People lie. The evidence doesn't lie. Grissom.
The IE Satem Middle Dnieper Baltic-type culture appeared in regions by the Middle & Upper Dnieper and it's tributaries - also including a wide area extending East towards the Don, along with a second Northeastern variant which developed of related East Baltic speaking forest-zone Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures that spread North and East, up to the Ural Mountains, together are seen as Northern extensions ( 3300 - 1800 BCE ) of the Corded Ware culture horizon (re: mtDNA N1a1).
There were altogether really quite a few Baltic Satem speaking cultures - the early West Baltic ( Pamariai / Bay Coast ) Barrow culture in the West - the Middle Dnieper in the middle - and the geographically immense East Baltic speaking Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures, settled among (and eventually merging with, among others) neighboring Finno-Ugrics on territory in the North & East - up to the Ural mountains and Kama-Volga rivers. A later phase of the Catacomb & Pit-grave influenced border Fatyanovo-Balanovo was the Corded Ware Abashevo culture.
To the South of these bordered the Baltic-type Milograd culture. Beyond Milograd were the non-Baltic, yet closely related, Indo-European Satem Āryan Yamna and autonomous Satem Proto-Slavic Komarov culture horizons. Proto-Slavic emerged from Southwestern early Satem speaking polyethnic steppe variants of the lower Middle Dnieper culture horizon.
Excavations between the rivers Orell and Samara have uncovered burials of a syncretic nature that attest contacts between the spheres of the Corded Ware and Yamna cultures. It may indicate early and prolonged contacts between polyethnic Proto-Indo-Iranians and the ancestors of the East Balts, which had evolved as somewhat related neighboring "Satem" cultures.
The ethnogenesis of the Middle Dnieper Culture grew from conservative peripheral IE Satem dialects closely adjoined to Yamna Pit-grave Satem, as well as Catacomb culture neighbors, with additional diverse admixture of originally non-IE peoples from Dnieper-Donets and Tripolye ("Temematian") C2 - which were by now also of mixed origin and probably bi-lingual, along with admixture of TRB, BBC, Globular Amphorae from the Carpathian area, and western Corded Ware folk.
From this multi-ethnic convergence and chaotic fusion spawned a unique ethnogenesis of the mainly Satem Middle Dnieper culture, in contrast with other ethnic cultures that were expanding outward. Although Fataynovo, as an early variant of upper Middle Dnieper, did quickly expand to the forest zone to the Northeast. Hence the elusive "retro" centralist appearance of languages descended from the Middle Dnieper culture.
This explains why one finds unique Celtic-Baltic isogloss terms, or separate Greek-Baltic isoglosses, or an Indo-Iranian-Baltic isogloss. Structured linguistic theories are a poor match to interpret the initial formative chaos of this multicultural foundation of the Middle Dnieper culture horizon. DOS is dead - time to update. Baltic was, and is, the flagship of multiculturalism.
This Middle Dnieper Culture was a regionally diverse mosaic, a synthesis or fusion of local variant groups - a "vortex" of converging multi-ethnic cultural influences. Frequent interaction between the central European Dniester Tripolye C2 refugees, which may also have spoken variants of a pidgin pre-Celtic, or pre-Germanic, as well as their native "Temematian" language, and the northern Middle Dnieper Tripolye C2 bi-lingual populace, perhaps account as sources and range of non-IE " tauras"- like archaisms and innovations ( loss of 3rd pl. in verbs ? ) in polyethnic Middle Dnieper / Fatyanovo, as well as traditions of central European copper metallurgy. The Middle Dnieper region became a proverbial melting pot, with input from all directions. The stigma of not being " with it " was as great back then as it is today, and a unique polyethnic culture evolved.
The Globular Amphorae culture, with it's TRB & Lengyel substrate ( plural dative "m" ?), also contributed to the Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo ethnogenesis. In particular, the Middle Dnieper burial customs of males laid on their right side - females on their left, which was already practiced by some forest-steppe Satems, may also reflect the assimilation of some earlier Bodrogkeresztur culture populace who followed that same burial practice, as well as it's early central European metallurgic traditions in copper. Bodrogkeresztur flat graves contained primarily dolichocephalic remains.
The "vortex" of this Middle Dnieper Culture multi-ethnic fusion was, in part, propelled by a devastating climatic change, known as the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase, that took place prior to the Middle Dnieper culture's synthesis, coupled with the mobility of the wheel. A perfect storm. Regional dialects from the southern part of this multi-ethnic Middle Dnieper culture would contribute to the ethnogenesis of the Slavs.
