Wheat

Who gets slaughtered at the end of summer, gets buried at the end of autumn, gets resurrected, reborn at the end of winter, becomes young and fertile at the end of spring, becomes mature at the end of summer just to be slaughtered again...so that the cycle can be repeated again, year after year after year...???

Ripening wheat, Serbia. Photographer: Branko Pantić

Dun, Tun

It is widely accepted that the word "dunum" is another typically Celtic element in European place-names. It was, as far as I am aware, based on the sources that I have found, first recorded in the first century BC. If anyone has any example of an earlier record of a place name which contains word "dunum", please let me know, so I can update my post. 

Anyway, place names containing "dunum" were recorded from Ireland to Ukraine. 

Here are some examples:

Ireland: Two places marked as dunum on Ptolemy map of Ireland. 
France: Lugdunum (Lyons), Virodunum (Verdun)
Switzerland: Minnodunum (Moudon), Eburodunum (Yverdon)
Netherlands Lugdunum (Leyden)
Great Britain: Camulodunum (Colchester), Brandunum (Brancaster)
Spain: Donobria (Dumbría), Moridunum (Morodon), Estledunum (Estola)
Germany: Cambodunum (Kempton), Carrodunum (Karnberg), Lugidunum (Liegnitz)
Serbia: Singidunum (Belgrade)
Croatia: Carrodunum (Virovitica)
Romania: Noviodunum (Isaccea)
Ukraine: Carrodunum (?)
Poland: Carrodunum (Krakow)

Apparently the root "dunum" is actually the Proto-Celtic "*dūnom" meaning stronghold, fort, rampart.

The direct descendants of this Proto-Celtic root are:


Goidelic:

    Old Irish: dun
    Irish: dún
    Manx: doon
    Scottish Gaelic: dùn

Brythonic: *din

    Old Breton: din
    Breton: din
    Middle Welsh: din, dinas
    Welsh: din
    Cornish: dyn

All meaning fort or town.

In Ireland, and in parts of Scotland once occupied by the Irish, there are still many place names which contain the Irish word "dún". 

Ireland: Donegal (Dún na nGall), Dungannon (Dún Geanainn), Doonbeg (Dún Beag), Doonally (Dún Aille), Dunowla (Dún Abhla), Dún Laoghaire...You can find more "dún" place names from Ireland in the database of the Irish place names.

Scotland: Edinburgh (Dùn Èideann), Dinnet (Dùnaidh), Macduff (An Dùn), Dundee (Dùn Dè), Dunnichen (Dùn Neachdain), Dunbeg (An Dùn Beag)...You can find more "dún" place names from Scotland in the database of the Scottish Gaelic place names.

In Wales we have a lot of place names which contain the word "din" meaning fort:

Din Sylwy, Dinmoyle, Pendine (Pen- din), Dinas Emrys, Dinorwig, Dyserth (Dincolyn). You can find more "din" place names from Wales in "The place-names of Wales". 

But in Wales we also find place names which contain the word "tyn" which is actually a derivative of the Old English word "tun" meaning "enclosed land, farmstead, town". Such place names are Axtyn, Estyn, Golftyn, Mertyn, Mostyn, Prestatyn, Cychtyn. You can find more about these names in "The place-names of east Flintshire". 

In the English place names which originally had Old English "tun", the ending "tun" have later morphed into "ton" like in Elston, Tunstead, Warrington, Brighton, Coniston, Clacton, Everton, Broughton, Luton, Merton, Bolton, Workington, Preston, Bridlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Taunton, Boston, Kensington, Paddington, Crediton, Honiton, Hamilton, Northampton, Southampton, Paignton, Tiverton, Helston, Wolverhampton, Buxton, Congleton, Darlington, Northallerton...This is actually by far the most common place name type in England. 

The Old English word "tun" is said to come from a proposed Proto-Germanic root "*tūną"  meaning “fence”.

The direct descendants of this Proto-Germanic root are:

1. Old Norse "tún" meaning "a hedged plot, enclosure, courtyard, homestead"
2. Old English "tūn" meaning "an enclosed piece of ground, an enclosure or garden, the enclosed ground belonging to an individual dwelling, the group of houses on an area of enclosed land, a homestead, a large inhabited place, a town"
3. West Frisian "tún", Old Saxon "tún", Dutch "tuin" meaning “garden”
4. German "zaun" meaning "fence" 

I am not sure how many place names in Brittany have the element "din". There are several place names beginning with "din" that I have found in "Breton Settlement Names: A Geographical View": Dinan, a town whose castle is figured on the Bayeux tapestry (11th century), could mean 'little fortress' (-an diminutive). D.inard, for a long time a fishing village in the parish of St. Enogat, could be 'the high fortress'. Dineault, the name of a parish in Finistere, in Breton Dineol, is pronounced as if it included the name of the sun (heol).  If anyone knows of any other ones please let me know. 

