scholarly journals Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word reveals deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
South India ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Indus Civilization ◽  
Salvadora Persica ◽  
The Core ◽  
Indus Valley ◽  
Alternate Forms ◽  
Old Persian

AbstractEver since the discovery of Indus valley civilization, scholars have debated the linguistic identities of its people. This study analyzes numerous archaeological, linguistic, archaeogenetic and historical evidences to claim that the words used for elephant (like, ‘pīri’, ‘pīru’) in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, the elephant-word used in the Hurrian part of an Amarna letter of ca. 1400 BC, and the ivory-word (‘pîruš’) recorded in certain sixth century BC Old Persian documents, were all originally borrowed from ‘pīlu’, a Proto-Dravidian elephant-word, which was prevalent in the Indus valley civilization, and was etymologically related to the Proto-Dravidian tooth-word ‘*pal’ and its alternate forms (‘*pīl’/‘*piḷ’/‘*pel’). This paper argues that there is sufficient morphophonemic evidence of an ancient Dravidian ‘*piḷ’/‘*pīl’-based root, which meant ‘splitting/crushing’, and was semantically related to the meanings ‘tooth/tusk’. This paper further observes that ‘pīlu’ is among the most ancient and common phytonyms of the toothbrush tree Salvadora persica, which is a characteristic flora of Indus valley, and whose roots and twigs have been widely used as toothbrush in IVC regions since antiquity. This study claims that this phytonym ‘pīlu’ had also originated from the same Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and argues that since IVC people had named their toothbrush trees and tuskers (elephants) using a Proto-Dravidian tooth-word, and since these names were widely used across IVC regions, a significant population of Indus valley civilization must have used that Proto-Dravidian tooth-word in their daily communication. Since ‘tooth’ belongs to the core non-borrowable ultraconserved vocabulary of a speech community, its corollary is that a significant population of IVC spoke certain ancestral Dravidian languages. Important insights from recent archaeogenetic studies regarding possible migration of Proto-Dravidian speakers from Indus valley to South India also corroborate the findings of this paper.

scholarly journals Proto-Dravidian Languages in Indus Civilization: Ultraconserved Dravidian Tooth-word Reveals Deep Linguistic Ancestry, Supports Genetics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Indus Civilization ◽  
Salvadora Persica ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Indus Valley

Ever since the discovery of the Indus valley civilization, scholars have debated the linguistic identities of its people. This study analyzes numerous archaeological, linguistic and historical evidences to claim that the words used for ivory and elephant (‘pīri’, ‘pīru’, etc.) in ancient Mesopotamian and Persian civilizations were borrowed from the Proto-Dravidian elephant-word ‘pīlu’, prevalent in the Indus valley civilization, and related to the Proto-Dravidian tooth-word ‘*pal’. It further argues that ‘pīlu’, the ancient and commonest phytonym of the toothbrush tree Salvadora persica, a characteristic flora of Indus valley, had also originated from the same Proto-Dravidian tooth-word. Since ‘tooth’ belongs to the core non-borrowable ultraconserved vocabulary of a speech community, these evidences prove that many Indus people spoke Proto-Dravidian languages, as they used a Proto-Dravidian tooth-word. Important insights from recent genetic studies regarding the possible migration of Proto-Dravidian languages from Indus valley to South India are also corroborated through this paper.

Art and Iconography

2019 ◽  
pp. 348-369
Author(s):  
Eric Gubel
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Complex Patterns

Rooted in Late Bronze Age Levantine traditions, Phoenician art emerges in the early first millennium bce, spiced with new elements adopted and adapted from contemporary Egyptian models, while also permeable to influence from artistic trends popular with neighboring cultures and overseas recipients of Phoenician luxurious exports. During its acme between the late ninth and early seventh centuries bce, the art shared a common repertoire of motifs among sculptors, metalsmiths, ivory carvers, and seal cutters in a predominantly Egyptianizing style. Mass-produced terracotta plaques, figurines, and the minor arts displayed a more diversified array of autochthonous characteristics. In line with the evolution of sculpture, the Cypriot component was definitely replaced by Greek idioms from the later sixth century bce onward. If Punic art cannot possibly be defined as a mere perpetuation of the Phoenician production, and was impacted by more complex patterns of cultural interaction (e.g. North Africa, Iberia), the latter’s heritage is undeniable in many artistic media.