The mythical "Balto-Slavic" (SVO) is none other than various unique regional, yet distinctly polyethnic "Europeanized " conservative core IE Satem dialects neighboring related Pit-grave Yamna Āryan Satem (SOV) to their East as well as the nearby Catacomb culture (SVO), and Centum Gothic type languages (SVO) to their West. Contact with Don Repins (SOV) is implied by Baltic-Tocharian correspondences.
Hollow based flint arrowheads of the Middle Dnieper culture bear a undeniable resemblance with Pit-grave Yamna and Catacomb culture counterparts (pre-Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian), as does some pottery. River and lake food, including mollusks ( Latv. sence), were important food sources. Pontic steppe Catacomb & East Baltic bored stone hammer-axes are almost identical, and of course, some aspects of their languages (re: Grk. Poimenes / Lith.
Piemenes / and the merger of Genitive & Ablative). East Balt and Andronovo four, five, or seven-bulbed stone bored maces ( Lith. vėzdras, Skt. vajrah ) are nearly twins. It is no surprise that the Indo-Iranian and Baltic future tense echo each other, as do many cultural terms and words. This reflective Greek / Sanskrit / Lithuanian relationship is more than just a bridge between East and West (like Ket & Navajo), it is a timeless Harmony letting even a blind man to view all Humanity as Family.
These Satem core components of varied pre-Baltic, pre-Slavic cultures migrated from the Sredny Stog culture (4500-3350), which with the Khvalynsk culture evolved from the Samara PIE homeland culture (5500-5000 BCE) on the Volga River.* Artifacts connect Samara with the earlier ( 7th millenium B.C.E.) polyethnic Indo-Uralic Seroglazovo culture by the Ural river, probably validating the Indo-Uralic theory of V. Thomsen from 1869. (re: " miti " languages).
Most migrations were often due to prolonged climatic changes such as the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase (4200 BCE colder, 3500 BCE drier), population pressure on natural resources, and / or favorable new frontiers to colonize. The migrations by each group resulted in different ethnic assimilations (Dnieper Repins, Dnieper-Donets, Tripolye C2, & Globular Amphora ) during the migrations, and even more so at the eventual settlement regions (eg. Uralic Comb & Pitted Ware Cultures on a older Nemunas & Narva Substratum / U4, U5).
The Fatyanovo custom of adding crushed shell to pottery reflects earlier cultures by the Dnieper Rapids (Surskii island - circa 6,000 BCE), and later Don-steppe cord impressed ceramics associated with Dnieper-Donets steppe cultures. Dual horse heads (Ašvieniai) and boar tusks also culturally link Balts to S'yezzhe by Samara.
From the Samara culture to the present, speakers of the archaic Baltic type ( and Slavic ) languages have been indisputably polyethnic in various degrees in their long mosaic evolution. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. Europe today is like an unmarked ancient sack of mixed genetic seeds.
The Sudovians (Yotvingians), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians together formed a closely related Baltic language group known as the Western Balts (West Baltic Barrow cultures), to which one should also include the ancient Curonians. The languages of both the Western and Eastern Balts (Lithuanian, Samogitian, and Latvian) evolved from the Early-Baltic languages that migrated (each differently) from the Sredny Stog culture horizon.
These early Baltic language settlement areas of which (the lower reaches of the Vistula, Daugava, the Nemunas basin, the upper reaches of the Dnieper & even to the Urals) - is known to have developed into the (1) Early Baltic Area of Central dialects and (2) Early Baltic Area of Peripheral dialects. The Sudovians and Prussians can be regarded as links in a chain of this latter group, while the Lithuanians, Samogitians (Veltai), and Latvians are considered to be the remnants of a more Central Early East-Baltic Area.
The Eastern most dialects of the Early East-Baltic area (Fatyanovo-Balanovo) did not survive intact to be documented beyond numerous hydronyms and many archaic loanwords in various Finnic languages ( gyenta / gyentar ) and Indic ( dhēnā, śapharas, rathas ), as well as contributing later to Russian dialects.
There are loanwords in Saami from Volga-East-Baltic that show no indications of Finnic sound changes (ie, Saami "luossa"< Volga-Baltic "lašiša" vs. Finnish "lohi", salmon), which help to approximately date a common source language for Finnic and Saami - and trade with Volga-Balts. The loanwords were decidedly not prestigious items of an arrogant elite, ie Saami "duovli ", Latvian "dagla " tinder, or for example, North Saami "suoidni " hay, Finnish "heinä " id, Lith. "šienas " id.
