Unmasking AIT

[dhu]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It remains possible that in some outlying regions, the early Indo-Europeans arrived on the scene in time to capture this movement of expanding agriculture, but it did not originate with them, <b>because Anatolia and the Balkans were demonstrably not the IE Urheimat. </b>On the contrary, in the northeastern Mediterranean, the presence of pre-IE elements in the historically attested IE cultures and languages (Greek, Hittite) is very strong, indicating that the Indo-Europeans had to subdue a numerous and self-confident, culturally advanced population. It is this Old European people, known through towns like Catal Hüyük and Vinca, which gradually spread to the northwest and civilized most of Europe before its indo-europeanization.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->