I am not sure about the Norse, West Frisian, Dutch settlements with "tún" in their names, or German place names with "zaun". I would love if someone would help me update the post with this data.

But I can tell you that there are a lot of place names with the word "din", "tin"," tun" in the Balkans.

Many years ago professor Ranka Kujić who once taught at the Belgrade University and who was also a member of the Welsh academy, published a book "Crveno i Belo, Celtsko - Srbske paralele" (Red and White, Celtic - Serbian parallels).

Crveno i belo book cover

In this book she lists the toponyms from the areas of the Balkans which are now or were once inhabited by Serbs, and which are based on the suffixes "din", "tin"," tun" meaning stronghold, fort, settlement, enclosure.

Apatin, Bajatun, Batin, Bitin, Bitina, Blagotin, Bradina, Bradina, Bratun, Bratunac, Bršadin, Butin, Cetina, Cetingrad, Cetinja, Čokordin, Kovin, Čordin, Dekutince, Deretin, Divostin, Dobrotin, Gorčin, Gojčin, Dradina, Gradetin, Knin, Kratin, Kratina, Kutina, Laktin, Martin, Mazin, Medine, Mislodjin, Morkin, Molin, Mišorin, Motina, Negotin, Neradin, Neštin, Nikodin, Nin, Paraćin, Petrovaradin, Pomeždin, Porodin, Pretin, Priština, Pundina, Radetin, Rastina, Ratin, Severin, Slatina, Svilartin, Surčin, Sutina, Tutin, Uzdin, Varaždin, Vidin, Vitina, Vlasotince

Her proposal is that these place names are all based on the Celtic suffixes "dun", "din", "tin"," tun" meaning stronghold, fort, settlement, enclosure. This is not a surprise considering that Balkans was once a Celtic stronghold. 

But interestingly we also have a Proto-Slavic root "*tynъ" meaning ‎“fence”. Is it possible that the above place names have been derived from this Proto-Slavic root meaning "fence" rather than the Proto-Celtic root meaning "fort"?

The thing is, there is really no difference between these two roots. What is a fort? Well, it is a piece of land, which is surrounded, enclosed with a fence so that people can protect themselves within it. Without a fence there is no fort. Have a look for yourself:

This is an Iron age fort from Britain

This is a Slavic early medieval fort

When you see a fort, what you see is a fence. When you think of forts you think of a space within the fence, the space enclosed by the fence, the enclosure. So it is easy to see how a word for a fence and the word for a fort are basically inseparable.

Fences are of course built not only around forts. They are built around:

Farmsteads, like this reconstructed Iron Age farmstead from Butser, Hampshire

Or this present day one one from Serbia

Sheep pens, like this one from Scotland

Sheep pen, Scottish highlands

Or these ones from Serbia

Sheep pen, Serbia

Sheep pen Serbia

Or a vegetable gardens

Basically fences are built around anything that needs to be protected, like people, sheep, vegetables creating fenced off enclosures (forts, farmsteads, sheep pens, gardens).

A reconstruction drawing of an early Irish Medieval Ring-fort by Philip Armstrong

I actually believe that the original meaning of the word "dun, din, tun, tin" must have been "something fenced of, an enclosure, an enclosed space surrounded with a fence" and that the meaning fort is a later derived one. I believe that this is confirmed by the meaning of the Proto-Germanic root "*tūną" and Slavic root "*tynъ" which both mean fence. 

Even the Irish word "dún" shows that the original meaning of the Proto-Celtic "*dūnom" must have been "enclosure". The word does mean "fort, fortress" but it also means "place of refuge, haven, haven for ships, secure residence, house" and as a verb it means "to close, to shut". 

The proof that the original meaning of the Irish word "dun" was "enclosure" are places like this ceremonial enclosure, on the hill of Cnoc Ailinne in County Kildare, Ireland, which is called Dún Ailinne, even though there was never any fort here, just a space enclosed with a ditch, a separated place, an enclosure.

Dún Ailinne

In the end we also find the same root "tun" in Armenian, meaning "house, habitation, home, construction, building (like palace, church), room, chamber; tent, pavilion, floor, land, country, region, inhabitants of the house, household, family, race, nation"

Armenian:
Old Armenian: տուն ‎(tun)
Armenian: տուն ‎(tun)

Again we can see that the meaning is "enclosed place".

So  no wonder that when we look at the etymology of the Proto-Celtic root "*dūnom" which means stronghold, fort we find that it comes from the PIE root  "*dʰuHnom" ‎meaning “enclosure”. Fort is just an enclosure whose perimeter is defined by a fence. 

