From: Michal Milewski
Message: 13519
Date: 2002-04-27
----- Original Message -----
From: <x99lynx@...>
> The archaeological problem I see with your Proto-Steppic theory is that
the
> population north of the Black Sea seems to have some serious continuity
with
> the population in central Europe as early as 9000BC. And cultural
evidence
> of migration would suggest the Near East as the other main source starting
> around 8000BC, which is consistent with some recent Y chromosome genetic
> evidence.
Steve,
The results of Y chromosome genetic population studies you mentioned could
also be interpreted in favor of Central Asian origin of PIE - at least IMHO,
although I admit that I lack professional background in linguistics and
archaeology (and population genetics is not my field, either). I would,
however, strongly recommend Glen and other nostraticists to read the two
most important papers on this issue, since carefull analysis of those
results may change their opinion regarding the origin and range of so called
Nostratic family.
These papers are:
Semino O et al. (2000) The genetic legacy of paleolithic Homo sapiens
sapiens in extant Europeans: A Y chromosome perspective. Science 290:1155
Underhill PA et al. (2000) Y chromosome sequence variation and the history
of human populations. Nature Genetics 26:358
The letter of Renfrew C et al. (Nature Genetics, 2000, 26:253) has rightly
indicated that the paper of Underhill et al. makes a real breaktrough in the
studies of human past. However, the conclusions presented by the authors of
the first paper (Semino et al.) and later repeated by others (Gibbons A,
Science, 2000, 290:1080; Barbujani G & Bertorelle G, PNAS, 98:22) are not
free of some overstatements and even mistakes (all in my personal opinion),
for example in regard to the dating of the "Aurignacian" Y marker M173,
which in my opinion is much younger and may roughly correspond to the Satem
subfamily of IE languages. (Anticipating future remarks on the validity of
such statements based on the studies of modern populations, I want to
express my opinion that all such statements remain highly speculative).
For those of you who do not have access to the above papers, I can email
them as PDF files, when requested.
Glen, if you are interested in more recent papers on the Y-chromosomal
diversity among modern populations of particular regions of the world
(Europe, Central Asia, America, Near East), I can give you some references.
Regards,
Michal