Genetics, Migrations and Language Dispersals
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-12-18

We are now finally in a position where migrations can be documented rather than debated. This has lifted an interpretative burden from archaeology, in much the same way as C14 dating did when it was introduced. The new freedom can instead be invested in properly theorizing and interpreting local processes of migration, integration and consolidation, which has been an underdeveloped field of research. By integrating recent results from archaeology, isotopic tracing and historical linguistics this will in turn allow us to formulate better-founded models for the interaction of intruding and settled groups, the formation of a new
material culture, and consequently also for language dispersals and language change. In this paper I forward a theoretical model that accounts for the formation of Corded Ware cultures as a result of local adaptations and interaction of migrant Yamnaya populations with still existing Neolithic cultures.