From reconstructions of the many cultural loanwords in Finno-Uralic by linguists, & those found in Vedic, one might gather that the languages of the Fatyanovo-Balanovo Volga-Balts resembled a very archaic ( circa 2,800 BCE ) East Baltic Samo-Lettic, surviving for the most part in Modern East-Baltic Lithuanian, Samogitian, and Latvian.
The central Latvian system of three intonations is the more archaic of that group, closely followed by Samogitian-Žemaitian. These are part of the "D" Balts of the late great Balticist V. Mažiulis. Given the earlier political assassination of Lithuanian linguist Jonas Kazlauskas by the KGB, it perhaps was a safer label than a more accurate "Ural Balts" or more inflammatory, yet factual "Volga-Kama Balts".
The settlement of Balts in Russia three thousand years before the arrival of Slavs was not politically expedient information, nor particularly welcome. Note loanwords into Finno-Ugric below (Gordeev 1967 180-203, Redei 1986 25-26) - of a specifically archaic East Baltic lexical "Fatyanovo" provenance, ie žalga, dagla, gentar, kela, ratas, tilta, kār'as, deivas, not some hypothetical "Proto-Balto-Slavic" of academics to conveniently mask collective miscalculations. Close, but no cigar, dudes!
The old names of the various groups were derived from nearby hydronyms, such as the historic Lamai by the Lama river, or the Eastern Galindai. Some of these Eastern Balts by the Ural mountains evidently merged culturally with, or extended to the nearby polyethnic Abashevo culture, which became a major component of the Sintashta culture, later becoming one of the conservative of dialects to Pre-BMAC Proto-Indo-Aryan (Proto-Vedic).
Some Abashevo pottery looks quite similar to, and even blends with Fatyanovo/Balanovo, which indicates East Baltic Corded Ware culture (Kuz'mina O.V. 2000) integration in the Abashevo ethnogenesis. The Southern most peripheral Baltic dialects were the Milograd Culture, which much later on assimilated with migrating Slavic speakers.
Locations of the "Europeanized" IE Corded Ware Cultures with Dative Plural "M"
The early ancestors of the West Balts were the West Baltic Barrow culture and the Mazovia-Podlasie groups of the Trzciniec culture along the Bug river basin, which bordered the autonomous Komarov (Proto-Slavic) culture of the Podolian Uplands further to the South. The Baltic Trzciniec ("Streaked" pottery) culture was related to the autonomous Komarov culture, but different, as ceramics, metalwork, hydronyms, and burial rites indicate. This difference can be seen in the word for man's best friend, "dog ", where West Baltic had suns vs. Old Church Slavic pьsъ, or "rock" - Baltic akmō / ašmō vs. O.C.
Slavic kamy, West Baltic p'ausē "pine" vs. Slavic bor or sosna, and also with many fundamental lexical and mythological disparities. In contrast, note East Baltic "šuo" with Kalasha "šua" dog, or Lith. "puš-es" pines and Waigali "puċ" pine. (see Haplogroup U4 below). The West-Satem branch relatedness is illustrated by the word for "name" - West Baltic emens, Albanian emen, and Slavic imę, vs. more Central-Satem East Baltic Lithuanian vardas.
The West Baltic Barrow culture and Trzciniec evolved into the later Pomeranian culture horizon. The West Baltic dialect area flourished with their lively amber trade with the Unitice culture and beyond. Even as late as the Early Iron Age (600 BCE), the southern limit of the large Sudovian culture territory bordered the Slavic/Scythian Chernoles culture.
Scytho-Sarmatian (Ossetic) and Slavic isoglosses can be illustrateded in Ossetic terminology of agriculture ( yoke, harvest, reaping-hook ) - in somatic terminology ( ear ), and in kinship ( sister, brother, mother, father, mother and father-in-law ). The Slavic and Mid-Iranian RUKI had much in common, as well. (re: U3)
The Neuri of Herodotus
According to Herodotus (approx 450 BCE) the Neuri ( Νέυροι ) were a tribe living North of the Tyres (Dneister river), and the furthest nation beyond the Scythian farmers along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug river). The Bug river meets the Naura (Baltic name for the Narew) river. The Naura river leads one to Galinda and Suduva.
