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This contribution focuses on the multifaceted process of Indo-Europeanization which started out, in the Pontic-Caspian region, with the formation of a distinct ethno-cultural epicenter, the Proto-Indo-European complex. Since the late Neolithic, the Indo-Europeanization of Europe and parts of Asia produced various scenarios of contact and conflict. Altogether seven dimensions are highlighted as essential for the study of the contacts which unfolded between Indo-Europeans and non-Indo-European populations (i.e. Uralians, Caucasians, ancient populations in southern and central Europe). Selective aspects of cultural and linguistic fusion processes during the Neolithic and subsequent periods are discussed, and the controversial term ‘migration’ is redefined.

Since the earliest manifestations of symbolic activity in modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic, there is evidence for two independent cognitive procedures, for the production of representational images (naturalistic pictures or sculptures) and of abstract signs. The use of signs and symbols is attested for archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) and for Homo erectus while art in naturalistic style is an innovation among modern humans. The symbiotic interaction of the two symbolic capacities is illustrated for the visual heritage of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Southwestern Europe, for rock engravings in the Italian Alps (Val Camonica) and for the vivid use of signs and symbols in Southeastern Europe during the Neolithic. Around 5500 BC, sign use in Southeastern Europe reached a sophisticated stage of organization as to produce the earliest writing system of mankind. Since abstractness is the main theme in the visual heritage of the region, this script, not surprisingly, is composed of predominantly abstract signs.

In an interdisciplinary approach, processes of ethnic fusion and of language contacts in the Basque country are investigated. Human genetics has confirmed the long continuity of settlement in the Basque country. The Basque people and their language have emerged out of an ethnic fusion in which several pre-Indo-European populations participated, among them groups affiliated to the Caucasian genetic stock. Processes of a long-term acculturation in Basque-speaking communities started in late antiquity when, via the influence of Latin as a language of prestige, the lexical structures of Basque were partly reshaped. Social contacts between Basques and non-Basques were minimal in the Roman era but intensified in post-Roman times. Evidence of this are the foreign elements in Basque kinship terminology which stem from Romance sources.