User:Pmanderson/proto-Ionian theory

Temporary recreation of deleted text for review - David Gerard 22:56, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Ionian_theory | discussion]] & log.}} The Proto-Ionian Theory is a theory advocted for on usenet by a person with the account name "grapheus". It is claimed by him to have been written about by someone named "Jean Fauconeau", in a journal called "Actualité de l'Histoire".

Details of the theory include: it is a linguistic theory (with repercussions on archaeology), aimed at replacing the Risch-Chadwick Theory proposed in the 1950s by the Swiss linguist Ernst Risch and mainly defended by John Chadwick, a scholar who participated in the decipherment of the Linear B script. The Risch-Chadwick Theory supposes that at the Middle Bronze Age Period, the Greek dialects split into two main groups : the Western (or Northern) Group (or Proto-Doric) and the Eastern (or Southern) Group (all the other dialects). It concludes therefore that, inside the Eastern Group, the split between Ionic-Attic and the other dialects happened only after 1200 BC. The Proto-Ionian Theory comes back to the old Paul Kretschmer's Theory of the three Greek waves, supposing a split of the Greek dialects as early as 3000 BC into three groups : Proto-Ionic-Attic ; Proto-Achean ; Proto-Doric. The main difference between both theories concerns therefore the existence, in the second one, of "Proto-Ionians" during the whole Bronze Age Period. Moreover, it is stated that these Proto-Ionians came by sea to the Aegean through the Bosphorus, and settled at Troy, in the Cycladic Islands, Euboea and Attica, during the Early Bronze Age (c.2900 to 2200 BC).

References

• Google groups search for "Proto-Ionian Theory" - most of the messages were written by "grapheus".
• Personal webpage on the theory - Not clear if it's the same person as "grapheus" or not.