Re: [tied] Re: Gimbutas.

5500-5300 BC. Groups of PIE-speaking LP (Linear Pottery) farmers migrate from the Middle Danube Valley into Central Europe and establish a network of settlements along the loess belt of the N European Plain (from the Rhein to the Vistula). The linguistic ancestors of the Anatolians stay behind. Perhaps they form the eastern branch of the Danubian LP, or merge with the Vinča culture more to the south (which might also be associated with the Proto-Tyrrhenians).
5300-4500 BC. LP settlers slowly colonise new cultivable areas, expanding both NW and E. They reach the Netherlands at the western end; in the east they penetrate Ukraine along the Dniester Valley and arrive on the Black Sea. By 4500 BC there are already considerable cultural and dialectal differences between the two ends of the LP belt.

 

If this is to be the pattern, I question leaving Anatolic behind in the Middle Danube. One rather looks to see Anatolic down at the Dneister delta, or at least, having a relationship to the steppe peoples, one that ends with the advent of Indo-Iranian.

 

I envision a historical conveyer belt along the Dneister: first Anatolian, which moves south of the Danube and eventually into NW Anatolia, to end up in central and eastern Anatolia. The second wave is Greek-Armenian-Phrygian. The third is Dacian and Thracian. All of them seem to have spent some time on the steppe as pastoralists.

 

With Armenian, Greek and Indo-Iranian (the 'e-augment'), I grope in the dark to see a kind of western IE-speaking pastoralist grouping, one that will eventually be dominated by the emergence of the Indo-Iranians.

 

Back in the Middle Danube, you have another goulash, a mixing bowl defined by mountains, where Celtic, Italic, Venetic, Albanian-Illyrian, and who knows what else interact. I would seem there was also some regular interaction with elements from the Steppe. The Celts move west, while Italic and Venetic seem to have slipped into Italy from the northeast.

 

The situation on the steppe, as I've often pointed out, has *always* been one of linguistic diversity. Projecting this diversity back into pre-history is not unreasonable. What clearly did happen, however, was that the Indo-Iranians probably first organized the steppe into its historic pattern. IEs do not need to be the ones who first domesticated the horse, but they certainly were the ones who utilized it to the maximum.

 

I suspect the first, really steppe-worthy wheeled vehicles were invented in the west. With sturdy vehicles and horseback riding (which allowed free range herding of cattle), there was a population explosion, a big bang across the steppe. The virgin, uninhabited grasslands between the rivers were suddenly fully exploitable. They were well fed. Their ability to spread was really limited only by the ability of they and their livestock to reproduce themselves. There was *no one* to interfere with their spread.

 

Mark.