SV: the Wheel and Dating PIE

[Lars Martin Fosse]

JoatSimeon at aol.com [SMTP:JoatSimeon at aol.com] skrev 05. februar 2000 08:51:

> But PIE does _not_ have a word for the warp-weighted loom, which was
> developed in the Danube valley and spread eastwards in the Late Neolithic.
> The Greek vocabulary for this type of loom is entirely borrowed, for example;
> none in Indo-Iranian either, etc.

> Hence PIE probably cannot have been spoken in an area and/or at a time when
> this technology was known.  Hence there can't have been PIE speakers in the
> Middle Danube towards the end of the Neolithic.  One more brick...

There is a logical glitch here: The non-existence of a certain word in this
context is non-conclusive. And the appearance of a certain kind of technology
in a certain place does not prove that it was developed there. Hence, your
statement is too strong. It should rather be something like: "Hence at the
present state of the evidence, it seems unlikely that there were PIE speakers
in the Middle Danube towards the end of the Neolithic."

Sorry about the nitpicking. If not a brick, possibly a bricklet... :-)

Best regards,
Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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