Today, we chart the emergence of the proto-Indo-Europeans and their subsequent migrations across Eurasia, including groups like the Indo-Iranians and proto-Tocharians.
Today, we chart the emergence of the proto-Indo-Europeans and their subsequent migrations across Eurasia, including groups like the Indo-Iranians and proto-Tocharians.
The year was 1786. The location was the Indian subcontinent, at the time controlled by the British East India Company. It was here, somewhere near the city of Calcutta where a young man from the British Isles made a startling discovery about a world thousands of years in the past. He was huddled in a small room. Candlelight lit the small corners of the place. Stacks of books casted small shadows. The light was dim, but the young man huddled himself over a quaint table. There were a number of different texts here. There were books in English. Some in Latin or Greek. Others were, seemingly, wildly different. Of significant interest were a collection of Sanskrit texts; these were the Rig Vedas, ancient sources that were instrumental in the religion of Hinduism, texts that were written in a primeval language called Sanskrit. Originally, this young man was simply trying to understand legal codes. He had been appointed to the Supreme Court of Bengal, and he was mostly interested in establishing a sort of common law between his homeland and the lands here.
“Why, these connections… are they real?” he asked himself. “Could there be some sort of tie thousands of years in the past?”
No one else was in the room, but suddenly this young man could feel the presence of thousands of individuals, people from across vast geographies and throughout the lineage of family trees and ancestries. As this young man continued to pour through his research, he imagined scenes from across history. He heard the recitations of Cicero, the renowned Roman author. He listened to the heroic feats of Beowulf, feeling its Anglo-Saxon heritage. There were the poetic words of the Shahnameh, the Iliad, and now of the Rig Veda.
This young man, sitting in his cramped room, began to recite a few words. “Hundred, an English word.” “Centum, the Latin equivalent.” “Cant, Welsh.” “Satem, from Avestanian Persian.” “And of course, Satam in Indic.” This young man realized something that day. These words, spread across a number of geographies contained the same meaning. And, miraculously, other words were similar in this regard. Common words, things like familial relations. “Mother, in English.” “Matr in Sanskrit.” “Daughter in English.” “Doght in Old Norse.”
It was then, on this day in 1786, when a young man named William Jones began to realize that these disparate languages, distanced by time, geography, and people, descended from a single ancestor. This is the story of proto-Indo-European and the rise of the Indo-European languages. It is a story of how people on the Eurasian steppes fanned across the world and changed the course of history forever.
Welcome to the Nomads and Empires podcast, episode 6. Last time, we examined the introduction of major innovations on the Eurasian steppe as a direct result of climate change. The Ice Age was ending and the temperatures were warming more as a result. In the wake of these changes, we saw key developments like agriculture and animal domestication take place. Across the world, these new technologies would alter living patterns. As the typical story goes, hunter-gatherer groups slowly coalesced into sedentary societies. Social hierarchies became more complex, labour became more specialized, and small settlements slowly became urban centers. In the last episode, we saw these developments take place on the Pontic steppe with the Crish and Bug-Dniester cultures developing agricultural communities and domesticating herds of animals. This also coincided with advancements in metallurgy, as copper smelting started to appear as well around the 5000s BCE. Horse domestication then followed this, possibly emerging sometime in the mid-3000s BCE.
These developments set the stage for one of the most monumental migration events that we’ll see in the Eurasian steppes. You see, the movement of peoples in this area will be fairly common. In later history, the Eurasian steppes will be dominated by nomadic peoples, and these nomadic peoples certainly moved across the lands frequently. However, at this moment, this isn’t necessarily the case. At this time, the western steppe is mostly inhabited by sedentary agriculturalists. Peoples living both in the forest-steppes and in the true steppes both raised animals and farmed agricultural products. Hunting certainly took place, and we did note that some groups probably remained as hunter-gatherers.
For the settled agriculturalists, the times were changing rapidly. From about 4000-3000 BCE, these peoples developed organized societies that were divided by clans. They had developed pottery, used plows, and even implemented wheels in their daily lives. They practiced ritualistic sacrifice and offered animal products to Gods or ancestors.
And then, they moved. For whatever reason, the peoples of the western and central steppes began to migrate in great numbers and fanned across the world. Many of these migrants left for regions like Anatolia, Iran, the Aegean, and the Italian Peninsula. Others moved across Europe, to the frosts of Scandinavia to the sunny lands of the Iberian Peninsula. Even still, others raced to the Levant, to India, and to the dusty sands of the Tarim Basin. Many remained on the steppe still, but suddenly these peoples had proliferated across the world and, with that, they would leave behind their language. This is the story of the Indo-Europeans, and it is a tale that is intrinsically connected to the steppes. Indeed, before the massive movements of the Mongols and the Turks, we must first start with the Indo-European migrations.
So, let’s now shift our focus and dive a little deeper into the Indo-European hypothesis. In short, this is the idea that many languages today and in the past are connected in a single language family and are therefore descended from a single ancestor. Linguists have dubbed this single ancestor as proto-Indo-European, and many scholars and archaeologists have worked together in order to ascertain the true origins of this primordial language and the connections between its modern descendants.
But first, a historiographical breakdown. As we mentioned in the introduction, the development of this idea can be traced to a British judge named William Jones. He had been examining Sanskrit and noticed many similarities between that language and that of English, Persian, Greek, Latin, Germanic, Welsh, and so on. Jones was so sure of this connection that at the “third annual discourse to the Asiatic Society of Bengal,” he makes this famous point:
“The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure: more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either; yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source.”
This idea proved incredibly influential. A number of other scholars soon joined into the fray and began their own comparisons and assessments of various Indo-European languages. German scholar Friedrich von Schlegel published an 1808 work known in English as “On the Language and Wisdom of India”. In this work, Schlegel does a deep dive into the similarities between Sanskrit, Persian, and German, and the linguist Winfred P. Lehman credits Schlegel with being the first individual to use comparative grammar in his assessments. In 1818, another scholar named Rasmus Rask would conduct similar comparisons, but this time focusing on Thracian and Icelandic. This would be followed by further developments arising at breakneck pace, including works by Franz Bopp and Jacob Grimm.
This discourse would get a major uplift in the wake of Charles Darwin’s publication On the Origins of Species released in 1859. German linguist August Schleicher would apply Darwin’s points in his own work, constructing a hypothetical family tree of the Indo-European languages. Although Schleicher would argue that his points preceded Darwin’s own publication, the ramifications of applying an evolutionary biological lens to historical linguistics proved to be substantial.
This would have some problems. While one could apply this approach to understanding the changes of a language, others combined Darwin’s theory of evolution and the Indo-European hypothesis for more problematic aims. According to Professor David W. Anthony, “language, culture, and a Darwinian interpretation of race were bundled together to explain the superior biological-spiritual-linguistic essence of the northern Europeans who conducted these self-congratulatory studies.” This point is especially distressing. “Proto-Indo-European, the linguistic problem, became ‘the Proto-Indo-Europeans,’ a biological population with its own mentality and personality: a ‘slim, tall, light-complexioned, blonde race, superior to all other peoples.’”
Thankfully, these outright racist connotations were squashed throughout the 20th century, and modern scholarship on the Indo-European languages has been enlightening and informative. New evidence, specifically the discovery of Anatolian Hittite, only spurred further development in the field. Calvert Watkins, a former professor at Harvard and UCLA, published a number of key works on Indo-European languages in 1969. This included a section in the American Heritage Dictionary entitled “Appendix of Indo-European Roots,” where Watkins highlighted the roots of English words with proto-Indo-European recreations. Other scholars like Jochem Schindler, Helmut Rix, and Marija Gimbutas played substantial roles in continuing the study of Indo-European from a number of other angles. It would be difficult to list every scholar, deceased and presently living, in this discussion, but we should understand that by the present, the study of Indo-European has come to include a wide array of disciplines, including history and archaeology.
Central to our story is the idea of the “Kurgan homeland hypothesis.” Based on a number of burial mounds known as Kurgans, the idea is that the proto-Indo-European people were based in the steppes north of the Caucasus Mountains, meaning somewhere in the Pontic steppe region. Throughout recent history, this hypothesis has competed with a number of other ideas on the homeland of the proto-Indo-Europeans. Some believe this homeland to have been closer to the Balkans, while others contest that the homeland must be in northern Iran. Another important argument is that proto-Indo-European originated in Anatolia.
The Kurgan hypothesis itself has seen some changes as well. Marija Gimbutas, who we mentioned previously, wrote extensively on this hypothesis and was one of the biggest figures in pushing this idea onto the center stage.
However, some of her initial claims have faced backlash, even by scholars that agree with her overarching assessment. Gimbutas, for instance, argued that this hypothesis implies a forceful act of aggression, that the proto-Indo-Europeans were perhaps an invading force. She argues that pre-Indo-European Europe was “peaceful, sedentary… and sex egalitarian,” and that the proto-Indo-Europeans represented a “patriarchal and hierarchical culture.” While there is some evidence pointing to this stark division, many scholars believe this to be a reach and that such associations of violence and warfare were not wholly unique to the proto-Indo-Europeans.
Regardless, Gimbutas’s work would be instrumental, pushing this particular hypothesis to the forefront of Indo-European studies. Professor David W. Anthony, who we’ve cited frequently thus far, worked with Gimbutas and we can see the legacy of her work in Professor Anthony’s own monumental piece: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Anthony’s own work would be key in pushing these studies into the public mainstream, becoming well-received among academics and general audiences.
If we assume the Kurgan hypothesis to be mostly correct, then the influence of the steppe begins even with the earliest days of history. Professor David W. Anthony tells us that a number of archaeological cultures may represent the proto-Indo-Europeans, including the Sredni Stog and the Mikhailovka I cultures of the Pontic steppe. Such cultures seem to date between 3800-3300 BCE. However, these were not the only cultures. Professor Anthony notes, this region of the northern Caucasus and the Pontic Steppe was home to a wide array of different peoples. Importantly for our story, many scholars connect the late proto-Indo-Europeans to the Yamnaya culture that emerged in the wake of the Sredni Stog and others. The Yamnaya therefore may be responsible for the mass migrations of the Indo-European populations across the world, including as far as Xinjiang. However, there are some arguments saying that other cultures may be the true originators of the Indo-Europeans, so I’m personally hesitant to make this connection definitively. Instead, we’ll talk about the progenitors of the Indo-Europeans in broader strokes.
As we mentioned in the last episode, the cultures of this region practiced sedentary agriculture and animal herding. Archaeological sites attributed to the Mikhailovka I culture show evidence of cereal grain cultivation, with one site including remnants of “emmer wheat, barley, millet, and 1 imprint of a bitter vetch seed… a crop grown today for animal fodder.” With the rise of social hierarchies and clan leaders, we also find great burial mounds known as kurgans, which would give rise to the name of the Kurgan hypothesis. These leaders may have organized a loyal band of followers into armed forces, as we also have evidence for cavalry-based raiding and looting. According to one study, a settlement attributed to the Tripolye C1 culture was abandoned, and the reason for its abandonment may be from mounted raiders from the Sredni Stog or Mikhailovka 1 cultures.
Such archaeological evidence gives us a good idea into the characteristics that defined the proto-Indo-Europeans. Through linguistic and archaeological analysis, we have defined two key elements. First is the prevalence of a wool-based, textile-oriented culture. This should remind us of developments we talked about in the last episode, with animal domestication starting in around 8000 BCE and with the rise of modern-looking sheep dating to the 3000s BCE. A combination of linguistic and archaeological evidence reveals to us that the proto-Indo-Europeans continued to practice this animal husbandry and indeed, their culture was in many ways defined by it. The second important facet of proto-Indo-European culture is the usage of the wheel, and by extension, the chariot. Let’s take a moment to consider the word “axle,” for instance. This term is found widely across various Indo-European daughter languages. In Latin, we have “axis,” in Old English we have “eax,” and in Sanskrit we have “aks.” Although there are many arguments as to where and when the chariot was first invented, at the very least it emerged sometime between 3500-3000 BCE and was widely used by the proto-Indo-Europeans.
There are a number of other connections that we can make between the Indo-European daughter languages and what they may imply about the proto-Indo-European language and their culture. In terms of religion, we know that there were common motifs, such as a set of divine twins. Stories about a hero searching for sacred cattle could be found in mythos from India, Norse Scandinavia, and classical Rome and Greece. Sky deities like the Hindu Indra and the Greek Zeus had common attributes and epithets.
I used this quote in the last episode but it’s especially important here as we can summarize the proto-Indo-Europeans as follows:
“The speakers of Proto-Indo-European were tribal farmers who cultivated grain, herded cattle and sheep, collected honey from honeybees, drove wagons, made wool or felt textiles, plowed fields at least occasionally or knew people who did, sacrificed sheep, cattle, and horses to a troublesome array of sky gods, and fully expected the gods to reciprocate the favor. These traits guide us to a specific kind of material culture-one with wagons, domesticated sheep and cattle, cultivated grains, and sacrificial deposits with the bones of sheep, cattle, and horses.”
Armed with horses, the wheel, and chariots, the proto-Indo-Europeans were well poised to engage with the wider world. If we move our area of focus far to the south, we should be aware of some really titanic developments occurring here. Great urbanized states were emerging along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. Here in Mesopotamia, city-states like Ur and Uruk were beginning to cement their influence on a wider stage, and it seems like this coincided with an opening of the steppes.
We find evidence of trade between the proto-Indo-Europeans and various cultures of the Caucasus Mountains, such as the Maikop peoples. Indeed, between 3700-3300 BCE, we have evidence of a transregional trade route that connected the Pontic steppe with the Caucasus and Mesopotamia. Sumerian cities like Uruk began to search for external sources of precious metals like gold and copper, and this search for new areas of commercial activity helped connect the peoples of the Pontic steppe to the wider world. Furthermore, we shouldn’t forget the many relations these steppe dwellers would’ve had with their neighbors in eastern Europe, particularly with the agricultural communities of the forest-steppe. These interactions almost certainly contributed to the most significant development of our story. At some point in this period of time, the proto-Indo-European peoples split off and migrated across the world.
It’s not clear why the proto-Indo-European peoples conducted these mass migrations. I personally suspect that these growing trade networks helped spur some of these developments. We can probably imagine that traders and possibly even mercenaries from the steppes traveled to great cities like Ur. They would’ve witnessed some incredible developments in urban culture and city dwelling. Great stone walls, mighty ziggurats, and elaborate ceremonies must’ve left a big imprint on such proto-Indo-European travelers. Upon returning home, I imagine that these individuals would’ve recounted these tales to their friends and family, sparking the imaginations and dreams of many.
Suddenly, knowledge of richer lands may have incentivized some clans or tribes to move away from their traditional homeland, whether it be the steppes or in Anatolia. Other scholars offer additional points of consideration. Climate change, for instance, may have also played a factor. Dr. Barry Cunliffe asserts that between 3500-3000 BCE, the Pontic steppe was growing more arid and was getting colder, and in turn, this resulted in an increase in steppe land and a decrease in forests. It does make sense that these proto-Indo-Europeans, motivated by this climate change at home and the possibility of greater riches in foreign polities, moved away from the Pontic steppe in search of more suitable lands.
Now, what we should understand is that the proto-Indo-European divergence appears to have come in waves. Although this may conjure images of vast hordes of invaders entering new lands, I would strongly caution that interpretation. There may have been a various array of movements, some slow, some fast, some peaceful, and some violent. When we say that several of these language families emerged in a wave, it is not to say that they all came out of nowhere and all of a sudden, but instead may be part of long processes.
Many scholars, from linguists to geneticists, have made a number of studies arguing about when these languages exactly branched off and which language is related to which, so the following chronology is going to mostly follow the works of David W. Anthony with supplementary information from other scholars. I just want to give that major caveat here because as I continued to research this specific subject, it became clear to me that this was a continually evolving science, and thus going to be subject to changes, revisions, and updates. Anyway...
According to Professor Anthony, the first major split may have occurred long before the period of 4000-3300 BCE, which as we noted previously, is when we typically date the proto-Indo-European speakers. What the heck is going on? Well, this is where the Anatolian branch of Indo-European comes in, or rather, comes out. Anatolian includes languages like Hittite and Lydian which were spoken around the 2nd millennium BCE in the region of Anatolia. This early split is actually why some scholars believe that Indo-European may have originated from Anatolia rather than from the steppes. Indeed, Anatolian splits off so early from the other Indo-European languages that it may be better to call it a sister of Indo-European rather than a descendant of it. Although the earliest written evidence of this Anatolian branch dates to the 19th century BCE, it is likely that Anatolian is even older than that.
After Anatolian, the next major division includes a curious group of peoples who would move eastward, passing through Central Asia and arriving in the Tarim Basin, an area corresponding to modern day Xinjiang. This migration is traditionally dated to between 3700-3500 BCE, and these movements would constitute the proto-Tocharians, who spoke an Indo-European language right on the borders of East Asia. These Indo-Europeans may be associated with cultures like the Afanasievo, who migrated from the central steppes into the Altai and Dzungaria before finally entering the Tarim Basin. Professor Anthony asserts that these migrations may have occurred as a result of violent conflict and war. Such claims do face critiques and have competing explanations, but in general, it is clear that these particular Indo-Europeans did migrate into this region sometime after the Anatolian variant had split off but before the vast majority of other Indo-European languages emerged.
Perhaps most interesting to us is the legacy of these pre-Tocharians. Many individuals will be reminded of the Tarim Basin mummies, a group of preserved human remains that date to around 2100-1700 BCE. These mummies have typically been identified as Indo-Europeans, and as such, these may be the origins of later groups like the Yuezhi. This is important for us because the Yuezhi will be a major player in eastern steppe politics via their interactions with the Xiongnu.
In around 3300, we then get the next major division of Indo-European. Indeed, this split would be the largest, resulting in many language families more familiar to western audiences today, such as Germanic, Baltic, and Italic. In 3300, what we first see is a major expansion of proto-Indo-European across the Pontic Steppe. Professor Beckwith asserts that in this major growth, we start to see the formation of a proto-Indo-Iranian dialect, but other dialects would soon follow. Between 3100-3000 BCE, another large movement of proto-Indo-Europeans erupted. These groups left the Pontic steppe and moved westward, passing through the Danube river and entering modern day Hungary, which is a familiar story to us I’m sure. This event may be the progenitor of languages like Proto-Italic and Proto-Celtic. Then, between 2800-2600 BCE, another group of Proto-Indo-Europeans made their own westward movements, coming into contact with a people known as the Corded Ware culture, and this interaction would result in the formation of the northern branches of Indo-European, including Germanic and Slavic. Then, around 2200-2000 BCE, some proto-Indo-Iranians moved eastward, passing through the Ural Mountains, and entering the area of the central steppes. These proto-Indo-Iranians are often associated with the Sintashta culture, which itself was defined by qualities we’ve previously mentioned. These mainly included the usage of the chariot and an extensive amount of copper metalworking.
Let’s now pause for a moment and look a little deeper into these proto-Indo-Iranians, as they will become incredibly important to our story moving forward. Based along the steppe lands of Kazakhstan, these proto-Indo-Iranians would have regular contact with a number of urbanized societies living in Central Asia. In particular, the Bactria-Margiana Culture of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan may have had a large degree of influence on these Indo-European newcomers. This particular culture, the Bactria-Margiana Culture, was defined by a heavy degree of sedentarism and urbanization, as we have evidence of relatively large settlements, artisan quarters, and great fortresses with towers. Trade and cultural exchange between the Bactria-Margiana Culture and the Indo-Iranians almost certainly occurred here.
As these proto-Indo-Iranians became more and more exposed to the riches of their neighbors, we can assume that some groups may have been lured by luxuries and riches to take more violent actions. Indeed, the initial Indo-Iranian migration into Iran and northern India may be a result of raiders who organized brief forays into these lands. Armed with the horse, the wheel, and the chariot, these proto-Indo-Iranians would have been successful at such affairs. This almost certainly led to a feedback loop, as successful raiders would’ve told about their exploits and their riches to others, thereby creating more incentives for raiders to ride south. These small scale raids may have then given way to larger, more permanent expeditions. Professor János Harmatta argues that, as a consequence, we can see a growing change to the cultural dynamics of the region. “Social differentiation was strengthened, royal clans and the classes of war charioteers and warriors developed, and… expeditions and invasions on a larger scale were directed against the rich south and south-east where a highly developed urban civilization was flourishing.”
The movements of the proto-Indo-Iranians would prove to be some of the most consequential for our story. Different scholars propose different dates, but it seems that between the early 2000s-1600s BCE, with Professor Anthony thinking somewhere in the 1900s, proto-Indo-Iranian would split into proto-Indian and proto-Iranian branches, followed by massive movements into Iran. These movements led to a rippling of causes and effects. For whatever reason, and believe me, the reasons are very unclear, the proto-Indians and proto-Iranians engaged in conflict. Some proto-Iranian groups chased the proto-Indians southward and westward, pushing the proto-Indians all the way to the Levant, while other proto-Indians fled into northern India. This long-distance conflict displaced a number of other groups.
