[tied] Re: Did IE languages spread before farming?

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:>
Excuse me, but what's that got to do with PIE? There is no need for
IE scholars to study Pleistocene climatology or Neanderthal mammoth-
hunting (unless they happen to be interested in such subjects for
their own sake), because even assuming a very liberal time depth for
the Indo-European family, its history began a few thousand years
after the end of the last glaciation. You could just as well demand
that they study the evolution of vertebrates, continental drift, or
the origin of the Solar System. Fascinating subjects, but of no
direct relevance to Indo-European or Indo-Aryan migrations.

Why not? Did IE start from a vacuum? What was the state of language
prior to the last glaciation? What is the starting set of IE words?
Did they have 'farming' words? Or, 'glacier' words?

Aren't these questions legitimate irrespective of climatology?