[JimSEA]

At a somewhat later period, an IndoEuropean group -- Tocharian -- moved to the edge of Mongolia. I would not be out of reason to suspect a Caucasian language group were in turn pushed before them to the east. However, the problem I would have with this is that the "Jade Culture" art is quite typically a continuation of earlier neolithic art in the region. The startlingly different art is found further to the south near the Tibet Plateau and into the Sichuan Provence.

Both Pottery and Jade images from 2500 BCE to 4,700 BCE show Asian facial features. However both "slanted" and "round" eyes are found in the Liangzhu Culture (3,200 to 2,000 BCE), outside the Yellow River Valley (and frustrating the CCP). There were multiple culture centers in China -- North near Present day Korea, South along the Coastand Pearl Rover, from Beijing to the Yellow River and strung out along what was to become the silk route, and Southeast to Southwest along the Yangzi. The more recent day Caucasians were, of course near and North of the Silk Route. The Tibet Plateau and rainforests south of it were difficulties to Indic cultures until 200 /300 BCE. Any Caucasian groups would have been most likely to have come through the Yellow River.

Sorry for the disconected thoughts. Do you recall any Dragon immages in Scythian art or Scytho-Dravidian?

[Fedora]

Do you recall any Dragon immages in Scythian art or Scytho-Dravidian?

I know there's an important Scythian myth involving serpents, and I'm pretty sure there's examples of art that go with it, though I haven't seen them myself yet. Here's some information:

htref="http://public.kubsu.ru/~usr02898/sl2.htm">"THE SCYTHIANS, SARMATIANS, MEOTIANS, RUSSIANS AND CIRCASSIANS: INTERPRETATION OF THE ANCIENT CULTURES"

According to a Scythian myth (The History of Herodotus: Book IV), the first man Targitaos begat three sons. Another myth reports (the same source) that the Scythian equivalent of the Greek god Heracles met a woman with features of a serpent instead of the legs. So this semi-serpent bore him three sons. On these grounds, I think that Targitaos is equal to Heracles (Raevsky 1994: 206), and his name reads Tar gita 'The giving (god)' (cf. Russian dar 'gift', god 'year', Lithuanian guodas 'honour, glory, entertaining'), it is the Russian pagan god Dazh'bog 'The giving god' (Rybakov 1987: 76) and the Proto-Slavonic god Dar 'The giving (god)' of the Phaistos disk.

[SNIP]

Let us examine the names of Targitaos' children, and then we shall search for the name of the semi-serpent goddess.

[SNIP]

Now one can find the name of the semi-serpent goddess. This character is represented on a Scythian gold horse frontlet (Galanina, Domansky and Smirnova 1981: 67, 68, photo). The goddess stands on the border of two worlds; the World Tree with 12 branches or petals (they are 12 months, i.e. a whole year) is depicted above her head. Her legs are replaced by two serpents. According to Y.A. Shilov's (1995: 189-90) investigation of the archaeological cultures of the Indo-Aryans, the team of a bull was presented together with the two snakes and symbol of fertility in a burial. On the other hand, the Indo-Aryan bull god Rudra 'Howling' was associated with snakes (Shilov 1995: 192). On these grounds I conclude that Argimpasa [Ar gim pasa] is this semi-serpent goddess. There is a good probability that an image of the goddess is a cow, too. Some features of this goddess are reflected in the Russian pagan gods Yarila and Veles.

Circassian g''ethe 'spring-time' is comparable with Russian gad 'reptile (snake)', gadyuka 'snake species', Serbo-Croat gad 'dirtiness, mud', and Old Indian gad 'to crawl'.

[blam]

"Sorry for the disconected thoughts. Do you recall any Dragon immages in Scythian art or Scytho-Dravidian?"

Just off the top of my head, Beouwolf..Merlin. King Arthur's dad was named Pendragon. Notice how dragons frequently have fire coming out their mouths? (comet imagery?)

[blam]

"At a somewhat later period, an IndoEuropean group -- Tocharian -- moved to the edge of Mongolia."

Mair believes the pre-Tocharians were the 'red-headed mummies' in my post #6.

[blam]

"There were multiple culture centers in China -- North near Present day Korea, South along the Coastand Pearl Rover, from Beijing to the Yellow River and strung out along what was to become the silk route, and Southeast to Southwest along the Yangzi."

Yup. How do you know so much about this region. Very few people do.