In the 1500s, a people known as the Kassites entered Mesopotamia and conquered the powerful Babylonian Empire. These Kassites were a non-Indo-European group who had originally lived in the Iranian Plateau, and some scholars believe that the movement of proto-Indians and proto-Iranians may have been a factor in kicking the Kassites out of Iran and into Mesopotamia. This would not be the last time where movements from the steppe would result in major migrations that would impact the Near East. The Mongols and their effect on the Khwarzemian Turks and the Crusader States is one that comes to my mind, but… that’s for a much later episode.
By the end of these migrations, the face of the world had radically changed. From Europe to Xinjiang, Indo-European speakers dominated the landscape. In many instances, they either coexisted with or absorbed non-Indo-European groups. For instance, we have records from the Assyrians describing a polity known as the Kingdom of Mitanni, which held territory in the Levant and northern Iraq during the Bronze Age. The Kingdom of Mitanni was almost certainly derived from one of the groups that had been chased by the proto-Iranians. This kingdom is unique because many of its rulers used Indo-European regal titles and may have worshiped deities analogous to those found in the Indian Rigveda. Indeed, many names referenced horses, a trait that we should remember is quintessential to the Indo-Europeans and in fact, the Kingdom of Mitanni was well known across the ancient Near East as having some of the most powerful charioteers in the region.
As time went on, the differences in language and culture between the various daughters of Indo-European would grow more pronounced, especially as the languages began to incorporate aspects of their non-Indo-European compatriots. The Kingdom of Mitanni that we just mentioned was not necessarily a solely Indo-European state, but rather a mix of Indo-European and Hurrian cultures.
Key to our story is the effects of this migration on the Eurasian steppe. While yes, there were many languages now, we can still define two major spheres. In the forests of central Europe, Germanic speakers became the most dominant force, while back on the steppes, Iranian languages had become the most prevalent. The descendents of proto-Iranian would flourish across the steppe, having fanned out both westward and eastward, with some evidence suggesting that Iranian languages were spoken even in the Sayan-Altai region. Indeed, this would herald the first of the three major language epochs in the story of these grasslands. Before there was Turkic, before there was Mongolian, there was Iranian, and it would be these peoples, armed with horse, wheel, and language, that would come to terrorize the societies of Antiquity. We’re almost at the start of the Scythian dawn, but before we get there, let’s first explore the cultural and social developments of the steppes in more detail. Today’s episode was a bit more broad and holistic, as we mostly analyzed the migrations of the Indo-Europeans in these general strokes.
Next time, we’re going inch our way closer to the written record, but first there’s one important archaeological site that’s worth an episode of on its own. You see, as the Indo-Europeans migrated, we start to see a sort of common material culture emerge on the Eurasian steppes. This would be a sort of animalistic art that commonly used gold, and we would see this trend across the steppes starting in the 1600s-1300s BCE. Indeed, this type of artstyle would eventually grow into the many motifs that we’d see in Scythian trends. However, what is interesting is that this art does not seem to have originated along the Pontic or Kazakh steppes, but rather in the eastern realms, particularly in the areas of the Sayan-Altai mountain ranges. As we trace further and further to a possible point of origin, we come to a series of burials: the Arzhan kurgans. Next time, we’re going to dedicate an entire episode on these burial sites and their implications as intermediaries between the Indo-Europeans and the emergence of the Cimmerians on the central and western steppes.
Before I end us off, I want to shout out some of the major books that helped get this episode where it is. Needless to say, the story of the Indo-Europeans and their migrations is a very difficult one to synthesize, particularly due to the many possible explanations and because it is an evolving science. Unlike traditional historical assessments, we must contend with a cross-disciplinary examination here, and many works I consulted used genetic, linguistic, and archaeological evidence in their research. To that end, I want to mention David W. Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and the Language for being an incredibly informative primer. This is one of the most influential books in the field of Indo-European studies, and although it is a little dated by this point, its information remains very significant, and as you heard, very key to my own understanding. I also want to mention volume 1 of History of Civilizations of Central Asia published, for free I may add, by UNESCO. These two works provide an incredible amount of insight on the movements of the Indo-European peoples. There are many points raised in these books that I did not cover, and I would definitely urge you to give these works a read if you have not done so.
Otherwise, that’s it. You can find all of my social media and other episodes on the usual websites and pages. As always, please leave me any feedback and you can always email me for corrections, questions, and comments at nomadsandempires@gmail.com. Thanks, and see you next time on the windy plains of the everlasting steppe.
Music:
Over the Clouds - The Golden Peas (Epidemic Sound)
Outro - Personal work