---
lsroute66@... wrote:
> > >GK: Nowak argues that it is only by
> > >and by that these foragers became interested in
> > >farming. But the break came shortly after 4000
> BC. He
> > >considers the TRB (Funnel Beaker culture) to be
> not so
> > >much a development of previous farming
> communities as
> > >a creation of Mesolithic ex-foragers ready to
> make the
> > >transition to agriculture.
>
> SL: A quick note. I'm not sure what George takes
this
> to mean,
*****GK: Possibly my use of "of" rather than "by"
confused you. If so I apologize. I did not mean to
convey the notion that these Mesolithic foragers
developed TRB "absolutely on their own and in a
vacuum", and neither does Nowak. Obviously they had a
millennium and a half of "example" right next door
when they decided to move in that direction. What
Nowak says is that the TRB was an innovation by
imitating "Mesolithers". And what I take this to mean,
basically, is that agriculture did not spread here by
"natural reproduction" of colonists who assimilated
smaller Mesolithic communities. It was adopted by
large groups of people who outnumbered the original
LBK and successor groups. The suggestion being that
people who maintained their way of life for a
millennium and a half and then produced their own
original "agricultural" face would not easily have
been linguistically assimilated by LBK etc.(in fact
the reverse likely occurred in the TRB phase) So that
this fact does not support the idea of a spread of IE
to them from LBK etc. (if LBK was IE which I don't
believe).******
>
> SL:I haven't seen Nowak's article, but I'm sure it
does
> nothing to
> support George's idea. There is no evidence to
> support any idea other
> than that LBK AND other neolithic cultures were the
> major reason that
> these local populations converted from foraging to
> TRB agro-pastoral.
*****GK: Read the article and get back to me. Nowak
argues that it is the long activity of the Mesolithics
(living next to the LBK etc. and well aware of the
latter's life style) in "managing" their forest areas
which led to a situation where they opted to adopt
agriculture. The transition was "prepared" of course,
but when it came it was relatively swift and
comprehensive, and the impetus was "internal" if
"imitative" to some degree. While TRB arose, LBK etc.
continued for a time until absorbed by the
former.*****
>
> Regards,
> Steve Long
Ditto, George Knysh
>
>
>
>
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