Archaeology and Language I: Theoretical and Methodological Orientations (One World Archaeology)

411 Pages·1997·7.11 MB·English

by  Roger Blench

ARCHAEOLOGY AND LANGUAGE I
ONE WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY
Series Editor: P.J.Ucko
Animals into Art
The Politics of the Past
H.Morphy (ed.), vol. 7
P.Gathercole & D.Lowenthal (eds),
vol. 12
Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity
S.J.Shennan (ed.), vol. 10
The Presented Past: heritage, museums and
education
Archaeological Heritage Management in the
G.Stone & B.L.Molyneaux (eds), vol. 25
Modern World
H.F.Cleere (ed.), vol. 9
Sacred Sites, Sacred Places
D.L.Carmichael, J.Hubert, B.Reeves &
Archaeology and the Information Age: a global
A.Schanche (eds), vol. 23
perspective
P.Reilly & S.Rahtz (eds), vol. 21
Signifying Animals: human meaning in the
natural world
The Archaeology of Africa: food, metals and
R.G.Willis (ed.), vol. 16
towns
T.Shaw, P.Sinclair, B.Andah &
Social Construction of the Past: representation as
A.Okpoko (eds), vol. 20
power
G.C.Bond & A.Gilliam (eds), vol. 24
Centre and Periphery: comparative studies in
archaeology
State and Society: the emergence and
T.C.Champion (ed.), vol. 11
development of social hierarchy and political
centralization
Conflict in the Archaeology of Living Traditions
J.Gledhill, B.Bender & M.T.Larsen
R.Layton (ed.), vol. 8
(eds), vol. 4
Domination and Resistance
Time, Process and Structured Transformation in
D.Miller, M.J.Rowlands & C.Tilley
Archaeology
(eds), vol. 3
S.E.van der Leeuw & J.McGlade (eds),
vol. 26
The Excluded Past: archaeology in education
P.Stone & R.MacKenzie (eds), vol. 17
Tropical Archaeobotany: applications and
developments
Foraging and Farming: the evolution of plant
J.G.Hather (ed.), vol. 22
exploitation
D.R.Harris & G.C.Hillman (eds),
The Walking Larder: patterns of domestication,
vol. 13
pastoralism, and predation
J.Clutton-Brock (ed.), vol. 2
From the Baltic to the Black Sea: studies in
medieval archaeology
What is an Animal?
D.Austin & L.Alcock (eds), vol. 18
T.Ingold (ed.), vol. 1
Hunters of the Recent Past
What’s New? A closer look at the process of
L.B.Davis & B.O.K.Reeves (eds),
innovation
vol. 15
S.E.van der Leeuw & R.Torrence (eds),
vol. 14
The Meanings of Things: material culture and
symbolic expression
Who Needs the Past? Indigenous values and
I.Hodder (ed.), vol. 6
archaeology
R.Layton (ed.), vol. 5
The Origins of Human Behaviour
R.A.Foley (ed.), vol. 19
ARCHAEOLOGY AND
LANGUAGE I

Theoretical and methodological
orientations
Edited by
Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs

London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1997 selection and editorial matter,
Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs;
individual chapters © 1997 the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN 0-203-20583-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-26673-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-10054-2 (Print Edition)

Cum remotae gentium origines historiam transcendant, linguae nobis
praestant veterum monumentorum vicem.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, De originibus gentium

There is no tracing the connection of ancient nations but by language; and
therefore I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages
are the pedigree of nations. If you find the same language in distant countries,
you may be sure that the inhabitants of each have been the same people;
that is to say, if you find the languages are a good deal the same; for a word
here and there the same will not do.
Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell, 1785

If we possessed a perfect pedigree of mankind, a genealogical arrangement
of the races of man would afford the best classification of the various
languages now spoken throughout the world; and if all the extinct languages,
and all intermediate and slowly changing dialects had to be included, such
an arrangement would, I think, be the only possible one…this would be
strictly natural, as it would connect together all languages extinct and
modern, by the closest affinities, and would give the filiation and origin of
each tongue.
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species

