Sarasvati (texts & arch.II)

[Michael Witzel]

On Wed, 27 May 1998, Paul K. Manansala wrote:

> Maybe not in the case of gradual demic diffusion.  However, a mass migration
> of whole communities in wagons (and chariots?) from the Volga invading a
> foreign land is something to sing about.

<<see now L.Fose>>

Nobody says that these days. I stressed gradual immigration, trickling in.
Invasion -- that's your constant Mantra.

and, BTW, whole communities have indeed moved often enough. I think Lars
Fosse has given the examples of Caesar's Helvetii (peacefully!), hundred
thousands strong, or of the Cimbri & Teutoni (not peacefully);

well before the Mongols, we may add the curious really LONG DISTANCE case
of the E. Germanic Vandali from E. Europe, who moved (not so peacefully)
all the way via Spain... (V)andalusia... to Tunesia, and all of this
TOGETHER with the Alani, a North Iranian tribe from the Ukraine, now
surviving as the Ossetes in the Caucasus. One may guess that the Tunesian
Vandals were not exactly the same kind of people that set out from
E.Europe....

A good model of what may *really* have happened in IIr times and what kind
of curious symbiosis one may expect. (note: Mitanni, Kassites, etc.)

 ==========================================================================
Michael Witzel                       witzel at fas.harvard.edu