[blam]

"By the way, I just finished Dawson's "Ice Age Earth" and it was well worth the effort. It has a lot on Europe and the British Isles as well as the American Ice sheets. Written by and for geologists but comprehensible to dummies like me."

Thanks, I'll check it out and see if I want to read it.

I got a few questions last week that sent me back to The Tarim Mummies.

I have a question for you. What do you make of this statement on page 281, "This would render the Tocharins virtually native to Gansu (and earlier than the putative spread of the Neolithic to Xinjiang) and Narain goes so far as to argue that the Indo-Europeans themselves originally dispensed from this area westwards. Seldom has a tail so small wagged a dog so large."

[JimSEA]

Interesting question. You also have the Kennewick Man and other early North American discoveries on the one hand. On the other hand, there is the apparent Austro-Asian orign of the Terra Del Fuego people, perhaps going back well over 15,000 years.

As you know, I think things were far more complex than the bulk of the achademics would like. You are never, in my mind, going to get any nice neat liniar path to development or exploration.

No question, the Tocharins are among the most interesting. As more arcaeologists spread onto the Stepp and Iranian/Afghan areas, we may get some answers. The area north of the Tarim Basin may provide some answers. I recall you talking about the Discovery/National Geographic specials.