----- Original Message -----
From: "jdcroft" <jdcroft@...>
To: <nostratic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 7:49 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: Problems with Bomhard


...
> The Times Atlas of Archaeology is interesting in this regard. There
> was a very early Afircan centre for pottery technology (circa 7,000
> BCE) associated with wavy line pots (decorated with catfish
> incissions from the Sahara - probably associated with the
> distribution of Nilo Saharan languages - and perhaps with an early
> (and independent domestication of cattle). Pottery was thus
> introduced into Palestine from two directions - north from Africa
> through the Sinai (Minhatta culture) and south from Anatolia and the
> Zagros. The fusion of these styles created the Ghassulian culture
> which can be (and often has been) equated with the first spread of
> the Semites in the Middle East, circa 5,600 BCE. The Ghassulians
> seem to have been the people who invented the mixed mediterranean
> economy of wine, grapes, grains, beans and transhumance pastorage.


Do evidences of wavy-line pottery in Palestine really exist?
Unfortunately, I know nothing about Minhatta culture.


> Alexander asked
> > So we can expect that earliest Neolithic groups from Africa entered
> > Africa in the beginning of the 6th mill.BC. Is it too late or early
> > enough to explain differencies between linguistic groups of the
> > AfroAsiatic family?
>
> Yes, it is too late. Bomhard suggests that at least three groups of
> Afro-Asiatic languages (SOV (Cushitic/Omotic), SVO (Chadic) and VSO
> (Berber, Egyptian and Semitic)) had separated by 8,000 BCE. I tend
> to agree as this is associated with the diffusion and spread of
> different styles of Capsian microlithic cultures.


If so why nobody speaks about Cushitic linguistic family, Chadic linguistic
family, Berber linguistic family etc. of the same tacsonomic rank as
Indo-European family (the Sredny Stog culture existed as late as between
4400 BC and 3500 BC)?! Why the problem of fighting with conservators, who
deny existing a real genetic relationship between different Afro-Asiatic
branches, is not actual?


> > I don't know. However, linguistic groups of the Indo-European family
> > seem to have separated only in the Early Bronze Age, i.e. not
> > earlier than 3000 BC.
>
> The Anatolian group seems to have split earlier. This would coincide
> well with the Usatova culture in Bulgaria.

Yes, the Anatolian group (the only one!) seems to have split some earlier.
In my opinion they could be associated with Cernavoda-I in Romania - the
first steppe horse-breeding culture behind Danube.
Usatovo is situated in SW Ukraine (between Dniester and Bug) and shows
peculiarities of both Tripolie-Cucuteni and Sredny Stog cultures. This
culture also can be considered as a candidate for the earliest Anatolians.
If we find any specific Tripolian traces in Hittite or Luwian cultures it
would be a strong argument for this variant.

Alexander