So far so good. But, I would like to propose something here. :) 

I would like to propose that both Germanic and Slavic words are older than the Celtic words, and the the root of the whole cluster is "tun" which means fenced off place, enclosed space. Now the official linguistics is saying the opposite. It says that the original word is Celtic dunum meaning fort, from which Germanic "tun" meaning fence, enclosure is derived. Slavic "tyn" meaning fence is then derived from the Germanic "tun"...This comes from the old "population replacement" theory, which states that originally the whole of Europe was inhabited by Celts. Then the Germanic people came in from the East and replaced the Celts while borrowing some Celtic words, like the one for fort, and then using it for everything that is fenced off.... Then the Slavic people came in from the East and replaced the Germanic people while taking the Germanic word for fenced off place and using it as a word for a fence...

This replacement theory has been completely destroyed in recent years by genetic studies. There was no population replacement in Europe in the Iron age. Just migrations and mixing. So when we are talking about Celts, Germanics and Slavs, we can only talk about ever changing and evolving cultures, tribal alliances and linguistic horizons.  And this makes it perfectly possible that the word "dun", meaning "fort", one specialized type of an enclosure was actually derived from the word "tun" meaning "any enclosure".

But what is the root of the word "tun"? Is it possible to construct this word from smaller parts whose combined meaning is "enclosure, enclosed space"? I believe it is. 

In archaic dialects of Serbian we have these words:

to - that
tu - there
u - in, into
v - in, into
n, nj - to, in boundary, it
u nj, n, v nj - in it
tu + u + nj, n - there, that + in + it, boundary = within,  inside - tuunj - tuun - dun
tu,to + v + nj, n = there, that + in + it, boundary = within, inside - tu(o)vnj - tu(o)wn

tu + u + nj,n = tuunj = tuun - inside the enclosed space, enclosure

If indeed the word "tun" is derived from this phrase, the above process must have happened a very long time ago.  It definitely predates the first record of the words "tun", "tin"  meaning "enclosure" and "fence" and "dun", "din" meaning "fort". By the time these words were first recorded, the phrase was already fused into a single word. This fused word has been preserved in archaic Serbian as well. In Serbian villages you can still hear people saying "tun", "tune", "tuna" meaning "there", but more specifically "in there, in that specific place, on that specific place".

One other interesting thing. In Serbian the word for inside is "unutra". tu + unutra = tu + un (otra) = there inside (inside). Apparently an old form of "v" "u" meaning "in" is attested which is "vn" "un". So the word unutra = un + utra = in + inside... This is another proof that the construct "tuun" can be short for tu un and that modern Serbian tun, tune, tuna can be a a remnant of this phrase.

The meaning of the the word tun, dun would then be "place of", "place containing, harboring, protecting". Dún Aonghasa = There in is Aonghasa= Place of Aonghasa....

Is this just a coincidence? 

Maybe, but this etymology then explains this English word perfectly:

Tun - large cask, barrel, vat. From Middle English tunne, tonne (“cask, barrel”), from Old English tunne (“tun, cask, barrel”), from Proto-Germanic *tunnǭ, *tunnō (“tun, barrel, cask”), of unknown origin. Cognate with North Frisian tenn (“tun, barrel, cask”), Dutch ton (“tun, barrel, cask”), German Tonne (“tun, barrel, drum”), Danish tønde (“barrel”), Swedish tunna (“barrel, cask, tun”), Icelandic tunna (“barrel”). Compare also French tonne, tonneau (“ton", "barrel”), Medieval Latin tunna (“cask”), Middle Irish tunna (“cask”), Welsh tynell (“tun, barrel”). It is uncertain whether the Germanic or the Celtic forms are the original.

Barrel, cask, vat, "tuno, tune, tuna, tun" is a circular enclosure made of wood, which you use to put things in, to enclose them. tu u nj = tuun = there in that = where you put things in to protect them, preserve them. 

This word, just like all the above words for enclosures, fences, describe something that you can use to enclose something else, a container, something that you can put something else in for protection. 

"tun" = "tunj" = "tuunj" = "tu u nj" = "there in it" = "where you put things in, where you enclose things to protect them"...


What do you think? 

Dreamtime

In my post about the Montenegrian tumuluses, I argued that the Irish annals contained true historical accounts about the migration of the Partholon and his people from the sea of Azov, via Anatolia, Montenegro, Sicily, Iberia into Ireland which happened in the mid 3rd millennium BC. The Irish annals were originally oral histories which were only written down in the medieval time. And so the main complaint that I got about my Partholon theory was that it is impossible that oral histories can be preserved for so long.

Well we now seem to have proof that some oral histories could be as much as 45,000 years old if not even older...

