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From: hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey)
Subject: Re: What are Scythians?
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Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1994 20:42:31 GMT
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petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich) writes:

>>They only "overran" the Harappans long after they were severely
>>weakend from within, and already virtually destroyed.

>	The most likely cause I can imagine for that would be some big 
>drought, since it would be difficult to sustain a lot of people on 
>agriculture if the fields are not very productive. And the early Aryans 
>were pastoralists, herders of cattle and other domestic animals, whose 
>favorite food (grass) does not need very much water. Thus, the Aryans 
>could have moved in without any trouble.

The drought [assuming there was one] probably would have affected
a large area [like stretching north into central asia] and probably
did. That could have been the cause of a centuries long [or longer]
clash between the northerners and the Harappans.  In historical times
it was things like drought and population pressures that pushed
some of the weaker tribes off towards India, and Europe, resulting
in others being displaced along the way, like the game of musical
chairs played over centuries.

--
						-- Mark---
....we must realize that the infinite in the sense of an infinite totality, 
where we still find it used in deductive methods, is an illusion. Hilbert,1925
