----- Original Message -----
From: "jdcroft" <jdcroft@...>
To: <nostratic@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 7:49 PM
Subject: [nostratic] Re: Problems with Bomhard

...
>From this we can assume that the bow and arrow which had been in
> Africa 30,000 BCE, crossed into Eurasia from two routes
>
> 1. A western route - via Spain and Portugal
> 2. An Eastern route via the Sinai and Palestine.


No questions about the 1st variant.
But 2nd. Is it proved that the bow and arrow came to Palestine, Mesopotamia
and Asia Minor from Egypt, but not from Europe? I read that a part of
Swiderian people moved from Poland to SouthEast (6 sites with Swiderian-type
inventory in Crimea). Some authors (N.Nikolaeva and V.Safronov) even insist
that Swiderian arrowheads types are actually identicall with the Takhunian
ones (Beida, Jericho B). If they are right bow and arrow could come to
Palestine from Central Europe through Asia Minor.
Your opinion?


> The Sredny Stog culture microliths seem to have developed in situ
> from the earlier Murzak Koba derived cultures, I understand
> (Alexander you may have better data than do I here). I understand
> that the Murzak Koba culture was fairly widespread and very early
> (9,100-8,000 BCE) giving rise to both Grebenki (8,500-7,000 BCE and
> to Dneipr-Bug and Dnesitr-Donetz cultures (7,000-5,500 BCE) which led
> to the development of Sredny Stog. Murzak Koba also seems to have
> extended northwards into the Urals forested region, and may have
> spread into the area later occupied by the Uralic languages. Could
> this have been the ancestor of both Indo-European and Uralic/Yukaghir?


Murzak-Koba represents Crimean Mesolithic but is not the oldest microlithic
culture to North of the Black sea. It has been demonstrated that Shan-Koba
type layers are older than Murzak-Koba ones. Kukrek culture layers also
stratigraphically lower then layers of Murzak-Koba.

Anyway there were several waves of microlithic cultures to the Ukrainian
steppes. These processes need further investigations and systematisation.
However something is clear enough.
The Eneolithic Sredny Stog culture is a descendant of the Neolithic Sura
culture which seems to be genetically tightly related with the Crimean
Mountain Neolithic and the West Caucasian Neolithic. All of them represent
the last microlithic wave of 7th-6th mill.BC (leading from Asia Minor to
Lower Dnieper). It is interesting that all of them were not acquainted on
the earliest stages with sheep and goats but demonstrated evidences of
cattle and pigs (+ horse only in the Sura culture).
On the other hand, all the mentioned cultures distinguish from other
cultures of Ukrainian Neolithic (also having microliths): Bug-Dnestr,
Dnieper-Donets, Rakushechny Yar, Middle Don, Seroglazovskaya and some other
cultures. (BTW, they also knew first domesticated cattle and pigs and only
later imported sheep and goats). I don't know whether they represent a
development of older local Mesolithic cultures or they came later as a new
wave.
I guess that the first group of cultures (Sura and Co) represent the
Indo-European way, because they demonstrate in the succession Sura c. -
Sredny Stog c. - Pit Grave (= Yamnaya) c. etc. the progressive adaptation to
the life in steppes: pastoral orientation with transition to semi-nomadism
(and ultimately to nomadism), domesticated horse, some cultural objects
associated with nomads.
The second group of cultures also lived in steppes but did not adopted to
this zone successfully. That's why they disappeared soon. Their ethnic
attribution is not clear. They had microliths, therefore I expect them to be
a Nostratic group - either 7th "dead end" branch or perhaps a Western
subbranch of Uralic family? Now we can only guess.


> > However I must say that there is another chain of microlithic
> > cultures from Tunissia, then through shore regions of Spain,
> > Portugal, France, Britain to the south shore of Baltic. They are
> > associated nether with agriculture nor with any known Nostratic
> > languages.
>
> These people seem to be associated with the Ibero Maurasians I was
> speaking earlier of Alexander. Some have found traces of Afroasiatic
> substrate languages in this part of the world, (eg in Iberian and
> Germanic) but I would feel they are too buried to be identifiable
> whoever they are.

There weve several trips in direction NW Africa/Spain - Atlantic Europe -
North Europe:
- Ibero-Maurusians (Mesolithic)
- Cardial pottery c. / Megalithic cultures (Neolithic)
- Beakers (the Copper Age)
Who left those traces?

Alexander