C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Quotes

“Indus materials are found in Mesopotamia, but the reverse is extremely rare.”

“The ethnic and linguistic identity of the Andronovo culture nevertheless remains elusive.”

“Architectural similarities are exceedingly generalized, and the parallels to time/space systematics are weak.”

“Wikipedia: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky”

“This heightened nationalism projects a mythical and majestic Slavic past in which the archaeology of Arkhaim plays no small part.”

“Linguists too often assign languages to archaeological cultures, while archaeologists are often too quick to assign their sherds a language.”

“Linguists cannot associate an archaeological culture with words, syntax, and grammar, and archaeologists cannot make their sherds utter words.”

“The identity of the Indo-Iranians remains elusive. When they are identified in the archaeological record it is by allegation rather than demonstration.”

“Unfortunately, there is scant evidence to support the notion of an extensive migration from Syro-Anatolia to Bactria and Margiana in the archaeological record.”

“Increasingly, however, the concept of a single homogeneous culture covering 3 million square kilometers and enduring for over a millennium has become untenable.”

“Central Asia has either too many languages and too few archaeological cultures or too few languages and too many archaeological cultures to permit an easy fit between archaeology and language.”

“Not a single artifact of Andronovo type has been identified in Iran or in northern India, but there is ample evidence for the presence of Bactrian Margiana materials on the Iranian Plateau and in Baluchistan.”

“Philip Kohl’s comment is pertinent here: “Archaeological cultures should not be viewed as homogeneous or growing like plants from single seeds; they are always heterogeneous and constantly in the making.””

“In fact, the extensive evidence for Bactrian Margiana materials recovered from Susa, Shahdad, Yahya, Khinaman, Sibri, Nausharo, Hissar, etc., might make it the prime candidate for Indo-Iranian arrival on the Iranian Plateau.”

“The fact that these language families are of far less interest to the archaeologist may have a great deal to do with the fact that it is primarily speakers of Indo-European in search of their own roots who have addressed this problem.”

“(Ghirshman [1977] attempted to identify the arrival of the Indo-Aryans in the region of the Hurrians (northern Syria) by linking them with Habur Ware and black and grey wares, but this untenable argument was elegantly refuted by Kramer [1977].)”

“Perhaps it is my lack of belief in relating the Sintashta-Petrovka with the Rig-veda, separated as they are by 1,000 years and almost as many miles, or in the alleged homogeneity of the Andronovo that Anthony finds “inaccuracies” in my article.”

“I argue for a different interpretation entirely—that the bearers of any of the variants of the Andronovo culture and the Bactrian Margiana complex may have spoken Indo-Iranian but may just as readily have spoken a Dravidian and/or an Altaic language.”

“In the context of a renewed fashion of relating archaeology, culture, and language it is well to remember that neither sherds nor genes are destined to speak specific languages, nor does a given language require a specific ceramic type or genetic structure.”

“One gets the impression that he has chosen the Syro-Anatolian region as the homeland of the Bactrian Margiana complex in order to situate it within the geographical region in which the first Indo-Aryan texts were recovered and thus strengthen his Indo-Aryan claim for it.”