Difference between revisions of "Date Pit Culture"

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The DPC was replaced by incoming Adzamic peoples in the 2000s CE. Evidence indicates that the transition was mostly peaceful; the DPC seemed to have already been in decline, and vast amounts of intermarriage with the arriving Adzamics saw the DPC largely absorbed into the latter population.
The DPC was replaced by incoming Adzamic peoples in the 2000s CE. Evidence indicates that the transition was mostly peaceful; the DPC seemed to have already been in decline, and vast amounts of intermarriage with the arriving Adzamics saw the DPC largely absorbed into the latter population.


==Technology==
=Technology=
DPC had very little agriculture, no metallurgy, and one domesticated animal: the dromedary.
DPC had very little agriculture, no metallurgy, and one domesticated animal: the dromedary.


Line 10: Line 10:
Like its predecessors, the DPC helped spread the date palm through the most arid regions of the eastern Ekuosian desert, and along the banks of the lower [[Ekuos river|Ekuos]] and [[Tabiq river|Tabiq]] rivers.
Like its predecessors, the DPC helped spread the date palm through the most arid regions of the eastern Ekuosian desert, and along the banks of the lower [[Ekuos river|Ekuos]] and [[Tabiq river|Tabiq]] rivers.


==Culture==
=Culture=
The Date Pit Culture was a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers that relied extensively on the lower [[Ekuos river]] and oases spotted throughout the [[Ekuosian desert]]. They were probably organized in small family groups or clans of 10-30 people which spent most of the year separated, and gathered together at several different sites during the rainy season to trade goods, marry, and renew ties.
The Date Pit Culture was a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers that relied extensively on the lower [[Ekuos river]] and oases spotted throughout the [[Ekuosian desert]]. They were probably organized in small family groups or clans of 10-30 people which spent most of the year separated, and gathered together at several different sites during the rainy season to trade goods, marry, and renew ties.


As gatherers the DPC showed a great understanding of the edible plants in their environment. Archaeological finds indicate that they made use of nearly sixty plant species, including: thyme, blue agave, desert fig, bush caper, bush banana, bush tomato, bush potato, pencil yam, pearl millet, Laperrine olive, doum palm (gingerbread tree), and most importantly, the date palm. They also gathered bird eggs, witchetty grubs, locusts, and other invertebrates and hunted various antelopes, camels, equines, and smaller animals including jackrabbits and lizards.
As gatherers the DPC showed a great understanding of the edible plants in their environment. Archaeological finds indicate that they made use of nearly sixty plant species, including: thyme, blue agave, desert fig, bush caper, bush banana, bush tomato, bush potato, pencil yam, pearl millet, Laperrine olive, doum palm (gingerbread tree), and most importantly, the date palm. They also gathered bird eggs, witchetty grubs, locusts, and other invertebrates and hunted various antelopes, camels, equines, and smaller animals including jackrabbits and lizards.


===Language===
==Language==
The language of the DPC, also called the Date Pit Language (DPL), is not directly attested and went extinct with its people at least three thousand years ago. Little is known of the language, although several words in modern local languages have been attributed to it, especially words relating to the date palm, for example the reconstructed [[Proto-Adzamic]] terms /*suʕəh/ 'date' and /*äkem/ 'date palm frond,' or words related to DPC technologies, such as */ħämä/ 'distill, evaporate.' Other local foods and place names have also been attributed to the language.
The language of the DPC, also called the Date Pit Language (DPL), is not directly attested and went extinct with its people at least three thousand years ago. Little is known of the language, although several words in modern local languages have been attributed to it, especially words relating to the date palm, for example the reconstructed [[Proto-Adzamic]] terms /*suʕəh/ 'date' and /*äkem/ 'date palm frond,' or words related to DPC technologies, such as */ħämä/ 'distill, evaporate.' Other local foods and place names have also been attributed to the language.



