The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

inhabitants of the Mesara plain at the time!
To recapitulate our evidence on the language of the
Pelasgians, we have experienced the following. First, at the
time that the Pelagians formed part of the earliest recorded
inhabitants of Greece, they probably spoke a Thraco-
Phrygian language. Second, when – driven out by the
Greeks – they migrated to western Anatolia, the Pelasgians
adapted to the local language and went over to speak a
Luwian vernacular, which, however, still bore testimony of
a long history with (pre-)Greek. Third, those Pelasgians
which went to the Mesara plain in Crete likewise adapted
to the local linguistic situation, using Luwian as their primary
language and Semitic in religious and official matters
in order to keep up with the international standards at the
time. Evidently, the migrations of the Pelasgians were not
massive enough to alter the existing linguistic situation in
the new homeland. The latter conclusion ties in with the
fact that the Pelasgians in western Anatolia were not so
important as to enter into the Hittite records as a distinct
population group. As a closing remark to this section, it
may be of interest to note that all three linguistic layers
discussed are demonstrable for the Philistines in their new
home in the Levant: Thraco-Phrygian in the place name
Ekron, which bears witness of the PIE root *akr- or *aker-
“high”, Luwian in the personal name Goliath, which recalls
Lydian names of the type Alyattes, Sadyattes, etc., 475
and Semitic in the divine name ’šrt “Asherah (with Phoenician
feminine ending -t)” as recorded for Ekron. 476 As it
seems, then, the Pelasgian ancestors of the Philistines preserved
their ethnic identity during the period of the
Mycenaean koin (c. 1350-1200 BC)!
Additional note 1: Pelasgians in Italy
Pelasgian population groups are not only recorded for the
Aegean, but also for Italy. 477 Of the latter, it is absolutely
clear that they ultimately originated from the Aegean, and
hence bear testimony of migration from east to west. When
did such a migration take place? In order to answer this
475 Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopädie, s.v. Philister; Dothan 1982:
22; Machinist 2000: 63-4; Indo-European more in general is the
genitive in -š as recorded for the patronyms in a Philistine inscription
from Tell Gemme, dated to the 7th century BC, see Garbini
1997: 244.
476 Gitin 1993: 250-2, with note 37; cf. Merlo 1998.
477 For an overview, see Briquel 1984.
104
question it is relevant to note that Pelasgians colonizing the
north of Italy were confronted with Umbrians, 478 whereas
their colleagues preferring the south had to drive out
Auronissi (= variant form of Aurunci, a Latin indication of
Oscans). 479 Accordingly, the migration in question can
only be situated after the arrival of the Urnfield ancestors
of the Oscans and Umbrians in Italy at the end of the
Bronze Age (see section 10), which means in the course of
the Early Iron Age. In southern Etruria and Latium, the Pelasgians
are reported to have stumbled upon Sicels, 480
which is more problematic to situate in the Early Iron Age,
because the latter were already kicked out of this environment
by the Umbrians and the Opicans (= Greek indication
of the Oscans) apparently at the turn of the Bronze Age to
the Early Iron Age. 481 Their presence in central Italy at the
arrival of the Pelasgians may therefore well be due to an
anachronism of our source, Dionysios of Halikarnassos,
basing himself on antiquarian relics. 482
As we have seen in the above, there is reason to believe
that the Pelasgians in the Aegean region are actually
identical with the Tyrrhenians recorded for the same area.
This identification by and large holds good for their kinsmen
in Italy as well, but not in every case. Thus, the Pelasgian
presence at Caere is clearly distinct from the
subsequent one of the Tyrrhenians, identified as Lydians.
At the time of the Pelasgians, the site is called Agylla.
When the Lydians attacked the site, so the story goes, one
of them asked how it is called. A Pelasgian, not understanding
the question, saluted him in Greek: khaire. As a
consequence, the Lydians believed the site to be called like
478 Justinus, Epitoma historiarum philippicarum Pompei Trogi
XX, 1, 11 (Spina); Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Roman Antiquities
I, 20, 4 (Cortona); II, 49, 1 (ager Reatinus).
479 Dionysios of Halikarnasso, Roman Antiquities I, 21, 3.
480 Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Roman Antiquities I, 20, 4-5; cf.
Briquel 1984: 175, note 31 (Caere); 298-9 (Pisa, Saturnia, Alsium);
Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Roman Antiquities I, 21; cf.
Briquel 1984: 351-2 (ager Faliscus); Briquel 1984: 361, note 14
(various locations in Latium).
481 Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Roman Antiquities I, 22, 4-5.
482 Cf. Briquel 1984: 300-1. Note in this connection the Sicel nature
ascribed to Saturnus at Cutiliae in the text of an oracle once
given to the Pelasgians about their future homeland and recorded
on a tripod from their sanctuary at Dodona (Dionysios of Halikarnassos,
Roman Antiquities I, 19), whereas, as we have seen in note
478 above, the population of the ager Reatinus, to which Cutiliae
belongs, in effect consisted of Umbrians at the time of its actual
colonization by Pelasgians.