Posted on 07/06/2004 11:02:03 AM PDT by blam
That's consistent with an older view, that of diffusion of discoveries (writing, the plow, the stirrup, the abacus, gunpowder, what-have-you) from point of origin (wherever each one originated) outward to the rest of the world.Rethinking a History That's Carved in StoneThree months after the announcement of its discovery in Central Asia, a tiny stone object inscribed with symbols thought to be the writing of an obscure desert culture from 4,000 years ago is more of an enigma than ever. If this is indeed an early form of writing, as its discoverer has suggested, it is strong evidence for a previously unknown civilization that began about 2300 B.C. across much of modern Turkmenistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan... An even more puzzling aspect of the discovery has been raised by specialists in ancient Chinese writing. They contend that the inscription bears more than a passing resemblance to Chinese writing -- not an early script, but one that was not used until about 200 B.C... There is no clear evidence for Chinese writing before about 1300 or 1200 B.C. -- 1,000 years after people lived at the Anau site in Turkmenistan where the mysterious inscription was unearthed... Another possibility, which would throw the scholarship of Chinese writing into turmoil, is that the 2300 inscription date is correct. That would suggest that influences from Central Asia or farther west might have contributed to the invention of Chinese writing. Dr. Mair, who holds that such influences were greater than previously thought, has raised this controversial point.
by John Noble Wilford
July 31, 2001
Origins of the Bronze Age
Oasis Civilization in Central Asia
by Fredrik T. Hiebert
The oldest paper ever found was among these mummies around Urumchi. The extinct Indo-European language, Tocharian, was written on it. Ancient Celtic is it's closest relative.
My mom wants the rest of the article! I was reading it to her over the phone and the link just left us hangin'!
Personally, I wouldn't call anything from 1900 years ago, ANCIENT. Mentally I classify anything pre-Christ as ancient, post-Christ as well, not ancient ;-)
In any case, Indians had a pretty highly developed civilisation by 2500 + B.C. and these were the eastern outpost of "westerners" viz. caucasians, so it's not really surprising that some caucasians were found near the indian continent around 100 AD
So even then they had "running dogs of western imperialism" in China.
Subfamily | Group | Subgroup | Languages and Principal Dialects |
Anatolian | Hieroglypic Hittite*, Hittite (Kanesian)*, Luwian*, Lycian*, Lydian*, Palaic* | ||
Baltic | Latvian (Lettish), Lithuanian, Old Prussian* | ||
Celtic | Brythonic | Breton, Cornish*, Welsh | |
Celtic | Continental | Gaulish* | |
Celtic | Goidelic or Gaelic | Irish (Irish Gaelic), Manx*, Scottish Gaelic | |
Germanic | East Germanic | Burgundian*, Gothic*, Vandalic* | |
Germanic | North Germanic | Old Norse* (see Norse): Danish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish | |
Germanic | West Germanic (see Grimm's law) | High German | German, Yiddish |
Germanic | West Germanic (see Grimm's law) | Low German | Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Flemish, Frisian, Plattdeutsch (see German language) |
Greek | Aeolic*, Arcadian*, Attic*, Byzantine Greek*, Cyprian*, Doric*, Ionic*, KoinE*, Modern Greek | ||
Indo-Iranian | Dardic or Pisacha | Kafiri, Kashmiri, Khowar, Kohistani, Romany (Gypsy), Shina | |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | Pali*, Prakrit*, Sanskrit*, Vedic* | |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | Central Indic | Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | East Indic | Assamese, Bengali, Bihari, Oriya |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | Northwest Indic | Punjabi, Sindhi |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | Pahari | Central Pahari, Eastern Pahari (Nepali), Western Pahari |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | South Indic | Marathi (including major dialect Konkani), Singhalese (Sinhalese) |
Indo-Iranian | Indic or Indo-Aryan | West Indic | Bhili, Gujarati, Rajasthani (many dialects) |
Indo-Iranian | Iranian | Avestan*, Old Persian* | |
Indo-Iranian | Iranian | East Iranian | Baluchi, Khwarazmian*, Ossetic, Pamir dialects, Pushtu (Afghan), Saka (Khotanese)*, Sogdian*, Yaghnobi |
Indo-Iranian | Iranian | West Iranian | Kurdish, Pahlavi (Middle Persian)*, Parthian*, Persian (Farsi), Tajiki |
Italic | (Non-Romance) | Faliscan*, Latin, Oscan*, Umbrian* | |
Italic | Romance or Romanic | Eastern Romance | Italian, Rhaeto-Romanic, Romanian, Sardinian |
Italic | Romance or Romanic | Western Romance | Catalan, French, Ladino, Portuguese, Provençal, Spanish |
Slavic or Slavonic | East Slavic | Belorussian (White Russian), Russian, Ukrainian | |
Slavic or Slavonic | South Slavic | Bulgarian, Church Slavonic*, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian | |
Slavic or Slavonic | West Slavic | Czech, Kashubian, Lusatian (Sorbian or Wendish), Polabian*, Polish, Slovak | |
Thraco-Illyrian | Albanian, Illyrian*, Thracian* | ||
Thraco-Phrygian | Armenian, Grabar (Classical Armenian)*, Phrygian* | ||
Tokharian (W China) | Tokharian A (Agnean)*, Tokharian B (Kuchean)* |
i knew it was you when i saw the header.
The ones marked with an (*) are extinct languages
and worse yet, they have the audacity to use the term "race"....oh the horror!
The term "race" is perfectly acceptable in a scientific discussion to distinguish between large groups of people -- it may blur at the edges but is a pretty good identifier
i agree (with both parts) but i'll bet you that even a sizable number of freepers bristle at the word.
I saw you mentioned Indians earlier. Like you I generally lumped them into the Caucazoid group but I was corrected the other day here by someone who informed me (with links) that most Indians (particularly lower caste) were indeed Australiod/Negroid unlike Pakistanis who were more Caucazoid.
interesting
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