In a genetic study in 2011, researchers found evidence that the ancestors of the Aboriginal population split off from the ancestors of the European and Asian populations between 65,000 and 75,000 years ago. These Aboriginal ancestors migrated into South Asia and then into Australia, where they stayed, with the result that, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied the same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal peoples are the direct descendants of migrants who left Africa up to 75,000 years ago.[2][3] The same genetic study of 2011 found evidence that Aboriginal peoples carry some of the genes associated with the Denisovan (a species of human related to but distinct from Neanderthals) peoples of Asia. Examining DNA from a finger bone excavated in Siberia, researchers concluded that the Denisovans migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia and that they interbred with modern humans in South-East Asia at some stage before 45,000 years ago, before Australia separated from Papua New Guinea. [4] They contributed DNA to Aboriginal Australians along with present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in the Philippines known as Mamanwa. This study makes Aboriginal Australians one of the oldest living populations in the world and possibly the oldest outside of Africa, confirming they may also have the oldest continuous culture on the planet.[7]

Now when did these ancestors of the Aboriginal Australians move into Australia is uncertain. But it is possible that this happened sometime between 45,000 and 40.000 years ago. This is supported by the archaeological finds of human remains near Lake Mungo.

Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in south-eastern Australia,in the south-western portion of New South Wales. It is at the Lake Mungo where a so called "Mungo Man and Mungo Lady" remains were found. Mungo Lady is particularly interesting. Mungo Lady, a partially cremated female body, was discovered in 1969 by Dr Jim Bowler from the Australian National University (ANU). Mungo Lady was only partially cremated before the remainder of her bones were crushed. She was initially estimated to be 25,000 years old, although a more recent multi-university study in 2003 determined that she was probably closer to 40,000 years old.

Mungo Man was also discovered by Dr Bowler, on 26 February 1974. The remains were covered with red ochre, in what is the earliest known incidence of such a burial practice. Red ochre is commonly used in burials for ritualistic purposes. The site was dating using OSL dating, or luminescence dating. The site is dated to be 60,000 years ago. If the fossils are actually from 60,000 years old, the fossils would be that of archaic Homo sapiens.

The different years for which artifacts and the remains were found puts into debate the actual time in which Australia was inhabited. If it was inhabited 60 thousand years or over, it puts in question the theory that all civilizations derived from Africa. If, however, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady truly are evidence that Australia has only been inhabited for about 50,000 years, the theory of Africa is stronger than ever. This would put Mungo Man and Mungo Lady's civilization in the same time frame as other cultures that were just beginning to settle outside of Africa.[5]

But regardless, it seems that at some stage between 65,000 and 40,000 years ago the Aboriginal Australians crossed into Australia, and have been isolated there from the rest of the world until the first Chinese and European explorers reached the continent not more than 500 years ago.

During that time they have been carefully preserving their beliefs through a complex set of rituals and stories which are today known as "Dreamtime". But it seems that the "Dreamtime" stories are not just mythologies, but are a mix of mythological stories and actual histories accumulated and preserved over who knows how many thousands of years.

The term Dreamtime is based on a rendition of the indigenous (Arandic) word "alcheringa", used by the Aranda (Arunta, Arrernte) people of Central Australia. The word actually has a meaning closer to "eternal, uncreated" or "so old that it seems that it has been here forever". In "Dreamtime" an individual's entire ancestry exists as one, culminating in the idea that all worldly knowledge is accumulated through one's ancestors. This is extremely good description of the accumulated  memories which were passed through direct contact from generation to generation through stories and rituals. 

And as I said, some of the Dreamtime memories could turn out to be actual ancient histories.  

The flood

"In the beginning, as far back as we remember, our home islands were not islands at all as they are today. They were part of a peninsula that jutted out from the mainland and we roamed freely throughout the land without having to get in a boat like we do today. Then Garnguur, the seagull woman, took her raft and dragged it back and forth across the neck of the peninsula letting the sea pour in and making our homes into islands."

This is a paraphrase of an Aboriginal story about the origin of the Wellesley Islands, a group of islands off the coast of north Queensland in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria:

This story has parallels along every part of the coast of Australia. Along the coast, Aboriginal stories written down early in colonial times talk about the ancient time when these areas were dry, a time when people hunted kangaroo and emu there, before the water rose and flooded them, never again to recede.

In a recent paper [8] presented at an indigenous language conference in Japan, Nick Reid, Associate Professor, School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England and Patrick D. Nunn, Assistant Director, Sustainability Research Centre; Professor of Geography, University of the Sunshine Coast analysed 18 stories from around Australia’s coast.

They found that all stories tell tales of coastal flooding and argued that these stories recall coastal inundation as sea levels started to rise after the last Ice Age.

During the coldest time of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago, the sea level around Australia stood about 120 metres below its present level. When the ice started to melt, a few thousand years later, huge masses of ice that had built up on the land, particularly in the northern hemisphere, began melting. Water poured into the world’s oceans, raising their levels in ways that are now well understood. By about 13,000 years ago, sea level had risen to around 70 metres below its present level. One thousand years later, it had risen to about 50 metres below present. These dates give us a ballpark for how old the Aborinial stories of flooding may be. Could they have reached us from 13,000 years ago?

