Gerry wrote
> Mark, thanks for your post on the horse and dog sacrifices. Alekseev
> states in Lecture 5 that at Oberkassel (Rhine Valley, western Germany)
> was found a mandible of a dog with two molar teeth still in tact. He
> claims that the second molar was larger than the first and that this
was
> a true sign of domestication. The mandible dates to 12,000 BC. Does
> this coincide with your information?
I think this is a date significantly before the ones that Mark is
mentioning, Gerry. The earliest direct evidence for the domestication
of the dog that I know of is 12,400 BCE, with the first sites of the
Zarzian mesolithic culture. It was the possession of the dog and the
bow (first atested with the Aterian mesolithic culture (30,000 BCE) of
African Morocco) that gave the possessors of the Nostratic speaking
languages their cultural and technological edge over the Upper
Paleolithic remnants.
The Zarzian mesolithic had a huge effect upon neighbouring groups. At
Kobystan in the Eastern Caucasas, there is a cultural link between
Zarzian and the Pontic mesolithic from which IE eventually developed.
There is also a chain of cultures stretching east through the west
Iranian M'lefatian to 10,500-9,000BCE with the Ali Tappah and
9,000-5,000 BCE Jeitun cultures. This in turn led by 6,000-4,000 BCE
to the Hissar culture which may have been proto-Altaic. It was found
in the region from Transoxania to Issuk Kul. Certainly the 5,500-3,500
BCE Keltiminar culture of the Yeneisi bend would have certainly been
Altaic. It shows a fusion with mesolithic cultures from the south
west, with clear cultural survivals from the Upper Paleolithic, and was
extremely important in spreading elements of the wide spectrum
revolution mesolithic throughout the taiga forests of East Asia. By
the end of the Keltiminar period there are also clear signs of
neolithic influence coming from the Eurasian steppes to the west.
The Zarzian culture was replaced in 8,700-8,500 by the Zawi Chemi
Shanadar of the Zagros mountains, which subsequently led to the Jarmo
breakthrough with agriculture.
> Do you know anything about horse burials of the Scythians?
Horse burials seem to have been, as Mark suggests, a clear IE trait -
from Ireland to India and north to the Kansu corridor in China,
influencing the earliest Shang Dynasty there.
Hope this helps
John