Jonny Harline

Timeline

 

            For my timeline I focused on a couple subjects that were very interesting to me and tried to go follow them throughout history.  I started off with researching about the proto-world, or nostratic, language theories that different people have.  From there I looked at the different theories on the ancient inhabitants of Britian.  The two topics I looked at closely after that time period were the hot springs that now compose the city of Bath, England, and Stonhenge.  I tried to find sources that followed these two subjects through history, and ended up with how they are used today.  I chose those two because I visited both of them when I was younger with my family, and I loved them both.

 

1. www.zompist.com/prob.html -- This article is interesting because it examines words from many different and seemingly unrelated languages and finds cognates, but the author offers different reasons to explain the relations.  Onomatopoeia, borrowing, etc.  The author uses these reasons to argue against a proto-world language being the connection between the cognates.

 

2. www.zompist.com/langorg.htm -- This article examines the different theories regarding a proto-world language.  The author argues against a universal mother-tongue in favor of language developing over time, but also concedes that it is really impossible to know for sure.

 

3. Linguistics/Lanuguage Behavior Abstracts Database from HBLL website.  “The Mother Tongue: How Linguists Have Reconstructed the Ancestor of All Living Languages” by Vitaly Shavoroshkin.  This was probably the most interesting article about Proto-World Language, Nostratic, that I found.  He argues for it and reports on the efforts of linguists who believe they have reconstructed portions of the language.  You have to have access to the HBLL online databases to view this page though.

 

4. Project Muse Database from HBLL website.  “Homo sapiens Populates the Earth:  A Provisional Sythesis, Priviliging Linguistic Evidence” by Patrick Manning.  This article is also very interesting (and very long).  It studies the expansion of the human race through linguistics.  Same as number three, you have to access it through HBLL’s webpage.

 

5. www.britannia.com/wonder/michell2.html -- This article deals with the very ancient inhabitants of Britian, even before the Druids.  It references early scholars who debated about the wars and inhabitants of these people.  Very interesting.

 

6. witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehengeC.html – This site is cool because it gives a history of Stonehenge.  It starts all the way back with the druids and tells how Stonehenge has been viewed throughout history.

 

7. www.crystalinks.com/druids.html -- This site focuses more on the Druids themselves, who they were, and what they practiced.  It was interesting to read about how they were a kind of priesthood, because in my medieval literature class, my teacher explained how she thought that every kind of men’s organization, from the Druids to motorcycle gangs, comes from an innate yearning men have to be gathered in groups, in different kinds of pseudo-quorums I guess you could say.

 

8. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creusa – This site was interesting to me because it offered a geneology from Zues through Aeneas and down to Brutus.  It was just really cool to look at and think about.

 

9. www.crystalinks.com/romebaths.html -- This site explains more about the baths and how the Romans used them.

 

10. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_baths_(Bath) – This page tells more about the history of the hot springs themselves, and about how they are formed.  It tells about the merging of Celtic and Roman cultures, using the the spring of Sulis Minerva as an example.  Sulis was a Celtic deity, and the Romans related Minerva to her, they put the names together to name one of the bath houses.

 

11. sulisminerva.com – This site tells more about the Temple of Sulis Minerva itself.  It has lots of different and interesting sections you can navigate through.

 

12. www.kernunnos.com/deities/Minerva.html -- This site is an interesting article about Sulis and Minerva as goddesses.

 

13. www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/bath.html -- This site tells more about what the Celts and Romans used the hot springs for and how they believed they had special healing powers.  They have been used since 10,000 years ago.

 

14. www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/archeoastronomy.html -- This site is so interesting.  It deals with the subject of acheoastronomy, which studies how people have used astronomy throughout history, using Stonehenge as and example.  In the site you can navigate the topic by time or by region and there is a lot of cool stuff on there.

 

15. cass.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/History.html –This site is also very interesting.  It has an article about the use of astronomy through time as well, from Stonehenge to the present.

 

16. youtube.com/watch?v=HMofDWzfA6A – This site might require a little more explanation.  This is a link to part 1 of 5 of a series featuring the guitarist from eighties spoof band Spinal Tap.  The movie This is Spinal Tap makes fun of heavy metal in the 80’s, and they have a song called “Stonehenge,” which is a totally over the top story of the ancient druids who built Stonehenge.  These short videos are clips from a later “interview” with guitarist Nigel Tufnel, who claims to know a great deal about Stonehenge.  It’s obviously not a very serious source, but I think it’s very funny!

 

17. www.stonehengetours.com -- This is a modern site offering modern tours of Stonehenge.  It also has some interesting information about Stonehenge.  Stonehenge has come a long way since being used as astronomy tool and burial ground.

 

18. www.jwlasvegasresort.com/spa-resort/ -- This is just a link to a site for a modern day spa in Las Vegas called Aquae Sulis, showing how the ancient name of Aquae Sulis, which became the name of the temple of Sulis Minerva after the Romans left, is still equated with healing and relaxation.  This isn’t a site to learn anything from really, it’s just the company’s website, but I just wanted to show how we’re still influenced by ancient practices.  I posted this one last to kind of round out the timeline, because I stayed at this hotel, when we played UNLV in football.  I didn’t go to the Aquae Sulis Spa, but the hotel was my favorite hotel we stayed at by far.  So I kind of started out with Bath, England, and ended up here.