--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> > PIE has only a few words related to agriculture, domestication, and
metals which, IMO, points to a late paleolithic/early neolithic date. So
7-8k BC seems reasonable.
>
> What do we mean by "the date of PIE"? 7-8k BCE is much too early for
the diaspora. If memory serves, Sherratt dates the appearance of
(ritual?) ard-marks under European barrows to 3500, give or take a
century. The diaspora must have followed the ard (i.e. light plough),
*h2arh3-trom. This is what makes 3-4k BCE reasonable for the breakup of
PIE.
>
There're been various attempts to date "PIE" based on words for horse
and wheeled vehicles, which are technological innovations like the ard.
Unfortunately, these attempts are intrinsically fallacious, because
these kind of words are mostly *Wanderwörter* from other languages
(the ones spoken by the inventors of these things).
> Of course, if you belong to the Super Mario Brothers, there was no
breakup, no diaspora, and everybody was polite to everybody else until
Romulus slew Remus over a perceived insult.
>
You remind me of a cartoon quoted by Renfrew where Caesar's soldiers
were drinking beer and smoking cigarrettes at a café. Hint: these
things were introduced at a later date but yet they've got common words
in Romance languages.