To seek, by the multiple routes of anatomy, physiology, history, archaeology,
linguistics and even palaeontology, what have been in historic times and in
the ages which preceded the most ancient remains of humanity, the origins,
the affiliations, the migrations, the mixtures of the numerous and diverse
groups which make up the human species.
Paul Broca, ‘La linguistique et l’anthropologie’
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables xiii
List of contributors xv
Preface xvii
General introduction Roger Blench 1
Introduction Roger Blench 18
Part I Prehistory of language 29
1 Evolution and the biological correlates of linguistic features 31
Bernard H.Bichakjian
2 Cognitive archaeology: a look at evolution outside and inside
language 43
Gábor Györi
3 New epistemological perspectives for the archaeology of writing 53
Paul A.Bouissac
Part II Deep-level linkages/hypotheses 63
4 Principles for palaeolinguistic reconstruction 65
Irén Hegedüs
5 The diffusion of modern languages in prehistoric Eurasia 74
Marcel Otte
6 World linguistic diversity and farming dispersals 82
Colin Renfrew
Part III Problems of method 91
7 The homelands of the Indo-Europeans 93
James P.Mallory
viii CONTENTS
8 The epicentre of the Indo-European linguistic spread 122
Johanna Nichols
9 Are correlations between archaeological and linguistic reconstructions
possible? 149
Ilia Pejros
10 Linguoarchaeology: goals, advances and limits 158
Victor Shnirelman
11 Crabs, turtles and frogs: linguistic keys to early African subsistence
systems 166
Roger Blench
12 Linguistic archaeology: tracking down the Tasaday language 184
Lawrence A.Reid
13 Social networks and kinds of speech-community event 209
Malcolm Ross
14 Linguistic similarity measures using the minimum message length
principle 262
Anand Raman and Jon Patrick
Part IV Oral traditions 281
15 Ancient migrations in the northern sub-Urals: archaeology, linguistics and
folklore 283
Lidia Ashikhmina
16 Oral Traditions and the prehistory of the -speaking people of Benin 308
Joseph Eboreime
17 Oral traditions and archaeology: two cases from Vanuatu 321
José Garanger
18 Puhi, the mythical paramount chief of Uvea and ancient links between
Uvea and Tonga 331
Daniel Frimigacci
19 Traditions of extinct animals, changing sea-levels and volcanoes among
Australian Aboriginals: evidence from linguistic and ethnographic research 345
Margaret Sharpe and Dorothy Tunbridge
20 The lost languages of Erromango (Vanuatu) 362
Jerry Taki and Darrell Tryon
21 Oral traditions, archaeology and linguistics: the early history of the
Saami in Scandinavia 371
Inger Zachrisson
Index 377
Figures
3.1 Distribution of black and red hands on a wall section of
the Gargas cave. 57
3.2 Sample of ‘ship’ designs in Scandinavian rock engravings. 59
4.1 Estimated time-depths for major phyla. 69
4.2 Proposed taxonomy of Nostratic and related groupings. 71
5.1 The shaping of tools using grouped complex processes. 77
5.2 The spearthrower sets different forces into action. 78
5.3 Nuclear zone of the Eurasian steppes. 79
6.1 Early farming dispersals. 87
7.1 Distribution of the major stocks of the Indo-European
languages. 94
7.2 Centres of gravity. 95
7.3 Non-conformity of disciplines. 102
7.4 Four main models of the homeland and dispersion of the
Indo-European languages. 107
7.5 The Dnieper ‘border’. 114
8.1 Hypothetical arrangement of some protolanguages along
loanword trajectories. 124
8.2 Schematic rendition of languages used in the fourth
millennium. 128
8.3 Examples of locus and range of particular language spreads. 129
8.4 The central Eurasian spread zone. 131
8.5 The Iranian language family, early first millennium BC. 132
8.6 The Turkic and Mongolian language families, end of
thirteenth century AD. 133
8.7 The locus and range of Proto-Indo-European. 135
8.8 The trajectory of loci for language spreads in central Eurasia.137
10.1 A proposal for the Proto-Afroasiatic homeland. 159
11.1 Operation of phonaesthetic feedback loops. 171
13.1 Language fissure. 213
13.2 Lectal differentiation. 213