Since trade increased recognition, the Neuri of Herodotus were possibly related to the Galindians and Sudovians. Herodotus also mentions the wild white horses nearby that grazed by a great lake, which scholars today suggest are the Podlesie marshes by the Bialowieza Forest. Yotvingian Tarpans from the Bialowieza Forest seasonally faded to near white in Winter.
In 500 BCE, Eastern Europe climate was much cooler and wetter. There is still a town in Poland named Nur ( Νυρ) { 52° 40' 0" N, 22° 18' 0" E } along the upper Bug River, near the Bialowieza Forest. The Nurzec river runs nearby, and the local district currently bears the river's name. Balts traditionally take ethnonyms from local hydronyms.
The Baltic verbal roots *"nur-" to immerse or *"niur-" to get murky may be sources of the local hydronym. Archaeologists have excavated a fortified settlement and an open settlement near Moloczki Poland, by the Nurzec river. There are probably many more yet unexcavated in "Ziemia Nurska", as the area is known as. Udmurt "nur" swamp, might contradict this theory.
The Balts of Ptolemy
The Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century A.D. mentioned only two Baltic tribal nations, the Γαλίνδαι and Σουδινοί. Romans coins (Tiberius / Caligula) unearthed in Suduva predate Ptolemy's account. Σουδινοί was possibly a typo for Σουδιυοί. (re: 'Ιατυγγιωνες). It is of interest to note that an early differentiation of dialects also took place in the Central Eastern dialects, evolving early Lithuanian / Samogitian / Latvian, at a period when the neuter gender was still common in East Baltic (Fatyanovo neuter > Finnish "kela" reel, spool / Old Prussian "kelan" wheel ).
The Western Balts
The Western Baltic dialect that later gave rise to the Sudovian, Galindian, Pomesanian, and various Prussian languages is one of the dialects of the Early-Western Baltic Area. The Coastal West Balts emerged as yet another dialect (Curonian language) of the Peripheral Early-West Baltic Area, near the bordering dialects of the Central Early-East Baltic language area. The Western Balts were a polyethnic hybrid mix of Funnel Beaker, Globular Amphora, and Corded Ware Satem peoples on a Neolithic Nemunas and Narva substratum population.
Thus, the Western Balts should include the Sudovians ( Яцьвягі ), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians, and also the Curonians, the former comprising the Southern group, and the latter, the Coastal Northern group. This explains the close similarity between Sudovian ( Yotvingian ), Galindian, Pomesanian, and Prussian. A successful modern revival of the Prussian language is now known as New Prussian. A link to their Prussian language website is provided below.
The Old Prussian Sembian dialect, though, exhibits a prolonged influence from the nearby Curonians when compared to the more distant Pomesanian or Sudovian. The Sembian dialect of the Old Prussian Catechisms has "muti, tawas" (mother, father) whereas the Pomesanian of the Elbing Vocabulary has "mothe, towis". The chronicled Sudovian "Occopirmus" similarly differs from the Catechism Sembian "ucka-".
Farther inland away from coast and Curonians, we do find Prussian "Tlokunpelk" - Bears' Marsh. Galindian did not historically border the Curonians, and was close to Sudovian in many respects.
Certain innovations (i.e., declension) that occurred in the Central Eastern dialects are not reflected in the Peripheral Western Baltic dialects (i.e., canonical set of 4 core declensional cases, re: neighboring Gothic) . Each area also had different mixtures of substratum populations involved in their ethnogenic formations, and later neighboring influences.
The Peripheral West Baltic dialects exhibit an archaic declension which gives one a unique window into both Baltics , and the "Proto"-Indo-European dialects, and their evolution. The current spoken Central East Baltic dialects are more evolved, expressive, and elegant. Bi-lingual West / East Baltic speakers adopted East Baltic rather quickly.
"The traditional academic construct of a seven case declensional system for early Proto Indo-European
is as synthetic as it is theoretically convenient." ( Jeannette DeBusk Cox )
The core four cases of West-Baltic (Prussian, Sudovian, & Galindian) declension exhibit archaic features uniting West Baltic with Germanic and Greek.
Only nominative, genitive, dative and accusative forms have constant intercrossing functions in various Indo-European languages, while forms used for the instrumental or locative cases (traditionally declared to be "Common Indo-European"), have related functions: e.g. the IE *"-ois" may occur in the instrumental case in one language and in the locative case in other ones, or *"-ō" / (apophonically) "-ē " occurs as "-āt" in the Indo-Iranian ablative and as "-it" in the Hittite instrumental.
