Support
A 2003 analysis of "87 languages with 2,449 lexical items" found an age range for the "initial Indo-European divergence" of 7,800–9,800 years, which was found to be consistent with the Anatolian hypothesis. In 2006, the authors of the paper responded to their critics. In 2011, the same authors and S. Greenhill found that two different datasets were also consistent with their theory. An analysis by Ryder and Nicholls (2011) found that: "Our main result is a unimodal posterior distribution for the age of Proto-Indo-European centred at 8400 years before Present with 95% highest posterior density interval equal to 7100–9800 years before Present." which was found to support the Anatolian Hypothesis. A computerized phylogeographic study published in 2012 in Science, using methods drawn from the modeling of the spatial diffusion of infectious diseases, also supported the Anatolian hypothesis.
In a post on his popular blog, Greek Anthropologist Dienekes Pontikos wrote that he considered an origin of Indo-European in Neolithic Anatolia was "still the best hypothesis", citing the above studies as well as evidence that the methodology of the studies was correct.
Read more about this topic: Anatolian Hypothesis
Famous quotes containing the word support:
“Surely, ‘tis one step towards acting well, to think worthily of our nature; and as in common life, the way to make a man honest, is, to suppose him so ... so here, to set some value upon ourselves, enables us to support the character ... of generosity and virtue.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred by nature upon few, and the labour of learning those sciences which may, by mere labour, be obtained, is too great to be willingly endured; but every man can exert some judgment as he has upon the works of others; and he whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of critic.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)