I already mentioned the story about the Wellesley Islands. The local tribes from the Cairns area claim that they once lived “where the Great Barrier Reef now stands”. Their story states that the Fitzroy Island was once part of the mainland. 

And that the offshore Green Island was four times larger. 

The story describes several named landmarks with remembered historical-cultural associations that are now underwater.

During the last ice age this whole area which today lies between the Great Barrier reef and the Australian coast, would have comprised broad floodplains and undulating hills with a range of subsistence possibilities, bordered in most parts by steep cliffs plunging down to the narrow shore.

The Great Barrier reef has an average depth of 35 meters in its inshore waters, while on outer reefs, continental slopes extend down to depths of more than 2000 meters. Based on these depths, the above stories about the flooding of the reef might date from as much as 12,000 years ago. A more conservative interpretation, based on a sea level just 30 meters lower than today, would place the age of this story at around 10,000 years ago.

Similar stories come from Spencer Gulf in southern Australia. 

Those from the Narrangga people of Yorke Peninsula recall the time when there was no Spencer Gulf, only “marshy country reaching into the interior” lying just above the ocean surface and dotted with “freshwater lagoons” where birds and other animals flocked.

One day the sea came in, perhaps through the breaching of a natural barrier, and the area has since been submerged. If these stories refer to flooding across the outermost lip of Spencer Gulf, which today lies around 50 metres below present sea level, then they may have originated 12,000 years ago. Even if they refer to inundation of the central part of the Gulf, they are likely to be more than 9,000 years old.

How sea levels changed after the ice ages around Australia is now well known. So if these stories are accepted as authentic and based on observations of coastal flooding, it is clear that they must be of extraordinary antiquity.

But believe or not these are not the oldest Dreamtime stories which could be actual ancient histories. 

The palms

This is Central Australian Cabbage Palm (Livistona mariae). 

How the only native palm tree in Australia got to an isolated Palm Valley in the center of the country has long been a mystery.

Recent research findings seem to back up Aboriginal legend on origin of these palms. Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman from University of Tasmania, did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin. The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans at some stage between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. What is interesting is that after he published his findings, Professor Bowman read an Aboriginal legend recorded in 1894 by pioneering German anthropologist and missionary Carl Strehlow, which was only recently translated, describing the "gods from the north" bringing the seeds to Palm Valley.

Professor Bowman said he was amazed. 

"We're talking about a verbal tradition which had been transmitted through generations possibly for possibly 30,000 years," he said.

"Just an amazing coincidence that we'd independently concluded that the seeds had been transported and then subsequently we discover an Aboriginal legend is exactly what we found scientifically.

"The concordance of the findings of a scientific study and an ancient myth is a striking example of how traditional ecological knowledge can inform and enhance scientific research.

"It suggests that Aboriginal oral traditions may have endured for up to 30,000 years, and lends further weight to the idea that some Aboriginal myths pertaining to gigantic animals may be authentic records of extinct megafauna."

This is amazing. A 30,000 years old oral history??? But this is nothing compared to the Dreamtime story which explains the origin of the black swans. 

The swans

The Dreamtime story of the black swans tells how two brothers were turned into white swans so they could help an attack party during a raid for weapons. It is said that Wurrunna used a large gubbera, or crystal stone to transform the men. After the raid, eaglehawks attacked the white swans and tore feathers from the birds. Crows who were enemies of the eaglehawks came to the aid of the brothers and gave the black swans their own black feathers. The black swan red beak is said to be the blood of the attacked brothers, which stayed there forever.

This is truly an amazing story. Evidence suggests that swans evolved in Europe or western Eurasia during the Miocene (23.03 to 5.332 million years ago), spreading all over the Northern Hemisphere until the Pliocene (5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago). 

The swans are generally found in temperate environments, rarely occurring in the tropics. 

Four (or five) species occur in the Northern Hemisphere (all white).

One species is found in Australia and New Zealand (black).

And one species is distributed in southern South America (white with black neck).

The swans are absent from tropical Asia, Central America, northern South America and the entirety of Sub SaharanAfrica. This is the map that shows the natural distribution of swans in the world. 

Now you can see that there we have black swans in Australia and white swans in the Central and Northern Asia. But no swans of any kind in the huge area between China and Australia. As we have seen from the evidence found in the lake Mungo site, Aboriginal Australians have crossed into Australia at least 40,000 years ago. We have also seen that the scientists believe that the mixing between the Denisovans and modern humans, which produced the ancestors of today's Aboriginal Australians, happened in the tropical parts of Asia at some stage before 45,000 years ago. 

Now there are no swans in tropical South East Asia, and the only swans that live in Australia are black swans. This means that the only swans Aboriginal Australians could have seen for over 45,000 years have been black swans. So where and more importantly when did they last see a white swan? Well somewhere on their way from Africa to South East Asia, at some stage between 75,000 and 45,000 years ago. This means that this Dreemtime story is more than 45,000 years old and could be as much as 60,000 years old....