Such intercrossing elements were used for semi-paradigmatic adverbial forms, differently paradigmatized in the various Indo-European languages. (V. Toporov, V. J. Mažiulis)
Eastern & Western Baltic
Some very archaic lexical differences exist between the Western Baltic dialects and the Eastern Baltic dialects. The word for "fire" is just such an example. The Western Balts used the word "panu", whereas the Eastern Balts used the word (Lith.) "ugnis". Another example is the word for "wheel". The Western Balts used the word "kelan", whereas the Eastern Balts used the word (Lith.) "ratas".
These words have cognates in other ancient Indo-European languages. ( For the relationship between Old Irish " roth ", Lithuanian " ratas " and Sanskrit " ratha "- see below ). That such archaic diversity of basic terminology existed within "Proto"-Baltic" illustrates the antiquity of the West / East Baltic polyethnic dialect areas inherited from the late Sredny Stog horizon (3500-3350 BCE) into the "Europeanized IE " Corded Ware Middle Dnieper culture horizon.
In regard to variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW) blood group, the frequency of the uncommon LWb gene in regions of West vs. East Balts provides solid scientific proof of an ancient genetic distinction between speakers of the two groups.
Theories of a "Proto-Balto-Slavic" split around 1,000 BCE (eg. Kortlandt 1982: 181) naively contradict the immense volume of linguistic, archaelogical and emerging genetic evidence. Latvia has eleven C-14 dates of Corded Ware Culture, with the oldest around 3360 cal. BCE (w/ 95.4% probability).
Time-travel technology has yet to be unearthed from the Latvian "boat-axe" archaeological sites. Such C-14 calibrated dating evidence only adds additional prestige to the archaic Slavic language branches.
Another key feature of West Baltic languages is the asigmatic nominative singular neuter gender ending in [ -n ]. This is noted in such words as kelan (wheel), azeran (lake), and dadan (milk). There are also many neuter gender words that end in [ -u ], such as panu (fire) and peku (livestock), as well as alu (mead).
The neuter gender exemplifies the archaic nature of the West vs. East divide in Baltic. Lithuanian still has the neuter gender in some adjectives ending in -a, -ia, or -u, as well as in Neuter Participles. For example, "Šalta" - It is cold, or "Čia jo būta" - He was here. [ re: neuter "vaška" beeswax > Finnish "vaha" ]. There is not the slightest trace of the West Baltic neuter asigmatic "n" in East Baltic Fatyanovo loanwords or modern East Baltic ( Prussian "median" vs Samogitian "medė" forest ), once again dating the West vs.
East Baltic language relationship to a pre-Fatyanovo era. [ re: > Finnish "metsä"- forest, Estonian "mets", Votic "meccä", Karelian "mečču" id, Lule Saami "miehttjēn" far away, Saami "meahcci " forest, fringe, Hungarian (!) "messze" far, distant / East Baltic " tilta " bridge - Fatyanovo neuter! > Finnish "silta" bridge, Estonian "sild ", Volgaic Erzya " śid́-al ", "se͔d́ " id < ? Skt. " sētu-" dam, dike ]
A very unique feature preserved in the West Baltic languages is the Genitive singular declensional ending in [ -as' ] for words that end in [ -as ] or [ -an ] in the Nominative case. Hittite also shared this supra-archaic feature ( -aš < -os ), as well as perhaps neighboring Gothic (nom. / gen. harjis ) nearby in the West.
This declensional ending is a proverbial monkey's wrench for expedited Balto-Slavic theories. Such a generalized declensional feature is noted in a word like Nominative singular pēdan (ploughshare), Genitive singular pēdas', or in the West Baltic Genitive singular Deivas' (God's), and in places names (re: Wilkaskaymen). The above unique features of West Baltic are relics from the Proto-Indo-European Sredny Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE).
West Baltic has the same four nominal accent classes as does Lithuanian, but it has retained the original accentual state of Baltic ( an acute rising accent and a circumflex falling accent). The first class is the acute barytone paradigm. The second is the circumflex barytone paradigm. Thirdly, the acute mobile paradigm. Lastly, the circumflex mobile paradigm.
The Archaeological Record
Reading from the archaeological record, one can associate dates of 3,200 - 2,300 BCE with various material artifacts (toy wheeled wagon) and plant ( hemp and wheat ) pollens that appear to indicate the arrival of "Baltic" speaking peoples in the region who appear gradually and slowly settled in well among native populations (Uralic Comb & Pitted Ware Cultures mixed with an older Nemunas & Narva Substratum ).
