[blam]

" As more arcaeologists spread onto the Stepp and Iranian/Afghan areas, we may get some answers."

I hope soon. As I was reading the book by Oppenheimer and his saying that some of the refugees from Sundaland went up the rivers/waterways of Asia, even into Tibet. I kept thinking of these Tocharian folks. Are Europeans from Asia?

[JimSEA]

That spurs interest as you think about the Megalith Cultures and the cave art which was such a golden age of early man. They had to have been there a long time and the Basques would seem to be one group of their decendents.

Of course the linguists would say that they are distinct and unrelated to the Indo-European. So this gives you six distinct areas of cultural origins. Semetic Middle East, Europe, North Africa, Iran/Stepp, China and Southeast Asian basin. Each has very distinct elements very early that the others do not.