the denisovans hadn't been discovered yet when i was working this out (neither had the "hobbit"), but i can sort of work them in. this, i'm having trouble making meaning of. it's easy to make sense of, but i don't see it shedding light on anything.

except, maybe, this: basque is a language isolate, sometimes connected to caucasian languages and north american languages that are ultimately siberian. 400 000 years ago is clearly too early to be talking about any existing languages. however, if continuity can be developed until fairly recently it is a possible diffusion point.

https://phys.org/news/2013-12-oldest-hominin-dna-sequenced.html