--- In cybalist@..., "Gerry Reinhart-Waller" <waluk@...> wrote:
> I'm butting in too. I can't figure out how anyone can associate
the spread of IE with agriculture.
Masica's language X is a hypothesis premised on the presence
of 'agricultural' terms which do not seem to have PIE roots.
During the ice age, ca. between 18000 to 10,000 Carbon-14 years ago,
a substantial part of northern Europe was filled with ice-sheets
where not a grass could grow, hence could not have supported cattle
or people settling in there.
Au contraire, Bha_rata, that is India WAS habitable, together with
most of south- and south-east asia. The monsoons began about ca.
10000 years ago together with deglaciation in the Himalayas which led
to emergence of some perennial rivers, bringing in alluvium to
support domestication of crops.
One item for future PIE studies: The story of the language evolution
together with organized farming using bronze-age tools has not yet
been fully told.