GREEK PREHISTORY AND IE (EVIDENCE?)

[Vidhyanath Rao]

<JoatSimeon at aol.com> wrote:
> ... conversely, many changes of language have not
> been accompanied by massive technological-economic change.
>
> Eg., for just one example, the spread of Slavic.  Or of Indo-Iranian
> into Iran and India, for another, which is definitely post-neolithic.

We must be careful to distinguish between entry of a language into a new
area and its spread. English entered India in 18th c, but its spread is
connected to urbanization and industrialization of last 30-40 years
(subsequent to the departure of the British).

Now, there was significant change in social organization in North India
during the ``Second Urbanization'' (urbanization of Ganga valley), from
700 BCE to 300BCE (I am not sure of technological change).
Interestingly, either Burrow or Kuiper date the majority of the influx
of non-IE words in Sanskrit to about this period.

It is not so clear to me that languages change without significant
change in social/economic organization. Even in the cases where gradual
change in language is occuring due to elite dominance (an example in
Afghanistan described by Barth is often cited) , it seems to be due to
shift from one social group to another organized very differently. This
can occur without technological change. But I will leave it
archaeologists to fight out if this can occur without traceable records.