Later Bronze Age Activity in the Somerset Levels

1972 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Coles
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Raised Bog ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

SummaryThe evidence of human activity in the Somerset Levels in the first millennium B.C. consists of wooden trackways laid across areas of developing raised bog, and joining small settlements on the higher, drier lands of the Poldens and the Wedmore ridge. The excavation of one of these tracks, of the sixth century B.C., is described. Stray finds of weapons and tools continue to be made by peat-cutters and by archaeologists; the most recent of these finds are a hazelwood peg or truncheon, and a sycamore tent peg, of the fourth or third century B.C. The relationship of the trackways and other finds to the marshside villages at Meare remains to be established.

scholarly journals Leontius of Byzantium and the Concept of Enhypostaton

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-218
Author(s):  
Anna Zhyrkova
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Conceptual Content ◽  
The Core ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
Philosophical Questions

The concept of “enhypostaton” was introduced into theological discourse during the sixth-century Christological debates with the aim of justifying the unitary subjectivity of Christ by reclassifying Christ’s human nature as ontically non-independent. The coinage of the term is commonly ascribed to Leontius of Byzantium. Its conceptual content has been recognized by contemporary scholarship as relevant to the core issues of Christology, as well as possessing significance for such philosophical questions as individuation and the nature of individual entityhood. Even so, despite its role in the formation of classical Christological thought, the notion of “enhypostaton” is often regarded as obscure and not clearly defined. This paper aims to shed some light on the meaning of Leontius’ conception of it, in respect of its specifically philosophical import.

The South Indian Tradition of the Apostle Thomas

1924 ◽  
Vol 56 (S1) ◽  
pp. 213-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Thoma
Keyword(s):  
South India ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
Indian Tradition ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Christian Origins ◽  
Final Settlement

Although a great deal has been written concerning St. Thomas's connexion with India, it has so far resulted only in barren controversies and inchoate theories. The finding of the “Gondophares.” coins in the Cabul region raised great hopes of a final settlement of the problem; but apart from the (itself doubtful) identification of a single name in the Ada Thomae, it has shed little light on the mysteries of Christian origins in India. Nay, it has had positively injurious results, inasmuch as it diverted the attention of scholars into fields far remote from the familiar haunts of the Thomistic tradition. South India is the quarter from which we should expect fresh evidence: the north has no known claims to any connexion with the Apostle. In the south live the Christians of St. Thomas—the so-called “Syrians” who for more than a thousand years have upheld their descent from the Apostle's disciples. There also we have what has been believed from immemorial antiquity to be the tomb of St. Thomas, with various lithic remains of pre-Portuguese Christianity around Madras. South India has a remarkably ancient tradition of St. Thomas; and it is a living tradition, not a dead legend. It can be traced back at least to the sixth century a.d., and it still lives in popular memories, not only of Christians, but of others not recognizing the claims of Christianity. The existence of this tradition is known and recognized; but no organized attempt has yet been made to explore it.

scholarly journals Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam S. Green
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Complex Society ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Indus Civilization ◽  
The Past

Abstract The cities of the Indus civilization were expansive and planned with large-scale architecture and sophisticated Bronze Age technologies. Despite these hallmarks of social complexity, the Indus lacks clear evidence for elaborate tombs, individual-aggrandizing monuments, large temples, and palaces. Its first excavators suggested that the Indus civilization was far more egalitarian than other early complex societies, and after nearly a century of investigation, clear evidence for a ruling class of managerial elites has yet to materialize. The conspicuous lack of political and economic inequality noted by Mohenjo-daro’s initial excavators was basically correct. This is not because the Indus civilization was not a complex society, rather, it is because there are common assumptions about distributions of wealth, hierarchies of power, specialization, and urbanism in the past that are simply incorrect. The Indus civilization reveals that a ruling class is not a prerequisite for social complexity.