Recent archaeological finds of Triticum and Cannabis pollen circa 5600 BCE from the Akali Neolithic settlement in East Estonia (2006 A. Poska, L. Saarse) places Cannabis cultivation in the Baltic region much further back into antiquity than even the Corded Ware era.
Also, the Central-East and Far-Eastern Balts had more close contact with "Uralic" and Pit-grave "Yamna Āryan" speaking cultures than the West Balts. After 2,500 BCE, the agricultural record intensifies, as well as beginning East Baltic copper ( varis ) & bronze metallurgy near the Ural Mountains. The Fatyanovo-Balanovo-Abashevo era East Balts used the lost wax ( vaška ) technique which was an ancient metallurgic process later used by the Seima-Turbino culture horizon. ( vaška = Old East Baltic neuter ).
A forest-zone polyethnic Abashevo culture by the Urals emerged with Catacomb influenced early Eastern Balts, Volga Finns, and Pit-grave Pre-Indo-Aryans from the steppe-zone using the same process. Migrations often follow climate changes ( re: the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase ) around the 3rd millennium BCE, the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE & the 12th century BCE.
Each migration would encounter different native ethnic groups, and influence the dominant language during assimilation of those ethnic natives. Indo-European peoples & languages have ALWAYS been multi-ethnic. The new "molecular DNA archaeology" proves it beyond question. We are all related - literally.
The high incidence of Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c suggest long term relations and admixture with Finnic neighbors, which may have had a conservative influence on the East Baltic dialects and speakers. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. The contemporary East Balt-Finnic mixed population reflects the ancient INDO-URALIC Proto-language nicely.
Fatyanovo-Balanovo
The early Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture ( 3300 - 1800 BCE ) was an Northeastern extension of the East Baltic Corded Ware culture (w/ mtDNA N1a1a1) following the Oka river to the upper Volga and Kama confluence in what is now Russia. Fatyanovo developed from an early Northern variant of the Middle Dnieper culture horizon.
It is here that pottery displays a unique Fatyanovo Baltic style with mixed Corded Ware and Globular Amphorae features (see Sintashta ceramic link below). Fatyanovo migrations also correspond to regions with hydronyms of a East Baltic language dialect mapped by linguists as far as the Oka river and the upper Volga. Spreading eastward down the Volga and beyond, they discovered & exploited the copper ores of the the western Ural foothills, and started long term settlements in the lower Kama river region.
The East Balt "Paimenes" herdsmen brought their "ešva" - tarpan horse, "gōvs" - cow, "avis" - sheep, "parša" - pig (neut.), "ratas" - wheel, "tilta" - bridge, "žalga" - long fishing pole, "pōdas" of "medu" - a pot of honey, apiculture & agriculture - including "javas" - cereal grain, "šaras" - seed, along with "varis" - copper metallurgy, and a "tūšantis" of their "Dainās" - a thousand Holy Songs of their Spiritual beliefs about Harmony "Dermė ", and the celestial "Deivas".
Fatyanovo cemetaries would sometimes have graves of not only people, but also bear ( irštva ) and other animals which are buried with ritual close by in individual graves. Solar designs ( re: Saulės Rẽtis ) commonly adorn Baltic Fatyanovo ceramics. Livestock includes cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and dogs (North Saami "šūvon") and apiculture. Excavations indicate hunting and fishing was often practiced. Two-wheeled wagons (Goldina 1999) are also typical finds ( re: ratas ), as are toy wheels.
There are a profusion of sites around the Kazan, Russia (Volga-Kama) region. The more metallurgically worked region of the Fatyanovo culture was designated as the Balanovo culture (2900-2100 BCE), from a cemetery found near the town. Balanovo cemeteries had both kurgan and flat type burials (* like Abashevo - Kuz'mina 2007, p221). The funeral chambers were wooden constructions in rectangular pits, with the deceased wrapped in birch bark or hides. Balanovo copper metallurgy has it's roots in central European cultural traditions which were ethnic contributors in the multi-ethnic "vortex" of the Middle Dnieper Cultural area. Balanovo jewelry duplicates specific designs of a Central European provenance.
