Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T00:33:44.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What language did Neolithic pots speak? Colin Renfrew’s European farming-language-dispersal model challenged

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Kristian Kristiansen
Kristian Kristiansen*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The author argues that Colin Renfrew’s farming language dispersal hypothesis for the spread of the Indo-European languages is unverifiable, and rests on dubious theoretical and methodological assumptions. Archaeology is better at recognising institutions than language, and present knowledge defines the Bronze Age, rather than the early Neolithic, as the formative period for the development and spread of so-called of Proto- and Early Indo-European institutions.

Keywords

EuropeNeolithicBronze Agefarmingpotterylanguage
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 679 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Algaze, G. 1989. The Uruk expansion. Cross-cultural exchange in early Mesopotamian civilization. Current Anthropology 30: 571–608.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.T. 1995. History of vegetation and agriculture at Hassing House Mose, Thy, Northwest Denmark. Journal of Danish Archaeology 1992–3: 39–57.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.T. 1998. Pollen analytical investigations of barrows from the Funnel Beaker and Single Grave Cultures in the Vroue area, West Jutland, Denmark. Journal of Danish Archaeology 1994–5: 107–33.Google Scholar
Angel, J.L. 1972. Human skeletons from grave circles at Mycenae, in Mylonas, G.E. (ed.) Ho taphikos kyklos B ton Mykenon. Athens.Google Scholar
Anthony, D.W. 1995. Horse, wagon & chariot: Indo-European languages and archaeology. Antiquity 69: 554–65.Google Scholar
Bentley, R.A., Chikhi, L. & Price, T.D.. 2003. The Neolithic transition in Europe: comparing broad scale genetic and local scale isotopic evidence. Antiquity 77: 63–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boroffka, N. 1998. Bronze-und früheisenzeitlichen Geweihtrensenknebel aus Rumänien und ihre Beziehungen. Eurasia Antiqua. Zeitschrift für Archäologie Eurasiens. Band 4: 81–135.Google Scholar
Burmeister, S. (ed.) 2004. Rad und wagen. Der Ursprung einer innovation. Wagen in vorderen orient und Europa. Mainz: Philip von Zabern.Google Scholar
Chernykh, E.N. 1992. Ancient metallurgy in the USSR: the Early Metal Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chernykh, E.N., Avilova, L.L.I. & Orlovskay, L.B.. 2002. Metallurgy of the circumpontic area: from unity to disintegration. Der Anschnitt. Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur im Bergbau. Beifheft 15: 83–100. Anatolian Metal II.Google Scholar
David, W. 1997. Altbronzezeitliche Beinobjekte des Karpatenbeckens mit Spiralwirbel-oder Wellenbandornamnet und ihre Parallellen auf der Peloponnes und in Anatolien in frühmykenischer Zeit, in Roman, P. (ed.) The Thracian World at the crossroads of civilizations: 247–305. Bucharest: Institutul Roma de Thracologie.Google Scholar
David, W. 2001. Zu den Beziehungen zwischen Donau-Karpatenraum, osteuropäischen Steppengebieten und ägäisch-anatolischen Raum zur Zeit der mykenischen Schachtgräber unter Berücksichtigung neuerer Funde aus Südbayern. Anados. Studies of Ancient World 1: 51–80.Google Scholar
Day, J.V. 2001. Indo-European origins: the anthropological evidence. Washington, DC: The Institute for the Study of Man.Google Scholar
Dolukhanov, P. 1994. Environment and ethnicity in the ancient Middle East. Worldwide Archaeology Series. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Drews, R. 1988. The coming of the Greeks. Indo-European conquests in the Aegean and the Near East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dzieduszycka-Machnik, A. & Machnik, J.. 1990. Die Möglichkeiten der Erforschung der sozialen Struktur frühbronzezeitlicher Menschengruppen in Kleinpolen – am Beispiel der Nekropole in Iwanowice. Godisniak, Knjiga XXVII. Centar za Balkanoloska Ispitivanja, Knjiga 26: 185–96. Sarajevo.Google Scholar
Ecsedy, I. 1994. Camps for eternal rest. Some aspects of the burials of the earliest Nomads of the steppe, in Genito, B. (ed.) The archaeology of the steppes. Methods and strategies: 167–77. Papers from an international symposium held in Naples 9–12 November 1992. Napoli.Google Scholar
Engedal, Ø. 2002. The Nordic Scimitar. External relations and the creation of elite ideology. BAR International Series 1050. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Ezzo, J., Johnson, C.M. & Price, T.D.. 1997. Analytical perspectives on prehistoric migration: a case study from East-Central Arizona. Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 447–66.Google Scholar
Gimbutas, M. 1970. Proto-Indo-European Culture: the Kurgan culture during the 5th to the 3rd millennia BC, in Cardona, C. Koenigswald, H. M. & Senn, A. (ed.) Indo-European and Indo-Europeans: 155–98. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Gkiasta, M., Russell, T. Shennan, S. & Steele, J.. 2003. Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited. Antiquity 77:45–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grupe, G. et al. 1997. Mobility of Bell Beaker people revealed by strontium isotope ratios of tooth and bone: a study of southern Bavarian skeletal remains. Applied Geochemistry 12: 517–25.Google Scholar
