MICHAEL WITZEL

Wales Professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University

Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003-)


PERSONAL home page (6/24/96),  and: 
Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory:        (ASLIP home page,1999-)

ASLIP, journal: MOTHER TONGUE,  newsletter: LONG RANGER.

*  International Conference on the Substrate and Remnant Languages of South, Southeast, East Asia & Sahul  Land
Cambridge, MA, 1 Bow Street, October 21-22, 2006. Conference background; List of presentatiions
Other HARVARD ROUND TABLES

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES and cultures of the Hindukush & Himalaya: KALASH and KUSUNDA





Michael Witzel                                                                             Curriculum Vitae
Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
1 Bow Street, 3rd fl., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
phones (general) : x-1-617-495 3295 (also voice messages),
617-496 8570 -- fax 496 8571 -- direct line 496 2990  (also voice messages),         List of Publications  (updated Febr. 2008)
email: witzel@fas.harvard.edu.
Indo-Eurasian_research group     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eurasian_research
Comparative Mythology group     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compmyth

    NEW FEATURES

HARVARD ROUND TABLES
11th Round Table on the Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asia (Cambridge May 8-9, 2008)

Rig-Veda. Das heilige Wissen. Erster und zweiter Liederkreis. Aus dem vedischen Sanskrit übersetzt und herausgegeben von Michael Witzel und Toshifumi Goto unter Mitarbeit von Eijiro Doyama und Mislav Jezic.  Frankfurt: Verlag der Weltreligionen. 2007, pp. 1-889
(First complete translation of the Rgveda into a western language since Geldner's of 1929/1951). covercontents1contents2    amazon.de

Myths and Consequences. Review of Stefan Arvidsson, Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science. (Chicago University Press 2006). Science, vol. 317, 28 September 2007, 1868-1869 (Manuscript Number: 1141619).  http://www. sciencemag,org.
Summary: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/317/5846/1868?ijkey=vNHCuWdIhTviU&keytype=ref&siteid=sci
Full Text:  http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5846/1868?ijkey=vNHCuWdIhTviU&keytype=ref&siteid=sci

Out of Africa: the Journey of the Oldest Tales of Humankind. In: Generalized Science of Humanity Series, Vol. I. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa 2006: 21-65.

Brahmanical Reactions to Foreign Influences and to Social and Religious Change. In: Olivelle, P. (ed.) Between the Empires. Society in India between 300 BCE and 400 CE. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2006: 457-499

Creation myths. In: T. Osada (ed.), Proceedings of the Pre-Symposium of RHIN and 7th ESCA Harvard-Kyoto Round Table. Published by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RHIN), Kyoto, Japan  2006: 284-318

Memories of a Hindu Nepal: Accounts of a Personal Journey . Swadharma.  Harvard’ Hinduism Journal, I, May 2006:  18-24

Rama's Realm: Indocentric Rewritings of Early South Asian Archaeology and History.  In: Archaeological Fantasies. How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public,  ed. by G. G. Fagan.London/New York: Routledge 2006:203-232 --  Discussion by  Colin Renfrew

Indocentrism: Autochthonous visions of ancient India. In:  The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history / edited by Edwin F. Bryant and Laurie L. Patton.  London  & New York : Routledge, 2005: 341-404
 

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS (excerpt, for full list see: List of Publications):
Vala and Iwato. The Myth of the Hidden Sun in India, Japan and beyond
EJVS 12-1, (March 1, 2005), 1-69 pdf; additional pictures, tables, maps: pdf (big file!)

The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis:The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization
by  Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat, and Michael Witzel    EJVS 11-2  Dec. 13, 2005)
Discussion in SCIENCE MAGAZINE  306, Dec. 17., 2004, 2026-2029

Katha Âranyaka. Critical edition with a translation into German and an introduction.
Cambridge: Harvard Oriental Series 65. 2004  [pp. lxxix, XXVI, 220, with color facsimiles of the Kashmir bhûrja MS]

The Rgvedic Religious System and its Central Asian and Hindukush Antecedents
In: A. Griffiths & J.E.M. Houben (eds.). The Vedas: Texts, Language and Ritual. Groningen: Forsten  [Nov.] 2004: 581-636  (www.forsten.nl)

Linguistic Evidence for Cultural Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia.
Philadelphia: Sino-Platonic Papers 129,  Dec. 2003, [Aug.  2004]

Das Alte Indien [History of Old India]. München: C.H. Beck  [C.H. Beck Wissen in der Beck'schen Reihe] March 2003. (Euro 7.90) [Contents]

Comparison and Reconstruction : Language and Mythology. Mother Tongue VI, 2001, 45-62 pdf (comp.myth)

Autochthonous Aryans?  The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts. EJVS May 2001 pdf

Early Sources for South Asian Substrate Languages.Boston: Mother Tongue, extra number 1999 pdf

Early Sanskritization. Origins and development of the Kuru State. B. Kölver (ed.), Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien. The state, the Law, and Administration in Classical India. München : R. Oldenbourg 1997 : 27-52  pdf (EJVS version); early summary, Kyoto 1989

Early Indian History: Linguistic and Textual Parameters. in: Language, Material Culture and ethnicity. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, ed. G. Erdosy, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter 1995, 85-125; --  Rgvedic history: poets, chieftains and politics,  loc.cit. 307-352  combined pdf (uncorrected)

New pdfs: see List of Publications:



OTHER CURRENT FEATURES

* Project on Substrate Languages of South Asia (SARVA) in collaboration with F. Southworth and the Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), 2004 -
-  Starting point: CDIAL's starred items (reconstructed OIA words not attested in texts)
SARVA utilities:   Turner's CDIAL and Burrow-Emeneau's  DEDR (searchable simultaneously); SARVA dictionary; discussion lists

*  Project on Comparative Mythology (Asia Center, Harvard, 2003-6); description, results

The Deep History of Stories. International Conference on Comparative Mythology, Edinburgh, Scotland.     August 28-30, 2007 (10th ESCA Round Table). Announcements;Program

*  ENLARGED (Mac) VERSION OF: VEDIC CONCORDANCE, HOS 10 (M. Bloomfield and Marco Franceschini  © 2005 (updated April 2005,  Feb. 2001);  PC and Mac version at Bologna


       EDITORIAL WORK

========================================================================================================================

          This page is under periodical revisision. Please check back for updates from time to time.
Counter since March 4, 2008