John:
>The diffusion of solid wheeled vehicles across the Caucasas at such >an
>early time, could also be evidence of the PIE-Etruscan culture >zone at
>such an early phase. There was a fair bit of early >Transcaucasian
>movement from Mesolithic times onwards. It also >enables the
>proto-Tyrhennians to have been the IE people that >Renfrew identified as
>coming out of Anatolia.
>
>Solves a lot of problems in my view. Whadd'ya say Glen?
No. It only creates many more problems. The IE can only be from a more
northerly locale. There is no possibility that IE spread from Anatolia, nor
IndoEtruscan. With this theory, the explanation of IE-Uralic connections
crashes down in ruin with no alternative hypothesis to take its place. This
is the failure of Renfrew et al. 'Fraid not. Two thumbs down from Glen.
Perhaps the archaeological data is being interpreted wrong. If Anatolia is a
source of innovations, we should expect some spread of cultural or
technological features FROM Anatolia INTO the North Pontic despite a
population movement outwards from the area, no?
- gLeN
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