Re: Neanderthal and PIE

How come no one has proposed the easiest way to "freeze" a language in time yet?

Step One: Neanderthals speak pre-PIE.
Step Two: Neanderthals invent writing.
Step Three: Neanderthals go extinct.
Step Four: After a few dozen millennia, Homo sapiens invents archeology.
Step Five: Numerous artifacts with pre-PIE on them are discovered, the
language deciphered, and held to a greit (possibly divine) value.
Step Six: Mysterious cataclysm causes the concepts of archeology and writing
to be forgotten. PIE continues on, having been adopted as a spoken language.

It would imply the need for some juicy conhistory, too :)

John Vertical
PS. My brain is obviously displeased with the name and keeps changing it to
"Neardenthal". Anyone else have the same problem?

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