Re: Did IE languages spread before farming?

From: markodegard@...
Message: 9252
Date: 2001-09-09

N. Ganesan:
> Still I don't understand how Funnel Beaker culture is
> Indo-European speaking.

If the PIE Homeland is to be placed in north central Europe, then
Funnel Beaker is by definition IE-to-PIE-speaking.

This culture is referred to by a number of terms: TRB (as in EIEC),
which is the abbreviation for German _Trichterbecher_, or
Funnel-necked Beaker. Funnel Beaker is the most common in English, but
must be *carefully* distinguished from that other 'beaker' culture,
the Bell-Beaker, which is later and has a different distribution.

The map in EIEC shows it occupying Germany from the Elbe valley east,
all of modern Poland, with extension eastward beyond the modern
borders, and a western extension in Germany along the North Sea to
about the Netherlands border. The dates are 4200-2700 BCE.

J.P. Malory writes that the distribution is "broadly coincidental with
the Globular Amphora and Corded Ware cultures which are widely
regarded as major vectors for the expansion of all the IE languages"
[EIEC, "TRB Culture", p. 587].

The culture is often seen as a development of the Lengyal and Rossen
cultures, themselves being descended from the LBK (Linear Band ware)
culture.