03-03-2004 18:47, mkelkar2003 wrote:
> Kelkar: So if i am understanding this correctly, it really does not
> matter whether the IE dipsersal started 6000 BCE or 4000 BCE as far
> dating of the Rig Veda is concerned.
Not directly. But the spread of IE was a long process, not as a single
dispersal event. You must leave sufficient time for the intermediate
stages between PIE and Proto-Indo-Iranian, and certainly a few centuries
for the separate development of Indic within Indo-Iranian. The breakup
of Proto-Indo-Iranian is estimated to have taken place ca. 2000 BC,
which squares well with the internal evidence of the oldest texts
(horses, chariots, bronze/copper but no iron yet) and the first
historically documented appearance of already differentiated
Indo-Iranian tribes in the Middle East (Iranians, Mitanni Indo-Aryans)
in the mid 2nd millenium BC.
Piotr