Hansen, S. 2002 ‘Überausstattungen’ in Gräbern und Horten der Frühbronzezeit, in Müller, J. (ed.) Vom Endneolithikum zur Frühbronzezeit: Muster sozialen Wandels? Tagung Bamberg 14–16 June 2001. UPA 90: 151–73. Bonn.Google Scholar
Kohl, P. 2001. Migrations and cultural diffusion in the later prehistory of the caucasus, in Reichmann, R. & Parzinger, H. (ed.) Migration und Kulturtransfer. Der Wandel der vorder-und zentralasiatischer Kulturen im Umbruch vom 2. zum 1. vorchristlichen Jahrtausend. Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt a. M. Eurasien-Abteilung, Berlin. Kolloquien zur Vor-und Frühgeschichte, Band 6. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Kremenetski, K. 2003. Steppe and forest steppe belt of Eurasia: Holocene environmental history, in Levine, M. Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptations and the horse: 11–29. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 1989. Prehistoric migrations – the case of the Single Grave Culture and Corded Ware Cultures. Journal of Danish Archaeology 8: 211–25.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 1998. Europe before history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 2001. Rulers and warriors: symbolic transmission and social transformation in Bronze Age Europe, in Haas, J. (ed.) From leaders to rulers: 85–105. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 2004. Institutions and material culture. Towards an intercontextual archaeology, in Renfrew, C. & DeMarrais, E. (ed.) Rethinking materiality: the engagement of mind with the material world: 179–93. Cambridge: McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. & Larsson, T.. 2005. The rise of Bronze Age society. Travels, transmission and transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E.E. 2001. The first migration wave of Indo-Iranians to the south. Journal of Indo-European Studies 29: 1–40.Google Scholar
Larsson, T.B. 1997. Materiell kultur och religiösa symboler. Arkeologiska studier vid Umeå Universitet 4.Google Scholar
Larsson, T.B. 1999a. Symbols in a European Bronze Age cosmology, in Orrling, C. (ed.) Communications in Bronze Age Europe. Transactions of a Bronze Age symposium in Tanumstrand, Bohuslän, Sweden, 5–7 September, 1995: 9–17. Stockholm: Statens Historiska Museum.Google Scholar
Larsson, T.B. 1999b. The transmission of an élite ideology – Europe and the Near East in the second millennium BC, in Goldhahn, J. (ed.) Rock art as social representations: 49–64. BAR International Series 794. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Manolis, S.K. & Neroutsos, A.A.. 1997. The middle Bronze Age burial of Kolona at Aegina Island, Greece: study of the human skeletal remains, in Kilian-Dirlmeier, I. (ed.) Das Mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab von Ägina. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Forschungsinstitutt für Vor-und Frühgeschichte. Kataloge Vor-und Frühgeschichtliche Altertümer, Band 27/Alt Ägina Band IV, 3. Mainz: Verlag Phillip von Zabern.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J., Budd, P. & Evans, J.. 2000. Reconstructing the lifetime movements of ancient people: a Neolithic case study from Southern England. European Journal of Archaeology 3: 370–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, J. (ed.) 2002 Vom Endneolithicum zur Frühbronzezeit: Muster sozialen Wandels? Tagung Bamberg 14–16 June 2001. UPA 90. Bonn.Google Scholar
Odgaard, B.V. 1994. The Holocene vegetation history of northern West Jutland, Denmark. Opera Botanica 123.Google Scholar
Olmsted, G.S. 1994. The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans. Archaeolingua. Budapest: Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft.Google Scholar
Pare, C. 2000. Bronze and the Bronze Age, in Pare, C. (ed.) Metals make the world go round: the supply and circulation of metals in Bronze Age Europe: 1–38. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Payne, S. 1990. Field report on the Dendra horses. Appendix to E. Protonotariou-Deilaki: the Tumuli of Mycenae and Dendra, in Hägg, R. Gullög, C. & Nordquist, C. (ed.) Celebrations of death and divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid. Skrifter utgivna av svenska institutet i Athen, 4, XL. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Penner, S. 1998. Schliemanns Schachtgräberrund under der europäische Nordosten. Studien zur Herkunft der Mykenischen Streitwagenausstattung. Saarbrücker Beitrage zur Altertumskunde, Band 60. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt Verlag.Google Scholar
Petersen, H.C. 1993. An anthropological investigation of the Single Grave Culture in Denmark, in Iregren, E. & Liljekvist, R. (ed.) Populations of the Nordic countries: Human population biology from the present to the Mesolithic: 178–88. University of Lund, Institute of Archaeology Report Series No. 46.Google Scholar
