>His search for the Urheimat of the Nostratic culture identifies a
>location and a time - 15,000 BCE in Syria and the Jezira, but he
>fails to identify a culture associated with this period.

I see the book as attempting to give a big picture. I agree with
you that there is a lot of vagueness that needs to be resolved.
I appreciate some of the minor ideas he proposes therein such as
the mention of the possibility of NWC substrate in earlier layers
of IE.

>Clearly as climates warmed after the Glacial maximum (18,000 BCE)
>it was easier for cultures to move out of Africa and off the Sahara and
>into the Middle East than the other way around.

Until I can better acquaint myself with the archaeology that you
mention (which requires much time to invest, of which I have not),
I can only say that putting AfroAsiatic in Africa would also put
Nostratic in Africa. It would also follow that AfroAsiatic and
"the rest of Nostratic" split first, which isn't too crazy an
idea afterall. Then, the rest of Nostratic would split into
Kartvelian, as it moved northward, and Eurasiatic (Sumerian,
ElamoDravidian, Steppe) once it moved out of Africa.


- love gLeN


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com