How's this for the resilience of the oral tradition? What is measly 5000 years, which is how old I believe the story of Partholon's migration from the Irish Annals is, compared to the age of the Australian Dreamtime stories?

Why and how did Australian Aboriginal cultures achieve transmission of information about real events from such deep time? Professors Nick Reid and Patrick D. Nunn who wrote about the Aboriginal Australian flood myths suggested that: 

"The isolation of Australia is likely to be part of the answer. But it could also be due to the practice and nature of contemporary Aboriginal storytelling. This is characterised by a conservative and explicit approach to “the law”, value given to preserving information, and kin-based systems for tracking knowledge accuracy. This could have built the inter-generational scaffolding needed to transmit stories over vast periods."

And this is exactly the kind of environment that was found in Ireland. A close knit clan based community living for a long time in a relative isolation at the edge of Europe. No wonder that the Irish managed to preserve such old myths, legends, beliefs and histories  in Europe. 

I also believe that some European myths are much much older and come to us from Mesolithic and maybe even Paleolithic times. But more about this later...Until then stay happy and sweet dreams...

References:

1. "Outback palms were planted", David Bowman, University of Tasmania
2. "An Aboriginal Australian Genome Reveals Separate Human Dispersals into Asia", Rasmussen, Morten; et al.
3. "The first Aboriginal genome sequence confirms Australia's native people left Africa 75,000 years ago.". Australian Geographic. 23 September 2011.
4. "First Aboriginal genome sequenced", Callaway, Ewen. Nature.
5. "Pleistocene human remains from Australia: A living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, western New South Wales", J. M. Bowlerab, Rhys Jonesab, Harry Allenab & A. G. Thorneab, World Archaeology

6. " Ducks, Geese and Swans. Bird Families of the World. ", Kear, Janet, ed
7. "DNA confirms Aboriginal culture is one of the Earth's oldest". Australian Geographic.
8. "Ancient Aboriginal stories preserve history of a rise in sea level", Nick Reid and Patrick D. Nunn

Children playing

Irish: "Tá na páistí ag súgradh sa tsráid"
English: The children are playing in the street.

In the above Irish sentence the word "súgradh" (pronounced "sugra") means "(act of) playing, sporting; amusement, flirting, having fun. This is a verbal noun of a verb that has no finite or participial forms. The Irish "súgradh" comes from the Old Irish "súgrad" with the same meaning. The etymology of this word is unknown. This word has no cognates outside of Gaelic (that I know of)...

Now in Serbian we have the word "igra" meaning "play, game". The verb "igrat", "igrati" means "to play, to dance, to have fun". This word comes from the Proto-Slavic jьgra and has cognates in all Slavic languages: 

Belarusian: ігра ‎(ihra)
Russian: игра ‎(igra)
Ukrainian: гра ‎(hra)
Bulgarian: игра ‎(igra)
Macedonian: игра ‎(igra)
Serbo-Croatian: игра (igra)
Slovene: igra
Old Czech: jhra
Czech: hra
Polabian: jagréića
Old Polish: igra
Polish: gra
Slovak: hra, ihra
Slovincian: gra
Upper Sorbian: jhra, hra
Lower Sorbian: gra, igra

The etymology of this word is unknown. This word has no cognates outside of Slavic languages (that I know of)...

Now are these two words related? I think so because in some dialects of Serbian we have another version of the word "igra": "sigra". This word also means "play, game". And the verb derived from this word is "sigrat", "sigrati" meaning "to play, to dance, to have fun".

So we have:

Slavic wide: "igra", "igrat"
Serbian only: "sigra", "sigrat"
Irish: "súgradh"

All meaning 

"play, game" and "to play, to dance, to have fun"

What do you think? Coincidence?


According to the latest archaeological data, Balkans and particularly the territory of today’s Serbia was a mayor Celtic (Gaulic) stronghold between the 4th and the 1st century bc. I wrote about this in my post "Bran - Vran". The genetic data from the Balkans is showing that the descendants of these Celts are still living in the Balkans, Slavicised and mixed with many other people into Serbians. Maybe this is why it is in the Serbian language that we find words like "sigra" which is the link between the Irish "súgradh" and the Slavic "igra"...

Curing = Smoking

There is a Serbian proverb which says: "Ko se dima ne nadimi, taj se vatre ne nagreje". It means: "Who doesn't get smoked, doesn't get warm". The proverb simply states the fact that from the moment people started using fires inside roofed dwellings, the inside of these dwellings looked, pretty much permanently, like this:

Or like this:

The above two pictures were taken recently in Croatia, inside of two traditional houses with a built in hearths used for traditional cooking. Nice and cosy and smoky. 

The problem is that until very recently, houses had hearths and or stoves but didn't have chimneys.