East Baltic lexicon also has unique isoglosses with Central European Celto-Italic dialects, which also shared the BBC & TRB substrate found in the Globular Amphora horizon ( semti, ratas ). Like the Globular Amphora culture, Fatyanovo-Balanovo pioneers adorned their ceramics with solar designs, appreciated pork in their diet, and practiced copper metallurgy. By the 2nd quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE, the Balanovo culture and it's copper metallurgy was firmly established in the Volga-Kama Ural region.
The villages were composed of above ground wooden houses built from logs, with saddled roofs, and had fenced enclosures (Udmurt "kar "- town site, Komi "kar "- site of ancient town, Mordvin "kardaz "- enclosure, courtyard < Volga East-Baltic "gardas"- enclosure ).
East Baltic Balanovo and Finno-Uralic Volosovo peoples apparently mixed well without much conflict, as they did with steppe peoples with whom they they had contact via trade with the Caucacus metalworkers. Chuvash " jandar " and Hungarian " gyentar " - amber, " gyenta " - resin, reflect an archaic adjectival "-tar" neuter suffixed East Baltic " gentaras " < " *gentar " - amber < " *genta " - resin gum < nasal PIE *gʷet - resin ( re: Skt jatu - resin, aśvatara- mule ). East Baltic Balanovo metallurgy would provide significant impetus to Seyma-Turbino metallurgy. Komi "ram"- calm, and "erd"- field, reflect peaceful interaction with the Volga-Balts. Note Komi "rit " - evening, and Lettic "riets"- sunset.
The "pirtis" - log shed (sauna), of the pioneering Volga-Balts was evidently noticed and emulated by the locals (Mari "pört ", Saami "barta"). Finnish "Orja", - slave, Estonian [gen.] "Orja", Udmurt "Var ", Komi "Ver ", Mokša "Uŕä ", Erzya "Uŕe" - slave, indicates some later conflicts with the Āryans - as do some archaeological sites. In contrast, Saami "Oar'je", designates a direction. Variations among Saami mtDNA now show an earlier link to the Volga-Ural region.
Overlapping the Southern edge of the Balanovo region, by where the rivers flow South, another group of the Baltic-type Satem Corded Ware pottery tradition later developed that is called the Abashevo culture ( 2400 - 1800 BCE ), after a nearby village East of Kazan, Russia. The Abashevo culture exhibited strong influences from both Pit-grave and Catacomb cultures on it's Baltic-type Corded Ware traditions.
Abashevo metallurgy was proportionally less weapon-oriented than that of their Pit-grave Āryan neighbors, exhibiting more utilitarian or artistic ornamental products. That being said, Abashevo weapon metallurgy was innovative, and the designs were adopted by Andronovo cultures. Unlike the xenophobic Pit-grave Āryans of the bordering steppe, the forest dwelling Abashevo, like the Balanovo, mixed well with the local Volosovo hunters & foragers, influencing their culture in many ways. (East Baltic Fatyanovo kela, Finnish kela - reel, spindle, Fatyanovo & Lith. ratas, Finnish & Estonian ratas - wheel, North Saami ráhtis - id, Fatyanovo & Lith kepti, Saami giksa-, kopša- to cook).
The archaic East Baltic kela vs. ratas usage invites scholarly investigation. Finnish " taivas " reflects an archaic East Baltic influence still heard in " Saule noiet dievā " of the old Latvian Dainās ( re: H. Biezais, 1961 ).
Like Balanovo sites, many Abashevo settlements were also by the copper laden southwestern foothills of the Urals, and as the Volga-Kama area Balanovo East-Balts did, left ample kurgan burials, and flat graves as part of their Abashevo burial rite. Late Abashevo artifacts were found in Sintashta ( Proto-Vedic ) culture graves. Sintashta also had not only one, but two flat grave cemeteries, along with the expected more prestigious kurgans.
Sintashta ceramics display the influence of early Abashevo & Fatyanovo pottery styles, just as many Sintashta Europoid remains exhibit the dolichocephaly of Abashevans & Fatyanovans. The artifacts suggest a unique cultural exchange between polyethnic ( w/ Uralic admixture) Abashevo and Fatyanovo-Balanovo people into the Sintashta culture of Early Vedic peoples.
The nearby Volga Finnic Erzya-Moksha Mordvin language group has preserved loanwords from early Āryan, Volga-East-Baltic, and possibly a Pre-Tocharian Repin type language, which would seem to confirm the probability of such exchanges. The Volga-Sok river region by Samara has yielded Repin-influenced pottery, reflecting the Repin influenced pottery of the earliest Afanasievo kurgans. Repin pottery often had cord-impressed decoration with decorated rims on a round-based pot.
