Uralic spread, Seima-Turbino and flower pots
- Date
- 2 April 2025, 15:15–16:30
- Location
- Blåsenhus, Blåsenhus/seminar room 13:028
- Type
- Lecture
- Lecturer
- Outi Vesakoski, Human Diversity Consortium, University of Turku
- Web page
- https://www.centerforthehumanpast.se
- Organiser
- Center for the Human Past (CHP)
- Contact person
- Marzena Norling
- Phone
- 0184710000
Talks of the Past (ToP) seminars are open to anyone interested in interdisciplinary research in the fields of palaeogenetics, archaeology, and linguistics. It is a series of seminars that take place on the first Wednesday of each month and are followed by a discussion and a “fika” (coffee break). The seminars are delivered in English.
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The seminal paper by Grünthal et al. (2022) advances a new scenario of Proto-Uralic disintegration and spread. They suggest a rapid spread of Uralic languages through Common Uralic, a dialect continuum whose breakup formed the Finno-Ugric language families. They suggest that the vector for Uralic spread was the Seima-Turbino trading network (ST), within which the Uralic languages were used as lingua franca. The key hypothesis in the Seima-Turbino scenario is that the trade network would have consisted of representatives of different Eurasian cultural groups for whom a common language would have been necessary. Timing of Proto-Uralic disintegration would have occurred during the ST, which was an intensive but short-lasting period about 4200-3800 years ago.
In her presentation, Outi Vesakoski will summarize this hypothesis's assumptions and discuss them in light of new genetic and phylolinguistic studies. The talk is based on the forthcoming paper on Uralic archaeolinguistics (Vesakoski, Elina Salmela & Henny Piezonka) in the Oxford Handbook of Archaeology and Language, edited by Martine Robbeets and Mark Hudson.