Reply to Rao et al. and Lee et al

In the last issue, I presented a piece that called into question some of the techniques reported in two papers in high-profile journals that purported to provide statistical evidence for the linguistic status of some ancient symbol systems (Sproat 2010a). Not surprisingly the authors of those two papers took issue with a number of my claims, and have requested the opportunity to respond. The two responses, taken together, are rather lengthy and as a result it is not possible, given limitations of space, for me to address each and every one of their criticisms. I will therefore focus on what I consider to be the most important objections.