What sorts of threads can link peoples over a period of seven thousand years. People raising children leave genetic markings for future generations. People raise other animals besides children and the genes of these other animals can be studied. The means by which people communicate may also survive over long periods, so that language and the origins of words can be studied. If the communities remained fairly close to where they started out and if they settled then one can study the effects of settlement, which can include all aspects of the life cycle from birth to death.
Over very long periods, peoples may define territories and they may leave markings on the ground of their territories. These territories may have a mathematical relationship to each other, such that in an early period the number is lower than in a later period. If numbers of communities is reflected in numbers of other entities this helps to establish linkages between communities and the periods they were active. Again the mathematics of their impact and the mathematics of their social and survival tools will be reflected in the remnants found in the landscape.
My early training was in mathematical statistics, and my approach to the evidence would tend to be Bayesian in orientation. I was taught by different schools of thought as to how one applied statistics and formed my own views, but essentially the Bayesian methodology has stood the test of time in the social, biological and physical sciences.
What I would look for is anomalies. Things that should not happen or seem out of place given what other things are in place. The outliers strewn around a location or between locations would be interesting.
History over seven thousand years is thus for me, at least, an issue of distributions of remnants that have verifiable statistical significance in some way.
My second bias comes from communications theory a la Norbert Wiener, which seems to have had an impact on data dissemination and diffusion. At Cambridge, I did studies of the communication and diffusion of new technologies within the British landscape over time. These were studies of modern technologies and the highly developed social setting of the post war period. I wonder what parallels there could be to similar processes occurring across the historical landscape of seven thousand years.
Seven thousand years is a very long period of history. The mind boggles at a period of history that is only several years long. Lots can happen in a millennium.
When I consider the serious concern of MJ Harper, and the serious research of Colin Burgess, I have to conclude that there exists a gap between the two, but it is not that big. Both Harper and Burgess are dealing with enormous uncertainties resulting from a decaying landscape. In the case of Harper, we find someone who is looking at the evidence of words, language and the community of words, and we are questioning easy answers for some very difficult questions.
My bias is with Harper on the issue of language. I have always questioned the ease with which the origin as of words have been spelt out in reference books on English and Old English. In my own case, I had to work out for myself that the word lake, which is supposed to refer to a stream, is more likely to be associated with the word lax, a type of salmon. No book gave me this understanding. I had to figure it out for myself. With this figuring came my research into the early world of Wuh Lax and the meaning of the salmon to the early community, as part of the life and death cycle, and as an instrument of teaching and dissemination of knowledge from generation to generation. Thus it is with English, a very old and widespread language, indeed.