SV: the Wheel and Dating PIE

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/13/00 10:13:18 PM, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

<<JoatSimeon at aol.com [SMTP:JoatSimeon at aol.com] skrev 05. februar 2000 08:41:
> And, for example, cattle dairying -- well-attested from the PIE vocabulary,
> with words for 'to milk' (cows), curds, whey, 'cow rich in milk', butter,
> etc., is generally dated to the mid-4th millenium BCE. (eg., McCormick, 1992,
> "Early Faunal Evidence for Dairying", Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 11,
> 201-209).

> Note also that the genes for lactose tolerance (ability to digest cow's-milk
> as an adult) show a distinct drop-off in Mediterranean Europe and the Near
> East, but are high in northern and eastern Europeans.

This seems to me to be an interesting observation. Have you got any
bibliographic references on lactose tolerance? Also: are there any data on
lactose tolerance in India?>>

I hope to get to this later, but just a wee bit of a caution here and some
additional questions that may be helpful.

Number one, linguistically, do we find the IE languages discriminating cow's
milk from mother's milk or goat's milk - both yielding substantially earlier
dates?
Number one point five, does goat's milk or mare's milk produce curds, whey,
butter?
Number two, do all the milk of all cattle or even of wild cattle produce the
intolerance syndrome?
Number three, does lactose intolerance apply to cheeses, butters and other
by-products of cattle dairy farming?
Number four, without refrigeration, particularly in warm climates, what would
be the most common form in which the milk from cows would be consumed?
Number five, would one forestall naming cow milk until one is able to drink
it?
Number six, when did lactose intolerance or tolerance to cow's milk apeans.
Number seven, the production of cheese (from curds and whey) is an attribute
of Sherratt's Secondary Products Revolution, which premises a long production
curve before a sufficient surplus is reached.  So that the premise is that
the growth in cattle dairy farming is attributed to the ability to store and
travel the products that start appearing just about 4000BC.

And finally - given all the above - what precisely is "the PIE vocabulary for
'to milk' (cows), curds, whey, 'cow rich in milk', butter" and how in the
world can it be "attested" much less "well-attested?"

Just off the cuff.  More to come.

Regards,
Steve Long