attempt to explain these water names as non-Indo-European, the Vasconic Hypothesis is to be seen, which is assumed by a Vasconic language family widespread in ancient Europe .

Individual theories

Marija Gimbutas

The term Old Europe was used by the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas for archaeological cultures of the Neolithic and the Early Copper Age in Europe. According to Marija Gimbutas, before the Indo-Europeans immigrated, Old Europe was essentially peaceful and matrilineal . There are no signs of violence and social inequality. Women and men had largely equal rights regardless of the matrilineal and matrilocal kinship organization. The ancient European cultures in this sense stretched from Western to Central Europe, the Danube region to the Mediterranean region and Anatolia.

Women played a major role in the religious sphere. The overwhelming number of the unearthed figurines are female, only 2–3% male. In her book The Language of the Goddess , Marija Gimbutas examined the system of symbols and iconography of the deities of ancient Europe. She was able to prove a multitude of different goddess representations, some of which have remained largely constant over long periods of time. Examples are: The Bird Goddess, the Snake Goddess and the Great Goddess of Life, Death and Rebirth.

Marija Gimbutas also believed that biological paternity was unknown in the Neolithic.

Criticism and further research

The archaeologist Svend Hansen connects the religious and historical conception of gimbutas with the Eranos conference of 1938. However, he cannot prove that Marija Gimbutas was aware of this conference or its contents. The archaeologist Lynn Meskell described Gimbuta's conception of old Europe as a “feminist utopia” that is permeated with projections from the past. She presented an overview of critical contributions to this concept.

Evidence of massacres towards the end of the linear ceramic culture around 5000 BC speak against an exclusively peaceful old Europe . BC, like the Talheim massacre in Baden-Württemberg. A similar and simultaneous finding is available from Schletz in Lower Austria .

In contrast, the linguist Harald Haarmann tried in his controversial thesis of a Danube civilization to confirm the peaceful, egalitarian and matristic character of old Europe, at least for the Danube region. In his opinion, numerous features speak in favor of this: the lack of a differentiation between rich and poor, for example in the furnishing of the graves, the lack of ruler's insignia, the lack of stately buildings (e.g. palaces), the overwhelming majority of female figurines and the presumably predominantly female deities.

people

The presumed pre-Indo-European peoples of Old Europe include (partly also of Anatolian origin):

and other.

They are therefore considered to be older than the Celtic tribes, but were for the most part assimilated by them before they were in turn Romanised, mainly linguistically by the Italians . Others, such as the Pelasger and Lelegers mentioned by ancient authors as pre-Greek populations, were supposedly assimilated by Greek tribes. Others, like the Basques, continue to exist as a linguistic unit to this day. Belonging to a common vasconic language family cannot plausibly be assumed for all of these peoples, but it can be assumed for some.

See also

literature

  • Marija Gimbutas : The Language of the Goddess , New York 2006 (first published 1989)
  • Marija Gimbutas: The Civilization of the Goddess , San Francisco 1991, HarperCollins
  • Svend Hansen : Images of man in the Stone Age: Investigations into the anthropomorphic plastic of the Neolithic and Copper Age in Southeastern Europe (= Archeology in Eurasia. Volume 20). von Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 3-8053-3773-6
  • Harald Haarmann : The riddle of the Danube civilization , Munich 2011, Becksche series
  • Lynn Meskell : Goddesses, Gimbutas and New Age archeology. In: Antiquity. Volume 69, No. 262, 1995, pp. 74-86.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marija Gimbutas: The Civilization of the Goddess. HarperCollins, San Francisco 1991
  2. ^ Marija Gimbutas: The Language of the Goddess. New York 2006 (first published in 1989), p. 175
  3. ^ Marija Gimbutas: The Language of the Goddess. New York 2006 (first published 1989)
  4. ^ M. Gimbutas: The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 6500-3500. London 1990, p. 237
  5. ↑ Svend Hansen: Images of man in the Stone Age: Investigations into the anthropomorphic sculpture of the Neolithic and Copper Age in Southeastern Europe (= Archeology in Eurasia. Volume 20). von Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 3-8053-3773-6
  6. ↑ Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (ed.): The figure and cult of the "Great Mother". Lectures held at the conference in Ascona 8. – 15. August 1938 (= Eranos Yearbook 1938. Volume VI). Rhein-Verlag, Zurich 1939.
  7. ^ Lynn Meskell: Goddesses, Gimbutas and New Age archeology. In: Antiquity. Volume 69, No. 262, 1995, pp. 74-86.
  8. ↑ Joachim Wahl / Hans-Günter König: Anthropological-traumatological investigation of the human skeletal remains from the band ceramic mass grave near Talheim, Heilbronn district: with tab, Fund reports from Baden-Württemberg 12, 1987, pp. 65–193
  9. ↑ Harald Haarmann: The riddle of the Danube civilization. Munich 2011, Becksche Reihe, pp. 149–150