Revision as of 03:12, 9 January 2020

The Date Pit Culture, also called the Dateseed Oil Culture, hereafter the DPC, was a late Neolithic pre-Adzamic material culture in central Tabiqa from approximately BCE 3000-2000. It is known from a large archaeological record as well as through oral history of Adzamasiin people in post-DPC regions. Little is known of the DPC's language, which only survives as a handful of areal loanwords.

The DPC was replaced by incoming Adzamic peoples in the 2000s CE. Evidence indicates that the transition was mostly peaceful; the DPC seemed to have already been in decline, and vast amounts of intermarriage with the arriving Adzamics saw the DPC largely absorbed into the latter population.

Technology

DPC had very little agriculture, no metallurgy, and one domesticated animal: the dromedary.

The DPC is considered the final stage of a string of several cultures that had a dependence on the date palm tree in the Ekuosian desert region who are, together, credited with the creation of early non-wild cultivars of the date palm. As with their predecessors, DPC people made extensive use of the leaves, wood, roots, and fruit of the tree for cord and basketry, fire, weaponry, tools, and food. The marked difference with the DPC was the innovation of a technology that allowed the extraction of oil from the date pit through distillation in hot water. The DPC also roasted date seeds to create a coffee-like beverage.

Like its predecessors, the DPC helped spread the date palm through the most arid regions of the eastern Ekuosian desert, and along the banks of the lower Ekuos and Tabiq rivers.

Culture

The Date Pit Culture was a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers that relied extensively on the lower Ekuos river and oases spotted throughout the Ekuosian desert. They were probably organized in small family groups or clans of 10-30 people which spent most of the year separated, and gathered together at several different sites during the rainy season to trade goods, marry, and renew ties.

As gatherers the DPC showed a great understanding of the edible plants in their environment. Archaeological finds indicate that they made use of nearly sixty plant species, including: thyme, blue agave, desert fig, bush caper, bush banana, bush tomato, bush potato, pencil yam, pearl millet, Laperrine olive, doum palm (gingerbread tree), and most importantly, the date palm. They also gathered bird eggs, witchetty grubs, locusts, and other invertebrates and hunted various antelopes, camels, equines, and smaller animals including jackrabbits and lizards.

Language

The language of the DPC, also called the Date Pit Language (DPL), is not directly attested and went extinct with its people at least three thousand years ago. Little is known of the language, although several words in modern local languages have been attributed to it, especially words relating to the date palm, for example the reconstructed Proto-Adzamic terms /*suʕəh/ 'date' and /*äkem/ 'date palm frond,' or words related to DPC technologies, such as */ħämä/ 'distill, evaporate.' Other local foods and place names have also been attributed to the language.

Although there is no widespread agreement on absolutely any features of the language, a number of linguists have tried to tie it to extant language families in the area or nearby, especially including the Ekuo-Lahiri and Kaffic families. One of the more widely-used reconstructions is also the first one put forth, in Sufad Imarnat's 1918 Grammars of the Pre-Adzamic Languages, which was also one of the first authoritative documents on the existence of the DPL and other substrate languages in Tabiqa.

Bilabial Alveolar Velar Postvelar Radical
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d k g q ɢ ʔ
Fricative s ħ
Approximant l w

Imarnat specifies that the "postvelar" series may have been labio-velars or labio-uvulars.

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ə
Open a

Many other inventories have been put forward, typically with a much more robust consonant inventory, however Imarnat's remains the most-cited, due in some part to the other reconstructions in the book which later research has shown to be overall highly accurate; however, most authors indicate that the inventory may not be completely accurate or complete.

More widely-accepted is Imarnat's treatment of the language's phonotactics: it appears that the DPL restricted syllables to CV(N), allowing nasals as codas but nothing else. Imarnat tentatively states that word-initial vowels could not appear, and loans that feature these initially began with the glottal stop, but acknowledges that this is difficult to know with certainty.

Critics have argued that the pool of definite, and even suspected, words of DPL origin is too small to make any accurate assessments about the language's phonology. Reconstructions, including Imarnat's, are typically criticized for being, in essence, reduced forms of Proto-Adzamic or other local languages.