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217evidence for them. If a proto-Caucasian type of language was used by modern humansspreading to Europe in the period between 40 and 30 kya, its origin need not have been inthe Caucasus. It is more likely that the Caucasus is one of the few areas that lends itself,for geographic and ecological reasons, to the survival of relic languages. But, we areclearly asking questions that are very difficult to answer and we do not know whetheranswers will ever be found. In any case, thorough investigation of the Caucasuspopulations must be a high priority” (Cavalli-Sforza et al, 1994:300).Legacy of Singing Indo-EuropeansIn our discussion of the interaction of the pre-Indo-European and Indo-Europeanpopulations and cultures so far we have deliberately omitted one very important aspectthat we are going to discuss in this section. This aspect is the complex process ofmixture.There is no migration or conquest without mixture of populations, traditions, anddifferent elements of culture. There is no doubt that the arrival of the new waves of newpopulations was accompanied by the complex process of mixing of dozens of importantelements of musical culture as well. And maybe the most exciting outcome of suchmixtures is that the result of such processes can be a totally new phenomenon. Unlikebiology, where the horse and the donkey produce a mule (which can not actually breedand produce itself any more!), the result of such mixture in culture can be a newwonderful and thriving cultural phenomenon. The result of one such musical-stylisticmixtures of supposedly pre-Indo-European and later Indo-European musical traditions isthe topic of our next section.East Georgia: Listen what the “Long” TableSongs can tell usThe “Long” table songs of Kartli and Kakheti (central regions of East Georgia)are one of the wonders of traditional polyphony. The magnificent “Chakrulo”, the bestknown among the “long” table songs, was officially pronounced by UNESCO as the“Masterpiece of intangible heritage of Humanity” in 2001. In this sub-section we aregoing to discuss the origins of the “long” table songs from East Georgia.If the reader remembers the quite detailed description of the polyphonic traditionsof Georgia, they might remember the generally accepted division of the whole of Georgiainto two parts – (1) eastern Georgia and (2) western Georgia. Despite the obvious unity ofthe vocal polyphonic traditions of both Georgian halves, the differences between themare quite clear as well. Let me briefly remind you of the most important elements of thedifference between the East and West Georgia:• East Georgia is considered to be the “kingdom” of the pedal drone (particularlythe magnificent “long” table songs, like “Chakrulo” and “Long KakhetianMravalzhamier”); West Georgia is mostly known as the “kingdom” of contrapuntalpolyphony;