Think pieces:
Social aspects of Neolithic technology of firing pottery in bonfires
Alexander Akulov
Firing pottery was one of the most complicated Neolithic technologies since it requires certain natural conditions to be met and the existence of an organized group that could successfully make firing. Such group/team consists of a person that can be denoted foreman of firing and assistants. A foreman of firing maintained stable and active fire and managed the process of firing in general. The main task of the assistants was the preparation of brushwood. Firing of a large vessel required many efforts, so there could be two or three teams, which replacing each other continuously maintained the fire. The Neolithic technology of firing evidently was built up with many restrictions and rituals which were aimed to avoid distractions/bustle. Foremen of firing could predict the dry weather, so they played the roles somehow like those of shamans. Foremen of firing could be informal leaders of their local groups.
Keywords: Neolithic technology of firing pottery; Neolithic society; experimental archaeology
Akulov_Social_aspect_of_firing
The Kaftiw spell against Asiatic disease from the London Medical Papyrus
Alexander Akulov
The text of the Kaftiw/Minoan spell against Asiatic disease from the London Medical Papyrus is the following: sAn tikApwp wAAywAti yman tiirkAkA. The original phrase probably was the following: sa-n(1) ti-kapu-p(V)(2) u-waa-pi-wā-at(3) imallen(4) ti-hir-kar-kar(5) – “horns of health-giving Moon(1-2) help me(3) this way(4) clean the rash(5)”. Kaftiw/Minoan language can be decoded through Hattic language. The form sAn tikApwp looks much like Hattic possessive genitive where the possessor has suffix –n, and the possessed has prefix te/še/le; sA ~ Hattic sa “to make healthy”; tikApwp has root kap “Moon” and a partial reduplication, so kApwp probably means “crescent”. wAAywAti ~ u-waa-pi-wā-at where: u – agent, waa – patient, pi – centripetal version, and wā – root “to set”. yman ~ Hattic imallen “thus” / “this way”. tiirkAkA – ti-hir-kar-kar where: ti/te – optative, kar-kar – root “to rake”, “to scrape”, hir ~ Hattic hil “to strew”, and so ti-hir-kar-kar means “may [this/someone] remove the rash”.
Keywords: Minoan language; Kaftiw language; Kaftiw; Egyptian Papyruses; Minoan Crete
On the Ainu origin of the ethnonym Emishi/Ebisu/Ezo
Alexander Akulov, Tresi Nonno
The main arguments of the Ainu origin of the name Emishi were presented by Kindaichi, however, that these arguments were presented rather haphazardly. This paper is aimed to represent facts found by Kindachi in a more systematic way. It is possible to say that the Japanese form emishi is the oldest form. Japanese emishi was derived from Ainu *emciu. The form ebisu came out from the form emisu. Key points of transformation of *emciu into ezo are the following: 1) emchiu became enju: [m] of emciu became [n] under the influence of subsequent alveolar/alveolo-palatal sound [t]/[tɕ]; 2) Ainu language doesn’t distinguish voiced and unvoiced consonants, so enciu became enju; 3) enju was pronounced as enzo in Tōhoku. Ainu word-form enju can’t originate from Japanese ezo: if ezo would be borrowed by Ainu it would become *ento. Also the word enciu/enju was used as self-naming by Ainu in sacral narratives/in tales.
Keywords: Emishi; Ainu; Kindaichi
Emishi chief Ryōkō/Ri-o-kur 綾糠from the scroll about emperor Bidatsu
Tresi Nonno
In the 20th scroll of Nihon shoki there is a name of Emishi chief 綾糟 that is read as Ayakasu. This reading is unlike typical Emishi/Ainu names of chiefs: Emishi were a branch of Ainu, and names of Ainu chiefs usually end with kur – “person”. It seems that Ayakasu was ascribed to these kanji in late time. The kan’on of 綾糟 is ryōsō, but if a name ending with kur is recorded by kanji then such recording evidently should end with a kanji sounding like kur (with a kanji that is read as ki/ko/kō/ku). Probably the original kanji of the name were 綾糠 and it was pronounced as Ryōkō, later 糠 was mistakenly replaced by 糟. Ryōkō originally was Ri-o-kur; it consists of the following components: kur – “man/person”; ri – “to be tall/high”, “to be growing”; o – “penis”. Thus, Ri-o-kur means “A man with an erected penis”.
Keywords: Emishi; Nihon shoki; Ainu
On some connections of Celtic and Baltic peoples
Mindaugas Peleckis
In ancient times both Celtic and Baltic languages were spread in the vast areas of central and northern Europe. It’s possible that Celtic and Baltic tribes met on the trade route Amber Road which took place from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea since the 16th century BC. In this paper I want to consider a grammatical feature that is common to Celtic and Baltic languages: nominative singular case marker -as that is seen best in Scottish Gaelic (and also traced in Old Irish, Irish, Cornish, and Welsh) and Lithuanian, and also about some common place names and a common god.
Keywords: Celtic, Baltic, Gaulish, Scottish Gaelic, Old Irish, Irish, Cornish, Welsh, Lithuanian, Old Prussian
Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics 