Dating the final IE unity (was: Re: GREEK PREHISTORY AND LANGUAGE)

[Vidhyanath Rao]

Stanley Friesen <sarima at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> The appearance of horse-bits (for riding) in the Sredny-Stog culture is
> quit telling here.  (Mallory does not actually mention this, as it was not
> yet known when he wrote his book).

I don't know if bits themselves have been found in datable context. What I
remember is report of a horse head (skeleton) that showed evidence of bit
wear. There was some problem dating this. David Anthony dated it to about
4000 BCE. Later attempts to date the bones suggested about 3000 BCE. I
don't know if this has been resolved.

There is another major problem: It is usually assumed that Indian
chariotry goes back to PIIr or PIE times. If PIE already had bits, why
were bits unknown in India till 4th c BCE? And why are cheek pieces of the
type used with nosebands found in Myc. Greece and the steppe during 2nd m.
BCE, and not bits? [I think that the four little disks shown in the
photots about the Sintasha cemetries are such cheek pieces, though the
articles I have seen pass over them in silence.]

Littauer has raised these specific questions, I am not aware of any
responses by David Anthony.

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For an informative description of early bits etc, see Littauer in
Antiquity ``Bits and pieces'' sometime in later 60s.
There are articles in South Asian Archaeology 1993 about cheeck-pieces
from various areas together with comparative charts.

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