Lexical Reconstruction for the Reconstruction of Prehistory: Proto-Afrasian Terms Related to Weaponry, Warfare and Other Armed Conflicts

Abstract

The article aims at reconstructing Proto-Afrasian terms related to weaponry and armed conflicts, including highlighting the problem of war in prehistory from the linguistic angle usually ignored by archaeologists and prehistorians in the hot discussions of this problem. The proto-languages of early Afrasians and their descendants, northern Afrasians, speakers of proto-Semitic-Egyptian-Berber-Chadic, both hypothetically identified by the author of the article as the creators of the Natufian and PostNatufian archaeological cultures of the Levant, split, according to his glottochronological calculations (based on Swadesh’s method radically improved by S.A. Starostin) in the 11th–10th mill. BCE. Adduced are detailed etymologies of 12 reconstructed terms for weapons (from mace to shield) and 13 for various kinds of armed conflicts; a few of them point to the meaning “war” either already taken shape or close to forming in the Proto-Afrasian lexicon and, hence, its speakers’ perception.