THIS Thursday: I shall discuss the findings of the breakthrough paper on IE origins "The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans" (2024), and also a little about the other paper "A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age" on JIVE TALK.

David Reich walks back the PIE from South-of-the-Caucasus stuff he pushed in 2022, now working with David Anthony and nearly 300 new samples to arrive at a very different conclusion.

There IS steppe ancestry in Anatolia and this is how Indo-European languages got there. They are claiming a Caucasian migration route, but I think Balkans is more plausible.

They say PIE came from no further south than the North Caucasus, but likely further north on the steppe itself! Of course I support the steppe itself.

This is a game changer and puts the discourse back on the right track.

Thurs: 3pm UK, 11am ET, 8am CA
Streaming on X and YouTube

The Vinča culture of Serbia is one of the first human civilisations. Possibly the first to smelt copper, one of the earliest uses of a symbolic proto-script and a hyper industrious producer of advanced ceramics including the earliest anthropomorphic life size clay busts. Yet few know of the wonders of this ancient culture. In this episode, I spoke to the historian Ben Elliott who travelled to Serbia to make a film called Quest for Vinca which aims to increase awareness of these fascinating Neolithic people.

https://youtu.be/cdtSYnPoF-Q