Indo-European secondary products terminology and the dating of Proto-Indo-Anatolian

Abstract

In this paper, an attempt is made to date the ancestor of all IndoEuropean languages on the basis of the Indo-European terminology for the exploitation of animals for products that do not require killing the animal (the "secondary products" revolution). It is argued that this terminology is compatible with a society that made use of animal traction, but that did not necessarily practice dairying or use wool for textile production. This is compatible with a date at the beginning of the fourth millennium BCE and with the hypothesis that this ancestor language was spoken by people of the so-called Khvalynsk culture on the Volga River.