01.06.2023

Milky ways in the Sahara

Colloquium by Prof. Dr. Amina Mettouchi

­

Time: Thursday, 1^st June 2023 at 1pm (sharp)

Location: Rümelinstraße 23, Room 602 or via Zoom

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Amina Mettouchi

Title: Milky ways in the Sahara

Abstract:
Berber (also called Amazigh) languages are currently spoken across a vast area stretching from the Nile to the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean to the Sahel. They are a branch of the Afroasiatic family, whose homeland has been hypothesized to be either the horn of Africa, or the Levant, or the Sahara/Sahel. 

While the time-depth of AfroAsiatic is reconstructed at 15 000 - 10 000 BCE, Proto-Berber, if calibrated according to standard assumptions about rates of language change, should only date back to the beginning of the current era. However, epigraphic evidence is attested in the first millenium BCE at least, and most probably, the Berber branch is much older.

In order to investigate this mystery, and because pastoralism is a key cultural feature of Berber groups, I explore the lexicon of milk production and products (livestock, milk preparations, churns, ladles and pots...), in parallel with multidisciplinary evidence from archaeology (evidence of milk processing, faunal remains, rock art…), genetics, and anthropology (food preparation techniques, prophylactic rituals, oral tradition). My proposal is that Berber languages spread across North Africa as a result of the aridification of the Green Sahara around 4500 BP.
 

We welcome you all to join us in-person or via Zoom.