Saturday, January 18, 2014

ARAVACI

In Spain there used to live an ancient Iberian tribe named Arevaci (Arevacos):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arevaci

The same link shows that they had an alternative spelling of Aravaci, which is a clear hint at the Kartvelian origin of thw word, for 'ara-' being a fundamental Kartvelian negative prefix, meaning 'non'. So, we can interpret now Aravaci as 'Non-Vaci'. Why would someone be called like that? For example, if there was a tribe named 'Vaci', then their neighbours might have been called 'Non-Vaci':

- Who lives here?
- Vaci.
- And who lives there?
- Non-Vaci (Aravaci). No idea who lives there. 

The last detail to find out are the neighbours of Aravaci. Weren't they some kind of 'Vaci'? Let's go once again by the above link... Looking... Looking... BINGO! There were neighbours. And the neighbours were called... exactly 'Vaci': "...their powerful neighbours Vaccaei...".

By the way, look at the name of this city of Aravaci - Uxama Argelae. It interprets perfectly well from Georgian - უხამა არგელი - as "Megrelian torch".

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