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TheNordwestblock (German, "Northwest Block") is a hypotheticalNorthwestern Europeancultural region that some scholars propose as aprehistoric culture in the present-dayNetherlands,Belgium, far-northernFrance, andnorthwestern Germany, in an area approximately bounded by theSomme,Oise,Meuse andElbe rivers, possibly extending to the eastern part of what is nowEngland,[citation needed] during theBronze andIron Ages from the 3rd to the 1st millennia BCE, up to the onset of historical sources, in the 1st century BCE.
The theory was first proposed by two authors working independently:Hans Kuhn[1] andMaurits Gysseling, whose proposal included research indicating thatanother language may have existed somewhere in between Germanic and Celtic in theBelgian region.[2]
The termNordwestblock itself was coined by Hans Kuhn,[3] who considered the inhabitants of the area neither Germanic nor Celtic and so attributed to the people a distinct ethnicity or culture up to theIron Age. So far, this has not been proven or disproven.
The hypothetical language or languages spoken by the Iron Age Nordwestblock population are a matter of speculation, as there are no written records of such languages as is the case with the Germanic language, but can be inferred based on analysis ofsubstrate features in the primarilyWest Germanic languages that later came to be spoken in the region (for example, arealloanwords of unknown origin, and the presence of certaingeminate consonants that cannot be explained byinheritance fromProto-Indo-European), or by analysis of place-names (toponymy andhydronymy).[4][5] Broadly, this substrate area is sometimes called theNorth-West European substratum.[6] Kuhn speculated on linguistic affinity of this substratum to theVenetic language, while other hypotheses connect the Northwestblock with theRhaetic ("Tyrsenian") or genericIndo-European languages of thecentum type (Illyrian, "Old European"). Gysseling suspected an intermediateBelgian language between Germanic andCeltic, that might have been affiliated toItalic. According toLuc van Durme, a Belgian linguist, toponymic evidence of a former Celtic presence in theLow Countries is almost completely absent.[7] Kuhn noted that since, inProto-Indo-European (PIE), the phoneme */b/ was very rare, and since PIE */b/, viaGrimm's law, is the main source of regularly inherited/p/ in words in Germanic languages (except after fricatives, e.g. initial*sp- from PIE*(s)p-), the many words in which/p/ occurs must have some other language as their source. Similarly, in Celtic, PIE */p/ disappeared and in regularly-inherited words did not reappear inp-Celtic languages except as a result ofProto-Celtic*kʷ becoming*p. All that taken together means that any word starting with a/p/ in a Germanic language that is not evidently borrowed from either Latin or a p-Celtic language, such as Gaulish, must be a loan from another language. Kuhn ascribes those words to the Nordwestblock language.
LinguistPeter Schrijver assumes the pre-existence ofpre-Indo-European languages linked to the archeologicalLinear Pottery culture and to a family of languages featuring complex verbs spoken by the earliest Neolithic farmers, of which theNorthwest Caucasian languages might have been the sole survivors. Although assumed to have left traces within all other Indo-European languages as well, the influence of an unknown substrate would have been especially strong on Celtic languages originating north of the Alps and on the region including Belgium and the Rhineland.[8]
It is uncertain when Germanic began to gain a foothold in the area. The Nordwestblock region north of the Rhine is traditionally conceived as belonging to the realms of the Northern Bronze Age, with the Harpstedt Iron Age generally assumed to represent the Germanic precedents west of theJastorf culture.[9] The general development converged with the emergence of Germanic within other previously Northern Bronze Age regions to the east, maybe also involving a certain degree of Germanic cultural diffusion. From about the 1st century CE, that region saw the development of the "Weser–Rhine" group of West Germanic dialects which gave rise toOld Frankish from the 4th century.
The issue still remains unresolved and so far no conclusive evidence has been forwarded to support any alternative.Mallory considers the issue a salutary reminder that some anonymous linguistic groups that do not fully obey the current classification may have survived to the beginning of historical records.
The following prehistoric cultures have been attributed to the region and are compatible with but do not necessarily prove the Nordwestblock hypothesis.
TheBell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BCE) is thought to originate from the same geographic area, as early stages of the culture apparently derived from earlyCorded Ware culture elements, with the Netherlands/Rhineland region as probably the most widely accepted site of origin (J. P. Mallory,EIEC p. 53).
The Bell Beaker culture locally developed into the Bronze AgeBarbed Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BCE). In the 2nd millennium BCE, the region was at the boundary between theAtlantic andNordic horizons, split up in a northern and a southern region, roughly divided by the course of theRhine. To the north emerged theElp culture (1800-800 BCE), featuring an initialtumulus phase showing a close relationship to other Northern European tumulus groups (sharing pottery of low quality:Kümmerkeramik) and a subsequent smooth local transformation to theUrnfield culture (1200–800 BCE). The southern region became dominated by theHilversum culture (1800–800 BCE), which apparently inherited the previous Barbed Wire Beaker cultural ties with Britain.
From 800 BCE onward, the southern area was influenced by theCeltic or proto-CelticHallstatt culture. The current view in the Netherlands holds that subsequent Iron Age innovations did not involve substantial Celtic intrusions but featured a local development from Bronze Age culture.[10]
From 750-600 BCE, areas formerly occupied by the Elp culture emerged as the probably-Germanic Harpstedt culture west[9] of the GermanicJastorf culture, and the southern parts became assimilated to the CelticLa Tène culture, as is consistent withJulius Caesar's account of the Rhine forming the boundary between Celtic and Germanic tribes.
Later, the Roman retreat resulted in the disappearance of imported products like ceramics and coins and a return to virtually-unchanged local Iron Age production methods. To the north, people continued to live in the same three-aisled farmhouse, and to the east, completely-new types of buildings arose. More to the south, in Belgium, archaeological results of the period point to immigration from the north.[11]
With the onset of historical records (Tacitus, 1st century), the area was generally called the border region between Celtic (Gaulish) and Germanic influence.
Tribes located in the area include theBatavians,Belgae,Chatti,Hermunduri,Cheruscii,Salii,Sicambri,Tencteri andUsipetes or Usipii. Caesar took the course of the Rhine to be the boundary between Gauls and Germans (Germanic people) but also mentioned that a large part of the Belgae had ancestry from east of the Rhine and that one part were even known collectively as "Germani" (the so-called "Germani cisrhenani"). TheBelgae were therefore considered Gaulish (theUsipetes Germanic etc.) because of their position with respect to the Rhine, and not in the modern linguistic sense of the terms.
Some of those tribes would later join theFrankish confederation.
