From: Tavi
Message: 69769
Date: 2012-06-05
>Well, I'm afraid things aren't no so simple, as there're several 'pig' words which point to more than one independent domestication center. For example, IE *pork^-o- 'piglet, young pig' and its Vasco-Caucasian counterparts are Wanderwörter of ultimate Austronesian origin (*beRek 'domesticated pig').
> The recent genetic paper on pig domestication in Europe available at
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2ynplm ,
>
> whose download link was already provided by M. Kelkar a few days
> ago, arrives at the conclusion that the earliest domesticated pigs
> in Europe were introduced from the Near East by neolithic farmers.
> The authors of that paper maintain that the discovery and analysis
> of ancient Near Eastern pig remains across Europe would suggest that
> Europe was colonized by Near Eastern farmers who brought their
> `farming package' of domesticated plants, animals and distinctive
> pottery styles with them. Thus, their conclusions appear consistent
> with Renfrew's hypothesis about a major 'demic' diffusion of farming
> populations from the Near East into Europe during the Neolithic,
> with the important difference that they, of course, don't assume
> that those farmers spoke IE languages!
>
> If these farmers really came to SE Europe from Anatolia, I agree
> with you that Hurro-Urartian/NEC languages are a good candidate for
> their linguistic affiliation. All the better if these languages will
> one day be proved to be related to Etruscan/Raethic/Lemnian, Eteo-
> Cretan, Eteo-Cypriot, pre-IE Greek ('Pelasgian'?), Hattic and you
> name it... :^)
>