Prescott, C. & Walderhaug, E.. 1995. The last frontier? Processes of Indo-Europeanization in Northern Europe: the Norwegian case. The Journal of Indo-European Studies 23: 257–78.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Grupe, G. & Schröter, P.. 1998. Migration in the Bell Beaker period of central Europe. Antiquity 72: 405–11.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Manzanilla, L. & Middleton, W.D.. 2000. Immigration and the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico: a study using strontium isotope ratios in human bone and teeth. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 903–13.Google Scholar
Price, T.D., Knipper, C. Grupe, G. & Smrcka, V.. 2004. Strontium isotopes and prehistoric human migration: the Bell Beaker period in central Europe. European Journal of Archaeology 7: 9–41 Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1986. Introduction: peer polity interaction and socio-political change, in Renfrew, C. & Cherry, J. (ed.) Peer polity interaction and socio-political change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1987. Archaeology and language, the puzzle of Indo-European origins. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1989. Models of change in language and archaeology. Transactions of the Philological Society 87: 103–55.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1998. Word of Minos: the Minoan contribution to Mycenaean Greek and the linguistic geography of the Bronze Age Aegean. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8: 239–64.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1999. Time depth, convergence theory, and innovation in Proto-Indo-European: ‘Old Europe’ as a PIE linguistic area. Journal of Indo-European Studies 27: 257–93.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2000. At the edge of knowability: towards a prehistory of languages. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10: 7–34.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2001. The Anatolian origins of Proto-Indo-European and the autochthony of the Hittites, in Drews, R. (ed.) Greater Anatolia and the Indo-Hittite language family: 36–63. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 38. Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. & Boyle, K. (ed.) 2000. Archaeogenetics: DNA and the population history of Europe. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., McMahon, A. & Trask, L. (ed.) 2000. Time depth in historical linguistics. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Robb, J. 1993. A social prehistory of European languages. Antiquity 67: 747–61.Google Scholar
Shennan, S. 1978. Archaeological ‘cultures’: an empirical investigation, in Hodder, I. (ed.) The spatial organisation of culture: 113–39. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1981. Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution, in Hodder, I. & Hammond, N. (ed.) Pattern of the past: 261–305. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1997/1991. Troy, Maikop, Altyn Depe: Early Bronze Age urbanism and its periphery, in Sherratt, A. (ed.) Economy and society in prehistoric Europe: changing perspectives. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1997. Economy and society in prehistoric Europe: changing perspectives. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1999. Echoes of the big bang: the historical context of language dispersal, in Jones-Bley, K. et al. (ed.) Proceedings from the Tenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference Los Angeles, 1998: 261–82. Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series No. 32, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 2003. The Baden (Pécel) culture and Anatolia: perspectives on a cultural transformation, in Jerem, E. & Raczky, P. (ed.) Morgenrot der Kulturen. Frühe Etappen der Menschheitsgeschichte in Mittel-und Südosteuropa. Festschrift für Nàndor Kalicz zum 75, Geburtstag, Budapest.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A.G. & Sherratt, E.S.. 1988. The archaeology of Indo-European: an alternative view. Antiquity 62: 584–95.Google Scholar
Shislina, N.I. 2003. Yamna culture pastoral exploitation: a Local Sequence, in Boyle, K. Renfrew, C. & Levine, M. (ed.) Ancient interactions: east and west in Eurasia: 353–367. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Shislina, N.I. (ed.) 2000. Seasonality Studies of the Bronze Age Northwest Caspian Steppe (English summaries). Papers of the State Historical Museum, vol 120. Moscow.Google Scholar
Sims-Williams, P. 1998. Genetics, linguistics, and prehistory: thinking big and thinking straight. Antiquity 72: 505–28.Google Scholar
Stefanovich, M.R. 1989. Can Archaeology and Historical Linguistics Coexist? A Critical Review of Colin Renfrew’s Archaeology and Language-The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Mankind Quarterly 30: 129–58.Google Scholar
Stein, G.J. 1999. Rethinking World-Systems: Diasporas, Colonies, and Interaction in Uruk Mesopotamia. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Ward, D. 1968. The Divine Twins: An Indo-European Myth in Germanic Tradition. Folklore Studies 19. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Yoffee, N. 1990. Before Babel. A Review Article. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 56: 299–313.Google Scholar
Zdanovich, G.B. & Zdanovich, D.G.. 2002. The ‘Country of Towns’ of Southern Trans-Urals and Some Aspects of Steppe Assimilation in the Bronze Age, in Boyle, K. Renfrew, C. & Levine, M. (ed.) Ancient interactions: east and west in Eurasia. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar