Indo-European migrations

Colin Renfrew's Anatolian hypothesis suggests a much earlier date for the Indo-European languages, proposing an origin in Anatolia and an initial spread with the earliest farmers who migrated to Europe.

Over a century later, after learning Sanskrit in India, Sir William Jones detected systematic correspondences; he described them in his Third Anniversary Discourse to the Asiatic Society in 1786, concluding that all these languages originated from the same source.

[1] Using a mathematical analysis borrowed from evolutionary biology, but basing their work on comparative vocabulary, a number of researchers have attempted to estimate the dates of the splitting up of the various Indo-European languages.

[52] It is understood as a migration of Yamnaya people to Europe, as military victors, successfully imposing a new administrative system, language and religion upon the indigenous groups, who are referred to by Gimbutas as Old Europeans.

According to some archaeologists, PIE speakers cannot be assumed to have been a single, identifiable people or tribe, but were a group of loosely related populations ancestral to the later, still partially prehistoric, Bronze Age Indo-Europeans.

[10][96][97][98][39][40][41][99][note 11] Anthony (2019, 2020) criticizes the Southern/Caucasian origin proposals of Reich and Kristiansen, and rejects the possibility that the Bronze Age Maykop people of the Caucasus were a southern source of language and genetics of Indo-European.

Additionally, there is possible later influence, involving little genetic impact, in the later Neolithic or Bronze Age from the language of the Maykop culture to the south, which is hypothesized to have belonged to the North Caucasian family.

[87] According to Anthony, hunting-fishing camps from the lower Volga, dated 6200–4500 BCE, could be the remains of people who contributed the CHG-component, similar to the Hotu cave, migrating from northwestern Iran or Azerbaijan via the western Caspian coast.

"[web 8] This model was confirmed by a genetic study published in 2018, which attributed the origin of Maykop individuals to a migration of Eneolithic farmers from western Georgia towards the north side of the Caucasus.

[150] These movements of both Tocharians and Iranians into East Central Asia were not a mere footnote in the history of China but... were part of a much wider picture involving the very foundations of the world's oldest surviving civilization.

[web 13] The turning point occurred around the 5th to 4th centuries BCE with a gradual Mongolization of Siberia, while Eastern Central Asia (East Turkistan) remained Caucasian and Indo-European-speaking until well into the 1st millennium CE.

At the peak of their power in the 3rd century BC, the Yuezhi are believed to have dominated the areas north of the Qilian Mountains (including the Tarim Basin and Dzungaria), the Altai region,[161] the greater part of Mongolia, and the upper waters of the Yellow River.

The Kushan empire stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain at its greatest extent, and played an important role in the development of the Silk Road and the transmission of Buddhism to China.

"[170] The Yamnaya horizon represents the classical reconstructed Proto-Indo-European society with stone idols, predominantly practising animal husbandry in permanent settlements protected by hillforts, subsisting on agriculture, and fishing along rivers.

[note 17] According to Sjögren et al. (2020), R1b-M269 "is the major lineage associated with the arrival of Steppe ancestry in western Europe after 2500 BC[E],"[187] and is strongly related to the Bell Beaker expansion.

[193] Between 3100 and 2800/2600 BCE, when the Yamnaya horizon spread fast across the Pontic Steppe, a real folk migration of Proto-Indo-European speakers from the Yamna-culture took place into the Danube Valley,[6] moving along Usatovo territory toward specific destinations, reaching as far as Hungary,[194] where as many as 3,000 kurgans may have been raised.

[195] According to Anthony (2007), Bell Beaker sites at Budapest, dated c. 2800–2600 BCE, may have aided in spreading Yamnaya dialects into Austria and southern Germany at their west, where Proto-Celtic may have developed.

[38] According to Lazaridis et al. (2022), the speakers of Albanian, Greek and other Paleo-Balkan languages, go back directly to the migration of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into the Balkans about 5000 to 4500 years ago, admixting with the local populations.

[199] Recent research by Haak et al. found that four late Corded Ware people (2500–2300 BCE) buried at Esperstadt, Germany, were genetically very close to the Yamna-people, suggesting that a massive migration took place from the Eurasian steppes to Central Europe.

"[209] Heyd confirms the close connection between Corded Ware and Yamna, but also states that "neither a one-to-one translation from Yamnaya to CWC, nor even the 75:25 ratio as claimed (Haak et al. 2015:211) fits the archaeological record.

[241] By the later La Tène period (c. 450 BCE up to the Roman conquest), this Celtic culture had expanded by diffusion or migration to the British Isles (Insular Celts), France and The Low Countries (Gauls), Bohemia, Poland and much of Central Europe, the Iberian Peninsula (Celtiberians, Celtici and Gallaeci) and Italy (Golaseccans, Lepontii, Ligures and Cisalpine Gauls)[242] and, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BCE, as far east as central Anatolia (Galatians).

Most Indo-Europeanists classify Baltic and Slavic languages into a single branch, even though some details of the nature of their relationship remain in dispute[note 23] in some circles, usually due to political controversies.

[264] The Thracians inhabited a large area in southeastern Europe,[265] including parts of the ancient provinces of Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions of the Balkans and Anatolia.

[277] The Illyrians (Ancient Greek: Ἰλλυριοί, Illyrioi; Latin: Illyrii or Illyri) were a group of Indo-European tribes in antiquity, who inhabited part of the western Balkans and the southeastern coasts of the Italian peninsula (Messapia).

[282][283] The name "Illyrians", as applied by the ancient Greeks to their northern neighbors, may have referred to a broad, ill-defined group of peoples, and it is today unclear to what extent they were linguistically and culturally homogeneous.

[75] The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta burials, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare.

The associated culture was initially a tribal, pastoral society centred in the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent; it spread after 1200 BCE to the Ganges Plain, as it was shaped by increasing settled agriculture, a hierarchy of four social classes, and the emergence of monarchical, state-level polities.

[339] Around the beginning of the Common Era, the Vedic tradition formed one of the main constituents of the so-called "Hindu synthesis"[340] According to Christopher I. Beckwith the Wusun, an Indo-European Caucasian people of Inner Asia in antiquity, were also of Indo-Aryan origin.

The Kushan empire stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain at its greatest extent, and played an important role in the development of the Silk Road and the transmission of Buddhism to China.

Around the first millennium CE, the Kambojas, the Pashtuns and the Baloch began to settle on the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, on the mountainous frontier of northwestern and western Pakistan, displacing the earlier Indo-Aryans from the area.

Scheme of Indo-European language dispersals from c. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the widely held Kurgan hypothesis :
  • Center: Steppe cultures
  • 1 (black): Anatolian languages (archaic PIE)
  • 2 (black): Afanasievo culture (early PIE)
  • 3 (black): Yamnaya culture expansion (Pontic-Caspian steppe, Danube Valley; late PIE)
  • 4A (black): Western Corded Ware
  • 4B-C (blue & dark blue): Bell Beaker; adopted by Indo-European speakers
  • 5A-B (red): Eastern Corded ware
  • 5C (red): Sintashta (proto-Indo-Iranian)
  • 6 (magenta): Andronovo
  • 7A (purple): Indo-Aryans (Mittani)
  • 7B (purple): Indo-Aryans (India)
  • [NN] (dark yellow): proto-Balto-Slavic
  • 8 (grey): Greek
  • 9 (yellow): Iranians
Not drawn are Armenian, expanding from Catacomb culture into the South Caucasus.
Classification of Indo-European languages.
Red: Extinct languages.
White: Categories or unattested proto-languages.
Left half: Centum languages.
Right half: Satem languages.
The approximate present-day distribution of Indo-European branches in their homelands of Europe and Asia. In chronological order of the earliest surviving written attestations of each branch, they are:
Hellenic ( Greek )
Indo-Iranian
Italic ( Romance )
Celtic
Germanic
Armenian
Baltic
Slavic
Albanian
Non-Indo-European languages
Dotted and striped areas indicate where multilingualism is common (more visible upon full enlargement of the map).
Area of distribution of the earliest Indo-European river names . [ 21 ]
3500 BCE
2500 BCE
1500 BCE
500 BCE
500 CE
4000 BCE
3000 BCE
2000 BCE
500 BCE
Sredny Stog culture (v.4500–3500 BCE)
Usatovo culture ( c. 3500 –3000 BCE)
Khvalynsk culture (c. 4900–3500 BCE)
Location of early Yamnaya culture (3400 BCE), according to Anthony 2007
Largest expansion of the Yamnaya culture. Ca. 3500 origins of Usatovo culture; 3400 origins of Yamnaya; c. 3400 -3200 expansion of Yamnaya across the Pontic-Caspian steppe; c. 3000 end of Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, and transformation of Yamnaya into Corded Ware in the contact zone east of the Carpathian mountains; 3100-2600 Yamnaya-expansion into the Danube Valley. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ]
The Proto-Indo-European homeland according to the Kurgan hypothesis (dark green) and the present-day distribution of Indo-European languages in Eurasia (light green)
The development of the Kurgan culture according to Marija Gimbutas' Kurgan hypothesis
Scheme of Indo-European migrations from c. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the Kurgan hypothesis. These migrations are thought to have spread WSH ancestry and Indo-European languages throughout large parts of Eurasia. [ 85 ]
Ukrainian rivers
The Hittite Empire at its greatest extent under Suppiluliuma I ( c. 1350 –1322 BCE) and Mursili II ( c. 1321 –1295 BCE)
Anatolian languages attested in the mid-first millennium BCE
Area where the second millennium BCE Luwian language was spoken
Geographic extent of the Maykop culture
Ambassador from Kucha (龜茲國 Qiuci-guo ), one of the main Tocharian cities, visiting the Chinese Southern Liang court in Jingzhou c. 516–520 CE , with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang , 11th century Song copy.
Approximate extent of the Yuezhi Empire, as described in the History of Civilizations of Central Asia by UNESCO [ 158 ]
The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia, from around 176 BCE to 30 CE
Sredny Stog culture (v.4500–3500 BCE)
Usatovo culture ( c. 3500 –3000 BCE)
Khvalynsk culture (c. 4900–3500 BCE)
Location of early Yamnaya culture (3400 BCE), according to Anthony 2007 .
Largest expansion of the Yamnaya culture. Ca. 3500 origins of Usatovo culture; 3400 origins of Yamnaya; c. 3400 –3200 expansion of Yamnaya across the Pontic-Caspian steppe; c. 3000 end of Tripolye culture, and transformation of Yamnaya into Corded Ware in the contact zone east of the Carpathian mountains; 3100–2600 Yamnaya-expansion into the Danube Valley. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ]
IE migrations north and south of the Carpathian Mountains, and the subsequent development of Celtic, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic, according to Anthony (2007)
Dniester river
Vistula river
Dniepr river
Course of the Danube , marked in red
Extent of the Funnelbeaker culture ( Trichterbecherkultur , TRB) c. 4300 –2800 BCE
Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with adjacent third-millennium cultures ( Baden culture and Globular Amphora culture ; after EIEC )
Extent of the Beaker-culture
Generalised distribution and movements of Bell-Beaker cultures [ 210 ]
Map of the pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe showing cultures associated with Proto-Germanic, c. 500 BC. The area of the preceding Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia is shown in red; magenta areas towards the south represent the Jastorf culture of the North German Plain .
The expansion of the Germanic tribes
750 BC – AD 1 (after The Penguin Atlas of World History , 1988):
Settlements before 750 BC
New settlements 750–500 BC
New settlements 500–250 BC
New settlements 250 BC – AD 1
Some sources also give a date of 750 BC for the earliest expansion out of southern Scandinavia along the North Sea coast towards the mouth of the Rhine. [ 216 ]
The early East Germanic expansion (1st and 2nd centuries AD): Jastorf culture (blue), Oksywie culture (red), Przeworsk culture (yellow/orange); eastward expansion of the Wielbark culture (light-red/orange).
Romance languages in Europe
Diachronic distribution of Celtic peoples:
core Hallstatt territory, by the 6th century BCE
maximal Celtic expansion, by 275 BCE
Lusitanian area of Iberia where Celtic presence is uncertain
the six Celtic nations which retained significant numbers of Celtic speakers into the Early Modern period
areas where Celtic languages remain widely spoken today
Area of Balto-Slavic dialectic continuum ( purple ) with proposed material cultures correlating to speakers Balto-Slavic in Bronze Age ( white ). Red dots indicate archaic Slavic hydronyms.
Eastern Europe in 3rd–4th century CE with archaeological cultures identified as Baltic-speaking in purple. Their area extended from the Baltic Sea to modern Moscow.
Map of the area of distribution of Baltic hydronyms . This area is considered the Urheimat of the Balts .
Dacia during the reign of Burebista
Map of Dacia , 1st century BCE
Ethnogenesis of the Illyrians
Illyrian colonisation of Italy, 9th century BCE [ 278 ]
A reconstruction of the third-millennium BCE "Proto-Greek area", according to Bulgarian linguist Vladimir Georgiev . [ 293 ]
Location of Phrygia in Anatolia
Archaeological cultures associated with the Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan migration : The Andronovo culture is regarded as the origin of the Indo-Iranians, who later interacted with the BMAC , from which they borrowed part of their distinctive religious beliefs. The Yaz culture is also associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The Gandhara grave , Cemetery H , Copper Hoard and Painted Grey Ware cultures are associated with Indo-Aryan migrations (according to EIEC ).
According to Allentoft (2015), the Sintashta culture probably derived from the Corded Ware Culture.
Map of the approximate maximal extent of the Andronovo culture. The formative Sintashta-Petrovka culture is shown in darker red. The location of the earliest spoke -wheeled chariot finds is indicated in purple. Adjacent and overlapping cultures ( Afanasevo culture , Srubna culture , BMAC ) are shown in green.
The extent of the BMAC (after EIEC )
Map of the Near East, c. 1400 BCE , showing the Kingdom of Mitanni at its greatest extent
Language families in the Indian subcontinent
Early Vedic Period
Painted Grey Ware culture (1200–600 BCE)
Kingdoms, tribes and theological schools of the Late Vedic Period
Mahajanapadas (c. 500 BCE)
Northern Black Polished Ware culture (700–200 BCE)
The Tarim Basin, 2008
Wusun and their neighbours during the late 2nd century BCE, take note that the Yancai did not change their name to Alans until the 1st century.
Distribution of Iranic peoples in Central Asia and the Iranian plateau during the Iron Age period.
Territories (full line) and expansion (dotted line) of the Indo-Scythians Kingdom at its greatest extent