progression of agriculture in Europe. Although it has attracted
substantive attention and discussions, the datings it proposes are at
odds with the linguistic timeframe for Proto-Indo-European,[2] and with
genetic data which do not find evidence for Anatolian origins in the
Indian genepool.[24]
Apart from DNA evidence (see below), Anthony and Ringe (2015) give a
number of arguments against the Anatolian hypothesis.[25] First,
cognate words for "axle", "wheel", "wagon-pole", and "convey by
vehicle" can be found in a number of Indo-European languages ranging
from Irish to Tocharian, but not Anatolian. This suggests that Proto-
European speakers, after the split with Anatolian, had wheeled
vehicles, which the neolithic farmers did not. For various reasons, such
as the regular sound-changes which the words exhibit, the suggestion
that the words might have spread later by borrowing or have been
introduced by parallel innovation in the different branches of Indo-
European can be ruled out. Secondly, the words borrowed at an early
date by Proto-Uralic, as well as those borrowed from Caucasian
languages, indicate a homeland geographically between the Caucasus
and the Urals. Thirdly, if the Indo-European languages had spread
westwards from Anatolia, it might be expected that Greek would be
closest to Anatolian, whereas in fact it is much closer to Indo-Aryan. In
addition, the culture described in early poems such as Homer's – praise
of warriors, feasting, reciprocal guest-friendship, and so on – more
closely match what is known of the burial practices of the steppe
peoples than the neolithic farmers.
The most recent DNA findings from ancient bones as well as modern
people show that farmers whose ancestors originated in Anatolia did
indeed spread across Europe from 6,500 BCE onwards, eventually
mixing with the existing hunter-gatherer population. However, about
2,500 BCE a massive influx of pastoralists from the steppe north of the