GREEK PREHISTORY AND IE (EVIDENCE?)

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I wrote:
>We are talking about a period between roughly 2650BC - 1650BC in mainland
>Greece.  My statement was that there is no serious material evidence of a
>significant immigration during that period, EXCEPT from Anatolia.

>If there are other "lines of evidence" of an "incursion" from the north, I'd
>very much like to hear what they are.

In a message dated 1/17/00 6:08:29 PM, sarima at friesen.net wrote:
<<Part of the problem is in trying to pin down what sort of "incursion" is
required to import an IE language.  What I am trying to suggest is that it
does NOT need to be a "significant migration", and therefore may not be
easily seen.  Thus the absence of evidence for another significant
migration is not necessarily significant.>>

Just a reminder that my original posts on this subject were in response to
claims on this list that there was very clear evidence of a major incursion
from the north.  In fact that evidence is not there.

The disconcerting thing I think you will understand is that first a piece of
evidence is cited as proving something.  And then when that evidence
disappears, it is suddenly asserted it doesn't mean anything.

<<True horses and wheeled carts and IE-style burials are known from the
northeastern part of the Balkans earlier than they are known from either
Greece *or* Anatolia.>>

Evidence of wheeled carts have been found in Germany and the Near East before
they are found in the Balkans.  Evidence of shaft graves appear in the
Caucasus where Mallory said linguistics does not permit IE and they never
appear in Luwian country in Anatolia or in western Europe.   And evidence of
the domesticated true horse apparently takes 2000 years to travel a quarter
way around the Black Sea coast to get to Greece - while it appears in Denmark
in about 700.  If you see a clear pattern here, does it coincide with your
linguistic understandings?

Regards,
Steve Long