Island Gems Aftermath

1968 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Boardman
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Soft Material ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Rock Crystal ◽  
Main Series ◽  
Summary Representation ◽  
Supplementary Volume

This article is intended not only to record additions and corrections to Island Gems (published by the Hellenic Society in 1963 as its tenth Supplementary Volume; here abbreviated IGems), but also to discuss a class of engraved stones which was not properly distinguished in that book. The main series of Island Gems belongs to the seventh and early sixth centuries B.C. Most of the stones and a few of their devices copy Bronze Age forms, and the material is generally a distinctive, often translucent, green serpentine (‘steatite’). This series ends in the first half of the sixth century, but it was possible to identify, by their material and technique, some later gems from Island workshops which correspond in style and shape with the contemporary Greek scarabs in harder materials. The comparatively soft material had meant that the intaglio devices on Island gems could be cut without recourse to the drill or cutting wheel, and this technique was retained for the later scarabs. It is evident, however, that for a while already in the sixth century Island artists had experimented with the harder materials then being employed for engraved seals in Greece; and with some shapes which seem to compromise between the old and the new. These stones seem to belong to the middle and second half of the sixth century. A list follows:(i) Oxford 1925.129. plate I. Green steatite tapered scaraboid with convex face. L. 20 (mm.). A lion. IGems no. 349, fig. 6, pl. 13.(ii) Athens, from Sunium. plate I. Green steatite. Shape as the last. L. 20. Contorted bull-headed man. IGems no. 350, pl. 13.(iii) Paris, Bibl. Nat., ex Louvre C 8514. Rock crystal plump lentoid. W. 18. Summary representation of a winged horse.(iv) Boston 27.678 (once Bruschi, Warren), plate I. Chalcedony lentoid with domed back and shallow convex face. W. 21. Facing head of a satyr with fillet ends behind the ears and an arrow marking at the centre of the forehead.

Neo-Babylonian ba-ga-ni(-'). I

1937 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-343
Author(s):  
C. P. T. Winckworth
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Old Persian ◽  
The One

In an article by W. Eilers, entitled “Eine mittelpersische Wortform aus frühachämenidischer Zeit ?” (ZDMG., 90, 160 ff.), it is contended that already by the end of the sixth century B.C. the nominal inflexions of Old Persian had completely disappeared from the Persian spoken language, in contradistinction to the literary language of the Achsemenid inscriptions. The author's arguments are based entirely upon his own novel interpretation of two short passages contained in Neo-Babylonian private letters of the time of Darius I, which are to all intents and purposes identical the one with the other, and which may be provisionally transliterated:—

scholarly journals Similarities of Minoan and Indus Valley Hydro-Technologies

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 4897 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Khan ◽  
E. Dialynas ◽  
V. K. Kasaraneni ◽  
A. N. Angelakis
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Indus Valley ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Aegean Islands ◽  
History Of

This review evaluates Minoan and Indus Valley hydro-technologies in southeastern Greece and Indus Valley Pakistan, respectively. The Minoan civilization first inhabited Crete and several Aegean islands shortly after the Late Neolithic times and flourished during the Bronze Age (ca 3200–1100 BC). At that time, the Minoan civilization developed fundamental technologies and reached its pinnacle as the first and most important European culture. Concurrently, the Indus Valley civilization populated the eastern bank of the Indus River, its tributaries in Pakistan, and the Ganges plains in India and Nadia (Bangladesh), spreading over an area of about one million km2. Its total population was unknown; however, an estimated 43,000 people resided at Harappa. The urban hydro-technologies, characteristics of a civilization can be determined by two specific aspects, the natural and the social environment. These two aspects cover a variety of factors, such as climate and social conditions, type of terrain, water supply, agriculture, water logging, sanitation and sewerage, hygienic conditions of communities, and racial features of the population. Therefore, these factors were used to understand the water resources management practices in early civilizations (e.g., Minoan and Indus Valley) and similarities, despite the large geographic distance between places of origin. Also discussed are the basic principles and characteristics of water management sustainability in both civilizations and a comparison of basic water supply and sanitation practices through the long history of the two civilizations. Finally, sustainability issues and lessons learned are considered.

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