This is a hearth in a reconstructed Iron Age round house.

This is a 19th century Serbian house from Dinara region:

This is a hearth in a 20th century house in Montenegro.

The smoke created by burning of wood or peat inside of the hearth or the oven had no other way of escaping except through the pores and openings in the roof or through the door. This would have filled the inside of the houses with smoke and would have made the houses from the outside look like they were on fire. You can see the smoke escaping through the roof and the door.

If you for instance approached an Iron Age roundhouse village, or any other village with thatched houses, you would have seen something like this:

Iron age village from "The Romano-British Peasant"

The fire in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age and Medieval houses was pretty much never extinguished. It was constantly smouldering. Preserving of the house fire was one of the most important duties of the housewife. This means that the house was always smoky. Interestingly, the smoke permeating the roof actually protected the roof from rotting as it killed bacteria and moulds. A big problem in these archaeological parks today is that because there is no permanently smoking fire, the roofs rot away very quickly.

During the winter, I would guess, the house doors were shut, so even more smoke gathered inside of the house and slowly drifted upwards towards the roof. And up there, under the roof, on the supporting beams, people hang fish, meat and skins. Why? Well in the same way the smoke killed bacteria and molds in the thatch, it did the same with the bacteria and moulds in meat turning it into smoked meat.

 

This type of meat curing, preservation is still used today. This is a picture of an inside of the typical private smoke house from the Balkans. The meat is first covered in salt and left to absorb salt from 10 - 20 days and it is only then smoked. This makes the final product much more resistant to bacteria and therefore more durable.

The smoke from the hearths and ovens would also have helped preserve animal skins and turn them into smoked skins (buckskin, leather).

Buckskin is the soft, pliable, porous preserved hide of an animal which is used for making clothes and bedding. In order to make Buckskin from a raw hide, you first need to scrape the hide to remove any flesh remains. Then you need to tan the hide using any emulsified fat, such as egg yolks or the animal's brain mixed into water. After this you need to stretch and dry the hide which involves continuous pulling and stretching of the hide in all directions, which lubricates the fibers of the hide with the oil of the dressing, and ensures that the fibers stay lubricated. Finally, the dry skin which should now be totally supple and soft, has to be smoked, in order to make it washable and resistant to water.

You can see how this all fits inside of a typical Iron Age roundhouse on this picture:

So it turns out that, probably by chance, people realized that smoking meat and skins preserves them, protects them from rotting. No wonder then that smoke has been used to preserve and flavour food and treat leather since a very long time ago. How long time ago is long time ago? No one knows really, but I would venture to say that the intentional use of smoking for preserving food and skin was probably already used in late Paleolithic, early Mesolithic period of human history.

And here is where we come to linguistics. In English, the word for preserving meat and skin using smoking is "curing".

When we look up the word "cure" in the English Etymological Dictionary it tell us this:

"A process of preservation, as by smoking. In reference to fish, pork, etc., first recorded 1743."

So what was the process of curing meat using smoke called before 1743 I don't know. I would be grateful if someone would clarify this for me. Before 1743, the word "curing" was used with the meaning: 

"Act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health from disease, or to soundness after injury, a method, device or medication that restores good health. first recorded in late 14c." 

The English word "cure" comes from Old French "curer" meaning "care, cure, healing, cure of souls", which comes from Latin "cura" ((archaic) coira, coera) meaning "care, concern, thought; trouble, solicitude; anxiety, grief, sorrow, attention, management, administration, charge, care, command, office, guardianship, medical attendance, healing, rearing, culture, care, an attendant, guardian, observer"

But where does this Latin word come from? Well, the English Etymological dictionary says: "a noun of unknown origin"...

Let's see if we can find the origin of this mysterious word. 

The original meaning of the verb "to care" was "to care for",  basically "to keep alive", "to preserve". We take care of someone or something that is dear to us, precious to us, and which is not able to take care of itself, like a child, a sick or wounded person, a young domestic animal. So what does "caring for" something or someone involve? Well basically it means keeping this something or someone dry, warm, feeding it, cleaning it, sheltering it from wind and rain, protecting it, making sure that nothing bad is done to it and that it doesn't do anything bad to itself and its surrounding (like wreck the place if what you care for are children or young animals). Basically "caring for" means keeping alive. The "caring for" something or someone is a full time job and requires staying in and around the shelter, house all the time. And this is why the "caring for" was always the job of women. They "cared for" children, sick and wounded and young animals. Men "took care of" jobs that needed to be done, flocks, crops, land, and later towns, states...but with male duties the original meaning of "care for" was gradually lost and was turned into passive "worry" or active "manage"...And this is what we are left with today pretty much. We "care" for so many things, we even occasionally "take care of" as thing or two, but we rarely "care for" anyone or anything. 

