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What language did Neolithic pots speak? Colin Renfrew’s European farming-language-dispersal model challenged

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Kristian Kristiansen
Kristian Kristiansen*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. (Email: k.kristiansen@archaeology.gu.se)
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Abstract

The author argues that Colin Renfrew’s farming language dispersal hypothesis for the spread of the Indo-European languages is unverifiable, and rests on dubious theoretical and methodological assumptions. Archaeology is better at recognising institutions than language, and present knowledge defines the Bronze Age, rather than the early Neolithic, as the formative period for the development and spread of so-called of Proto- and Early Indo-European institutions.

Keywords

EuropeNeolithicBronze Agefarmingpotterylanguage

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Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 679 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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