Kurgan hypothesis

{{short description|Theory of Indo-European origin}}[[File:Indo-European expansions.jpg|thumb| Scheme of [[Indo-European language]] dispersals from c. 4000 to 1000 BC according to the Kurgan hypothesis. '''Center''': [[Eurasian Steppe|Steppe]] cultures {{legend-line|solid black|'''1''': [[Anatolian languages]] (archaic [[Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]])}} {{legend-line|solid black|'''2''': [[Afanasievo culture]] (early PIE)}} {{legend-line|solid black|'''3''': [[Yamnaya culture]] expansion ([[Pontic-Caspian steppe]], [[Danube Valley]]) (late PIE)}} {{legend-line|solid black|'''4A''': Western [[Corded Ware culture|Corded Ware]]}} {{legend-line|solid #4287f5|'''4B''': [[Bell Beaker culture]] (adopted by Indo-European speakers)}} {{legend-line|solid blue|'''4C''': Bell Beaker}} {{legend-line|solid red|'''5A-B''': Eastern Corded ware; '''5C''': [[Sintashta culture]] ([[proto-Indo-Iranian]])}} {{legend-line|solid magenta|'''6''': [[Andronovo culture|Andronovo]]}} {{legend-line|solid purple|'''7''': [[Indo-Aryans]] ('''A''': [[Mittani]]; '''B''': [[Linguistic history of India|India]])}} {{legend-line|solid grey|'''8''': [[Hellenic languages|Greek]]}} {{legend-line|solid yellow|'''9''': [[Iranian languages|Iranian]]}} {{legend-line|solid orange|[[Proto-Balto-Slavic]]}}

'''Not shown''': [[Armenian language|Armenian]], expanding from western steppe

|300x300px]]{{Indo-European topics}} The '''Kurgan hypothesis''' (also known as the '''Kurgan theory''', '''Kurgan model''', or '''steppe theory''') is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the [[Proto-Indo-European homeland]] from which the [[Indo-European languages]] spread out [[Indo-European migrations|throughout Europe]] and [[Indo-Iranians#Expansion|parts of Asia]].{{sfn|Mallory|1989|loc=p. 185, "The Kurgan solution is attractive and has been accepted by many archaeologists and linguists, in part or total. It is the solution one encounters in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the ''Grand Dictionnaire Encyclopédique Larousse''."}}{{sfn|Strazny|2000|p=163|ps=. "The single most popular proposal is the Pontic steppes (see the Kurgan hypothesis)..."}} It postulates that the people of a [[Kurgan]] culture in the [[Pontic steppe]] north of the [[Black Sea]] were the most likely speakers of the [[Proto-Indo-European language]] (PIE). The term is derived from the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] word ''[[kurgan]]'' ({{lang|ru|курга́н}}), meaning [[tumulus]] or burial mound.

The steppe theory was first formulated by [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]] (1883) and [[V. Gordon Childe]] (1926),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Renfrew|first=Colin|title=Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins|date=1990|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-38675-3|pages=37–38}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Jones-Bley|first=Karlene|date=2008|title=Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles, November 3–4, 2006|url=|journal=Historiographia Linguistica|language=en|volume=35|issue=3|pages=465–467|doi=10.1075/hl.35.3.15koe|issn=0302-5160}}</ref> then systematized in the 1950s by [[Marija Gimbutas]], who used the term to group various prehistoric cultures, including the [[Yamnaya]] (or Pit Grave) culture and its predecessors. In the 2000s, [[David W. Anthony|David Anthony]] instead used the core Yamnaya culture and its relationship with other cultures as a point of reference.

Gimbutas defined the Kurgan culture as composed of four successive periods, with the earliest (Kurgan I) including the [[Samara culture|Samara]] and [[Seroglazovka culture|Seroglazovka]] cultures of the [[Dnieper]]–[[Volga]] region in the [[Copper Age]] (early 4th millennium BC). The people of these cultures were [[Eurasian nomads|nomadic pastoralists]], who, according to the model, by the early 3rd millennium BC had expanded throughout the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]] and into [[Eastern Europe]].{{sfn|Gimbutas|1985|p=190}}

Genetics studies in the 21st century have demonstrated that populations bearing specific [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-DNA haplogroups]] and a [[Western Steppe Herders|distinct genetic signature]] expanded into Europe and South Asia from the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the third and second millennia BC. These migrations provide a plausible explanation for the spread of at least some of the Indo-European languages, and suggest that the alternative theories such as the [[Anatolian hypothesis]], which places the Proto-Indo-European homeland in [[Neolithic]] [[Anatolia]], are less likely to be correct.{{sfn|Haak et al.|2015}}<ref name="nature.com">{{cite journal |title=Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia |author=Allentoft |display-authors=etal |year=2015 |journal=Nature |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=167–172 |doi=10.1038/nature14507|pmid=26062507 |bibcode=2015Natur.522..167A |s2cid=4399103 |url=https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/13155 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal |last1=Mathieson |first1=Iain |last2=Lazaridis |first2=Iosif |last3=Rohland |first3=Nadin |last4=Mallick |first4=Swapan |last5=Patterson |first5=Nick |last6=Roodenberg |first6=Songül Alpaslan |last7=Harney |first7=Eadaoin |last8=Stewardson |first8=Kristin |last9=Fernandes |first9=Daniel |last10=Novak |first10=Mario |last11=Sirak |first11=Kendra |date=2015|title=Genome-wide patterns of selection in 230 ancient Eurasians |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=528 |issue=7583 |pages=499–503 |doi=10.1038/nature16152 |issn=1476-4687 |pmc=4918750 |pmid=26595274|bibcode=2015Natur.528..499M }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Narasimhan |first1=Vagheesh M. |last2=Patterson |first2=Nick |last3=Moorjani |first3=Priya |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Bernardos |first5=Rebecca |last6=Mallick |first6=Swapan |last7=Lazaridis |first7=Iosif |last8=Nakatsuka |first8=Nathan |last9=Olalde |first9=Iñigo |last10=Lipson |first10=Mark |last11=Kim |first11=Alexander M. |date=2019|title=The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia |journal=Science |language=en |volume=365 |issue=6457 |article-number=eaat7487 |doi=10.1126/science.aat7487 |issn=0036-8075 |pmc=6822619 |pmid=31488661 |bibcode=2019Sci...365t7487N }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shinde |first1=Vasant |last2=Narasimhan |first2=Vagheesh M. |last3=Rohland |first3=Nadin |last4=Mallick |first4=Swapan |last5=Mah |first5=Matthew |last6=Lipson |first6=Mark |last7=Nakatsuka |first7=Nathan |last8=Adamski |first8=Nicole |last9=Broomandkhoshbacht |first9=Nasreen |last10=Ferry |first10=Matthew |last11=Lawson |first11=Ann Marie |date=2019-10-17 |title=An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers |journal=Cell |language=English |volume=179 |issue=3 |pages=729–735.e10 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2019.08.048 |issn=0092-8674 |pmc=6800651 |pmid=31495572}}</ref>

==History== ===Predecessors=== Arguments for the identification of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as steppe nomads from the Pontic–Caspian region had already been made in the 19th century by the German scholars [[Theodor Benfey]] (1869) and {{Ill|Victor Hehn|de}} (1870), followed notably by [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]] (1883, 1890).<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Grünthal|first1=Riho|title=A Linguistic Map of Prehistoric Northern Europe|last2=Kallio|first2=Petri|date=2012 |publisher=Société Finno-Ougrienne|isbn=978-952-5667-42-4|page=122}}</ref> [[Theodor Poesche]] had proposed the nearby [[Pripet Marshes|Pinsk Marshes]]. In his standard work<ref>Karl Brugmann, ''Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen'', vol. 1.1, Strassburg 1886, p. 2.</ref> about PIE and to a greater extent in a later abbreviated version,<ref>Karl Brugmann, ''Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen'', vol. 1, Strassburg 1902, pp. 22–23.</ref> [[Karl Brugmann]] took the view that the [[linguistic homeland]] could not be identified exactly by the scholarship of his time, but he tended toward Schrader's view. However, after [[Karl Penka]]'s 1883<ref>Karl Penka, ''Origines Ariacae: Linguistisch-ethnologische Untersuchungen zur ältesten Geschichte der arischen Völker und Sprachen'' (Vienna: Taschen, 1883), 68.</ref> rejection of non-European PIE origins, most scholars favoured a [[North European hypothesis|Northern European origin]].

The view of a Pontic origin was still strongly supported, including by the archaeologists [[V. Gordon Childe]]<ref>Vere Gordon Childe, ''The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European Origins'' (London: Kegan Paul, 1926).</ref> and [[Ernst Wahle]].<ref>Ernst Wahle (1932). ''Deutsche Vorzeit'', Leipzig 1932.</ref> One of Wahle's students was [[Jonas Puzinas]], who became one of Marija Gimbutas's teachers. Gimbutas, who acknowledged Schrader as a precursor,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gimbutas|first1=Marija|title=The Balts |date=1963|publisher=Thames & Hudson|location=London|page=38 |url=http://www.vaidilute.com/books/gimbutas/gimbutas-02.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030062207/http://www.vaidilute.com/books/gimbutas/gimbutas-02.html |archive-date=2013-10-30}}</ref> painstakingly marshalled a wealth of archaeological evidence from the territory of the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[Eastern Bloc]] that was not readily available to Western scholars,{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nLIufwC4szwC&pg=PA18 18, 495]}} revealing a fuller picture of prehistoric Europe.

===Overview=== When it was first proposed in 1956, in ''The Prehistory of Eastern Europe, Part 1'', Gimbutas's contribution to the search for Indo-European origins was an [[interdisciplinary]] synthesis of archaeology and linguistics. The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins identifies the Pontic–Caspian steppe as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) homeland, and a variety of late PIE dialects are assumed to have been spoken across this region. According to this model, the Kurgan culture gradually expanded to the entire Pontic–Caspian steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the [[Yamnaya]] culture of around 3000 BC.{{sfn|Gimbutas|1956}}

The mobility of the Kurgan culture facilitated its expansion over the entire region and is attributed to the [[domestication of the horse]] followed by the use of early [[chariots]].{{refn|name=blenchspriggsIII181|Parpola in {{harvnb|Blench|Spriggs|1999|p=181}}. "The history of the Indo-European words for 'horse' shows that the Proto-Indo-European speakers had long lived in an area where the horse was native and / or domesticated.({{harvnb|Mallory|1989|pp=161–163}}). The first strong archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from the Ukrainian Srednij Stog culture, which flourished ''c.'' 4200–3500 BC and is likely to represent an early phase of the Proto-Indo-European culture ({{harvnb|Anthony|1986|pp=295f.}}; {{harvnb|Mallory|1989|pp=162, 197–210}}). During the [[Pit Grave]] culture (''c.'' 3500–2800 BCE), which continued the cultures related to Srednij Stog and probably represents the late phase of the Proto-Indo-European culture – full-scale pastoral technology, including the domesticated horse, wheeled vehicles, stock breeding and limited horticulture, spread all over the Pontic steppes, and, ''c.'' 3000 BCE, in practically every direction from that centre ({{harvnb|Anthony|1986}}; {{harvnb|Anthony|1991}}; {{harvnb|Mallory|1989|loc=vol. 1}}).}} The first strong archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from the [[Sredny Stog culture]] north of the [[Azov Sea]] in [[Ukraine]], and would correspond to an early PIE or pre-PIE nucleus of the 5th millennium BC.{{refn|name=blenchspriggsIII181}} Subsequent expansion beyond the steppes led to hybrid, or in Gimbutas's terms "kurganized" cultures, such as the [[Globular Amphora culture]] to the west. From these kurganized cultures came the immigration of [[Proto-Greeks]] to the [[Balkans]] and the nomadic [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] cultures to the east around 2500 BC.

==Kurgan culture==

===Cultural horizon=== Gimbutas defined and introduced the term "'''Kurgan culture'''" in 1956 with the intention of introducing a "broader term" that would combine [[Sredny Stog culture|Sredny Stog II]], [[Pit Grave]] (Yamnaya), and [[Corded ware]] horizons (spanning the 4th to 3rd millennia in much of Eastern and Northern Europe).{{refn|{{harvnb|Gimbutas|1970|p=156}}: "The name ''Kurgan culture'' (the Barrow culture) was introduced by the author in 1956 as a broader term to replace [something] and [[Pit-Grave]] (Russian ''Yamnaya''), names used by Soviet scholars for the culture in the eastern Ukraine and south Russia, and [[Corded ware|Corded Ware, Battle-Axe]], [[Ochre-Grave]], [[Single-Grave]] and other names given to complexes characterized by elements of [[Kurgan]] appearance that formed in various parts of Europe".}} The Kurgan [[archaeological culture]] or cultural horizon comprises the various cultures of the Pontic–Caspian steppe in the Copper Age to Early Bronze Age (5th to 3rd millennia BC), identified by similar artifacts and structures, but subject to inevitable imprecision and uncertainty. The eponymous [[kurgan]]s (mound graves) are only one among several common features.{{Citation needed|date=March 2026}}

Cultures that Gimbutas considered as part of the "Kurgan culture": *[[Bug–Dniester culture|Bug–Dniester]] (6th millennium) *[[Samara culture|Samara]] (5th millennium) *[[Khvalynsk culture|Khvalynsk]] (5th millennium) *[[Dnieper–Donets culture|Dnieper–Donets]] (5th to 4th millennia) *[[Sredny Stog culture|Sredny Stog]] (mid-5th to mid-4th millennia) *[[Maykop culture|Maykop]]–[[Deriivka]] (mid-4th to mid-3rd millennia) *[[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya (Pit Grave)]]: This is itself a varied cultural horizon, spanning the entire Pontic–Caspian steppe from the mid-4th to the 3rd millennium. *[[Usatove culture|Usatove]] (late 4th millennium)

===Stages of culture and expansion===

[[File:Kurgan map.png|350px|thumb|right|Overview of the Kurgan hypothesis]]

Gimbutas's original suggestion identifies four successive stages of the Kurgan culture:{{sfn|Gimbutas|1956}}

* '''Kurgan I''', [[Dnieper]]/[[Volga]] region, earlier half of the 4th millennium BC. Apparently evolving from cultures of the Volga basin, subgroups include the [[Samara culture|Samara]] and [[Seroglazovo culture|Seroglazovo]] cultures. * '''Kurgan II–III''', latter half of the 4th millennium BC. [[Stone circle]]s, [[anthropomorphic]] stone stelae of deities. Includes the [[Sredny Stog culture]] and the [[Maykop culture]] of the northern [[Caucasus]]. * '''Kurgan IV''' or [[Pit Grave]] (Yamnaya) culture, first half of the 3rd millennium BC, encompassing the entire steppe region from the [[Ural River|Ural]] to [[Romania]].

In other publications{{sfn|Bojtar|1999|p=57}} she proposes three successive "waves" of expansion: * '''Wave 1''', predating Kurgan I, expansion from the lower Volga to the Dnieper, leading to coexistence of Kurgan I and the [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture]]. Repercussions of the migrations extend as far as the [[Balkans]] and along the [[Danube]] to the [[Vinca culture|Vinča]] culture in [[Serbia]] and [[Lengyel culture]] in [[Hungary]]. *'''Wave 2''', mid 4th millennium BC, originating in the [[Maykop culture]] and resulting in advances of '''"kurganized"''' hybrid cultures into northern Europe around 3000 BC ([[Globular Amphora culture]], [[Baden culture]], and ultimately [[Corded Ware culture]]). According to Gimbutas this corresponds to the first intrusion of Indo-European languages into western and northern Europe. *'''Wave 3''', 3000–2800 BC, expansion of the Pit Grave culture beyond the steppes, with the appearance of the characteristic pit graves as far as modern Romania, Bulgaria, eastern Hungary and Georgia, coincident with the end of the [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture]] and [[Trialeti culture]] in Georgia ({{circa|2750 BC}}).

===Timeline=== {{unreferenced section|date=April 2024}} *4500–4000: '''Early PIE'''. Sredny Stog, Dnieper–Donets and [[Samara culture|Samara]] cultures, [[domestication of the horse]] ('''Wave 1'''). *4000–3500: The Pit Grave culture (a.k.a. Yamnaya culture), the prototypical [[kurgan]] builders, emerges in the steppe, and the [[Maykop culture]] in the northern [[Caucasus]]. [[Indo-Hittite]] models postulate the separation of [[Proto-Anatolian language|Proto-Anatolian]] before this time. *3500–3000: '''Middle PIE'''. The Pit Grave culture is at its peak, representing the classical reconstructed [[Proto-Indo-European society]] with [[Ukrainian stone stela|stone idols]], predominantly practicing [[animal husbandry]] in permanent settlements protected by [[hillfort]]s, subsisting on agriculture, and fishing along rivers. Contact of the Pit Grave culture with late [[Neolithic Europe]] cultures results in the "kurganized" [[Globular Amphora culture|Globular Amphora]] and [[Baden culture|Baden]] cultures ('''Wave 2'''). The Maykop culture shows the earliest evidence of the beginning [[Bronze Age]], and Bronze weapons and artifacts are introduced to Pit Grave territory. Probable early [[Satemization]]. *3000–2500: '''Late PIE'''. The Pit Grave culture extends over the entire Pontic steppe ('''Wave 3'''). The [[Corded Ware culture]] extends from the [[Rhine]] to the [[Volga]], corresponding to the latest phase of Indo-European unity, the vast "kurganized" area disintegrating into various independent languages and cultures, still in loose contact enabling the spread of technology and early loans between the groups, except for the Anatolian and Tocharian branches, which are already isolated from these processes. The [[centum and satem languages|centum–satem]] break is probably complete, but the phonetic trends of Satemization remain active.

===Further expansion during the Bronze Age=== {{Main|Indo-European migrations}} The Kurgan hypothesis describes the initial spread of Proto-Indo-European during the 5th and 4th millennia BC.<ref>The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition, 22:587–588</ref> As used by Gimbutas, the term "kurganized" implied that the culture could have been spread by no more than small bands who [[Stratum (linguistics)|imposed themselves]] on local people as an elite. This idea of PIE and its [[Language family|daughter languages]] diffusing east and west without mass movement proved popular with archaeologists in the 1970s (the ''pots-not-people'' paradigm).<ref>{{cite web |author=[[Razib Khan]] |title=Facing the ocean |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/04/facing-the-ocean/ |work=Discover Magazine Blog – Gene Expression |date=28 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609041146/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/04/facing-the-ocean/ |archive-date=2013-06-09}}</ref> The question of further Indo-Europeanization of Central and Western Europe, Central Asia and Northern India during the [[Bronze Age]] is beyond the scope of the Kurgan hypothesis, and far more uncertain than the events of the Copper Age, and subject to some controversy. The rapidly developing fields of [[archaeogenetics]] and [[genetic genealogy]] since the late 1990s have not only confirmed a migratory pattern out of the Pontic Steppe at the relevant time{{sfn|Haak et al.|2015}}<ref name="nature.com"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">{{cite journal |last1=Reich |first1=David |title=The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years |journal=Science |date= 15 March 2019|volume=363 |issue=6432 |pages=1230–1234 |doi=10.1126/science.aav4040 |pmid=30872528 |pmc=6436108 |bibcode=2019Sci...363.1230O |doi-access=free }}</ref> but also suggest the possibility that the population movement involved was more substantial than earlier anticipated{{sfn|Haak et al.|2015}} and invasive.<ref name="ncbi.nlm.nih.gov"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Preston |first1=Douglas |title=The Skeletons at the Lake |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/14/the-skeletons-at-the-lake |access-date=13 February 2021 |issue=Annals of Science |magazine=The New Yorker |date=December 7, 2020}}</ref>

==Revisions==

=== Invasion versus diffusion scenarios (1980s onward) === Gimbutas believed that the expansions of the Kurgan culture were a series of essentially-hostile military incursions in which a new warrior culture imposed itself on the peaceful, [[Matrilineality|matrilinear]], and matrifocal (but not [[matriarchy|matriarchal]]) cultures of "[[Old European culture|Old Europe]]" and replaced it with a [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] [[warrior]] society,{{sfn|Gimbutas|1982|p=1}} a process visible in the appearance of fortified settlements and hillforts and the graves of warrior-chieftains: {{blockquote|The process of Indo-Europeanization was a cultural, not a physical, transformation. It must be understood as a military victory in terms of successfully imposing a new administrative system, language, and religion upon the indigenous groups.{{sfn|Gimbutas|1997|p=309}}}}

In her later life, Gimbutas increasingly emphasized the authoritarian nature of this transition from the egalitarian society centered on the nature/earth [[mother goddess]] ([[Gaia]]) to a patriarchy worshipping the father/sun/weather god ([[Zeus]], [[Dyaus]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gimbutas |first=Marija |date=1993-08-01 |title=The Indo-Europeanization of Europe: the intrusion of steppe pastoralists from south Russia and the transformation of Old Europe |journal=WORD |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=205–222 |doi=10.1080/00437956.1993.11435900 |issn=0043-7956|doi-access=free }} [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00437956.1993.11435900 Free PDF download].</ref>

[[J. P. Mallory]] (in 1989) accepted the Kurgan hypothesis as the ''de facto'' standard theory of Indo-European origins, but he distinguished it from an implied "radical" scenario of military invasion. Gimbutas' actual main scenario involved slow accumulation of influence through coercion or extortion, as distinguished from general raiding shortly followed by conquest: {{blockquote|One might at first imagine that the economy of argument involved with the Kurgan solution should oblige us to accept it outright. But critics do exist and their objections can be summarized quite simply: Almost all of the arguments for invasion and cultural transformations are far better explained without reference to Kurgan expansions, and most of the evidence so far presented is either totally contradicted by other evidence, or is the result of gross misinterpretation of the cultural history of Eastern, Central, and Northern Europe.{{sfn|Mallory|1989|p=185}}}}

===Alignment with Anatolian hypothesis (2000s)=== {{Main|Anatolian hypothesis}}

In the 2000s, Alberto Piazza and [[Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza]] tried to align the Anatolian hypothesis with the steppe theory. According to Piazza, "[i]t is clear that, genetically speaking, peoples of the Kurgan steppe descended at least in part from people of the Middle Eastern Neolithic who immigrated there from [[Prehistory of Anatolia|Anatolia]]."{{sfn|Cavalli-Sforza|2000}} According to Piazza and Cavalli-Sforza (2006), the Yamna-culture may have been derived from Middle Eastern Neolithic farmers who migrated to the Pontic steppe and developed pastoral nomadism.{{refn|{{harvnb|Piazza|Cavalli-Sforza|2006}}: "...if the expansions began at 9,500 years ago from Anatolia and at 6,000 years ago from the [[Yamna culture|Yamnaya culture]] region, then a 3,500-year period elapsed during their migration to the [[Volga River|Volga]]-[[Don River (Russia)|Don]] region from Anatolia, probably through the Balkans. There a completely new, mostly pastoral culture developed under the stimulus of an environment unfavorable to standard agriculture, but offering new attractive possibilities. Our hypothesis is, therefore, that Indo-European languages derived from a secondary expansion from the [[Yamna culture|Yamnaya culture]] region after the Neolithic farmers, possibly coming from Anatolia and settled there, developing pastoral nomadism.}} Wells agrees with Cavalli-Sforza that there is "''some'' genetic evidence for migration from the Middle East."{{refn|{{harvnb|Wells|Read|2002|p={{page needed|date=July 2021}}}}: "... while we see substantial genetic and archaeological evidence for an Indo-European migration originating in the southern Russian steppes, there is little evidence for a similarly massive Indo-European migration from the Middle East to Europe. One possibility is that, as a much earlier migration (8,000 years old, as opposed to 4,000), the genetic signals carried by Indo-European-speaking farmers may simply have dispersed over the years. There is clearly ''some'' genetic evidence for migration from the Middle East, as Cavalli-Sforza and his colleagues showed, but the signal is not strong enough for us to trace the distribution of Neolithic languages throughout the entirety of Indo-European-speaking Europe."}} Nevertheless, the Anatolian hypothesis is generally considered incompatible with the linguistic evidence.{{sfn|Anthony|Ringe|2015}}

===Anthony's revised steppe theory (2007)=== [[David W. Anthony|David Anthony]]'s ''[[The Horse, the Wheel and Language]]'' describes his "revised steppe theory". He considers the term "Kurgan culture" so imprecise as to be useless, and instead uses the core [[Yamnaya culture]] and its relationship with other cultures as points of reference.<ref name="DA306">{{Harvnb|Anthony|2007|pp=306–307}}, "Why not a Kurgan Culture?"</ref> He points out: {{blockquote|The Kurgan culture was so broadly defined that almost any culture with burial mounds, or even (like the Baden culture) without them could be included.<ref name="DA306" />}}

He does not include the [[Maykop culture]] among those that he considers to be Indo-European-speaking and presumes instead that they spoke a [[Languages of the Caucasus|Caucasian language]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=297}}

==See also== *[[Hamangia culture]] *[[Varna culture]] *[[Animal sacrifice]] *[[Ashvamedha]] *[[Shaft tomb]] *[[Revised Kurgan theory]] *[[Germanic substrate hypothesis]]

'''Genetics''' * [[Archaeogenetics of Europe]] * [[Haplogroup R1a]] * [[Lactase persistence]]

'''Competing hypotheses''' *[[Proto-Indo-European Urheimat hypotheses]] **[[Armenian hypothesis]] **[[Anatolian hypothesis]] **[[Out of India theory]] **[[Paleolithic continuity theory]]

== References == {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Bibliography==

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Aufbruch aus der Vorgeschichte |trans-title=The Indo-Europeans: Rising from pre-history |place=Bergisch-Gladbach (Germany) | publisher=Bastei Lübbe | isbn=3-404-64162-0 |language=de}} * {{cite book |last=Spinney |first=Laura |title=Proto |publisher=William Collins |publication-place=London |date=2025-03-13 |isbn=978-0-00-862652-5}} *{{Cite book |editor-last=Strazny|editor-first=Philipp|year=2000|title=Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics|publisher=Routledge|edition=1st| isbn=978-1-57958-218-0}}  *{{cite book| title=The journey of man: a genetic odyssey | last1=Wells | first1=Spencer | last2=Read | first2=Mark | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-691-11532-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&pg=PA168 }}  *{{cite journal |last=Zanotti |first=D. 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==External links== * [https://humanjourney.us/field-note/proto-indo-european-the-worlds-parent-language/ Humanjourney.us, ''Proto-Indo-European: The World’s Parent Language'']

[[Category:1956 in science]] [[Category:1956 introductions]] [[Category:Historical linguistics]] [[Category:Proto-Indo-Europeans]] [[Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia]] [[Category:Stone Age Europe]] [[Category:Archaeological theory]] [[Category:Horse history and evolution]] [[Category:Origin hypotheses of ethnic groups|Indo-European]] [[Category:Linguistic theories and hypotheses]]