Anyway, in the past, apart from caring for children, sick and wounded and young animals, women cared for another very important thing: fire. Fire in the house hearth was one of the most precious things which had to be constantly cared for, and never ever be allowed to die. This behaviour has been recorded by ethnographers everywhere in Evroasia even in the 20th century, and it comes to us straight from the Paleolithic, and maybe even Mesolithic times, when people didn't know how to make fire. Fire had to be found, a natural fire from a thunder strike or a forest fire, and then carefully preserved by caring for it. The caring for fire was so important that it was elevated to a level of a religious duty. Every household would care for their own house fire, but temples would would also care for the village or town fire which also should never have been allowed to die. Even after people discovered reliable ways of making fire, this belief in sacredness of fire and caring for fire remained in beliefs related to heath fire. 

So how do you care for fire? Well in exactly the same way you care for children, sick and wounded and the young animals. Basically caring for fire means keeping fire dry, warm, feeding it wood, cleaning it from ash, sheltering it from wind and rain, protecting it, making sure that nothing bad is done to it and that it doesn't do anything bad to itself and its surrounding (like burn the place down). The most important part of caring for fire is feeding it wood, basically keeping the fire alive, keeping it burning. 

In Slavic languages we have a word "kur" which means "to burn, to smoke, to heat":

Proto-Slavic kur - to burn, to smoke, to heat.
Church-Slavonic: коурити, коурити (kouriti), krada - fireplace, hearth
Russian: кури́ть ‎(kurítʹ) - to smoke (tobacco etc.), to burn, produce smoke by burning something, to distil, куре́ние ‎(kurénije) - smoking, incense
Ukrainian: кури́ти (kuriti) - to burn, produce smoke by burning something
Bulgarian: ку́рна (kurna) - to light up
Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian: ку́рити (kuriti) - to burn, to heat, to kindle, to persuade
Slovenian: kúriti - to burn, heat up
Czech: kouřit - to burn, produce smoke by burning something
Slovakian: kúriť - to burn, produce smoke by burning something
Polish: kurzyć, kurzę - to burn, produce smoke by burning something
Lusatian: kurić, kuriś - to burn, produce smoke by burning something

This word has cognates in:

Lithuanian: kùrti - to kindle, light up, heat up (kuriti, goreti - "to burn" in Slavic languages); kuriù - to heat up (kuri, gori u- "burns in" in Slavic languages); karštas - hot (gori šta - "which burns" in Slavic languages); krosnis - oven
Latvian: kurt - heat (kuri, gori tu (to)- "burns there"  (that) in Slavic languages)
Finish: hurja - fierce, fiery (kuri, gori - "burns" in Slavic languages)
Gothic: haúri - coal (kuri, gori - "burns" in Slavic languages)
Old Norse: hyrr - fire (kuri, gori - "burns" in Slavic languages)
Norman, Old French, Middle French: cuire, cuyre - to cook (kuri, gori - "burns" in Slavic languages)

Latin: cremo - I consume or destroy by fire, burn, I burn something to ashes; cremate, I make a burnt offering (kurim, gorim - "I burn" in Slavic languages); carbo - charcoal, coal (gorivo - "fuel" in Slavic languages)

Sanskrit: कृष्ण ‎(kṛṣṇa) - burnt, black

The above Slavic word "kur" to burn is another variant of the Slavic word "gor" meaning to burn, about which I already wrote in my post about warmth, fire, sun. Like the word "kur" the root "gor" also has cognates in other Indoeuropean languages, but it seems to be best preserved in Slavic languages and Irish.

Here is just an example group from this cluster from Serbian and Irish:

Irish:

goraim -, I heat, warm, burn; bask; hatch.
gorim - warm

gor - warmth

garadh - warm 
goradh -  act of burning; blushing; heat; déan do ghoradh, take a shin heat, incubation, keeping warm
garamhail - useful, profitable, neighborly; warm, snug, friendly;
gorai - place where chicks come out of eggs
gríos - embers, hot ashes; heat; fire; pimples, blotches, spots or rash on the skin;
gríosach - aighe, pl. -acha, f., fire, burning embers; ashes containing small coals of fire; glowing
griosagh - fire

Serbian: 

gori - burns; goreti = gori ti = it burns, to burn
gorim - I am burning
gori - burns
grejan, grijan - heated, warm
gorionik - burner, torch
gorešnjak - big heat, hot weather
gorotina - what burns, burned place
gariti - to burn, to rush, to go fast
nagariti - put branches into the fire, feed the fire
garište - place where the fire used to burn
zgarište - something burned down

zgoreljak - something burned

So we have the Indoeuropean root word "cur, gor" meaning "to burn, to make and keep warm". Compare this to the Latin word "cur, coir" meaning to "care for" Is it possible that these two words are connected? And is it possible then that the verb "to cure" meaning "to preserve by smoking" is related to the word "kur, gor" meaning "to burn, to smoke"? I think so. What do you think?