Indo-Āryan "Soma" preserved the native Uralic word for a hewn wooden trough or bowl that was used as the dried Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) was pressed with stones in water to produce a "batch" of the beverage. Amanita muscaria reflects the Sun-Moon symbolism well, especially as they rise & set smoky chestnut red (žalas).
An pioneer ethno-mycologist, R. Gordon Wasson, identified Vedic Soma as Amanita muscaria in his 1967 book, although it's legendary use was clearly Pre-Vedic. Note that both Abashevo and Volosovo ( Finno-Uralic ) culture pottery are sometimes discovered in sites side by side, inferring very close contacts (re: mtdna haplogroup U4).
The Volosovo use of talc to temper pottery is significant, since the custom of talc admixture is shared in Abashevo ceramics, and later found in Sintashta culture ceramics. Two pots, unearthed far away near Sarazm, betray their polyethnic Abashevo Ural area origination by their unusual talc admixture.
Songs of the Erzya Mordvinic thunder spirit " Pur’gine / Pəŕgəńä " parallel both traditions of Baltic "Perkūnas / Perkūnijas" and Rig Vedic " Parjanyah " closely. ( Rig Veda Book 5, Hymn 83 ). The ancient Permic Komi myth of "Pera the Giant & the Oakgrove", like Parjanya, may also reflect cultural integration or assimilation of residual Volga-Kama Balanovo & Abashevo East Balts by the Urals. Another Volga-Kama area Permic variation was noted by Y. Wickman ( Teitoja Votjaakkien Mytologiiasta, 1893, p. 33 ) as the Votiak wrathful " Perkịno ", who was offered bread, gruel, and (!) butter.
The interpretation of the phonetics of Parjanyah should consider three factors. Sanskrit " J " followed by a front vowel, as in Parjanya, matches a Baltic " G " ( Lith augu, Skt ojah ). Secondly, classical Sanskrit " parkaṭī " - sacred fig tree, has an oak tree cognate in a western Punjabi dialect, with " parg- " instead of " park- ".
In other words, the Punjab region Vedic Parjanyah can be phonetically interpreted as * Parganyah from the Iranian-like " R-only " Rig Vedic dialect < possibly reflecting a phonetic alternate * Parkanyas from a first migration "R & L" Madhyadeśa archaic pioneer dialect of "mixed" lineage populace and less than "noble" status or rank - say, perhaps, polyethnic metalworkers, artisans, farmers and herders ( the tadbhava layer ). Thirdly, Parjanya, like Vāyu and his obscure "dhēnā" < *dainā, have already been marginalized in the Punjab Rig-Veda of elite Āryan priests - with only token hymns. Āryan Indra ranks now.
Given what has been revealed from the archaeology of the Sintashta era and later, the northwestern "Punjab" Rig Vedic dialect of Parjanyah may reflect an earlier Urals region polyethnic * Perkaunyas, or * Pərgənyas, which would resemble the Erzya Pəŕgəńä, Votiak Perkịno or Baltic Perkaunijas very, very closely.
Why are the nearest cognates of Parjanya with a velar only in Volgaic, Permic, Baltic, and otherwise noticeably absent in surrounding Iranian-Dardic-Nuristani? As linguists struggle with the etymology of the Punjab Rig Vedic Parjanya, did they even consider the heresy of a polyethnic origin? Beyond the similar name itself, the very verses of each culture's related hymns ( dainās ) exactly parallel each other in a truly uncanny way.
The inclusive Perkaunijas appealed to polyethnic farmers, herders and smiths, not xenophobic warriors. Given the Fatyanovo link with Sintashta ceramics, and Corded Ware Abashevo origin of chariot cheek-pieces in the Urals, such speculation is well within reasonable parameters, even for diehard skeptics. And it is still the common farmers who welcome Parjanya. Perhaps the priests forgot, Parjanya is still the father of Soma.
The astonishing similarity of the archaic Central East Baltic (Latvian dial. example "Perkaunis" / "Perkune", and "Lietas") Dainās tradition mirrors the Eastern Fatyanovo / Balanovo Baltic culture mythology as seen with the Votiak " Perkịno " and Volgaic (Erzya "Pur’gine / Lit-ava") songs. The initial "L" vs. "R" of Lit-ava would presume early-Baltic contact, since Vedic "vṛkah" ( vs. archaic Baltic "vilkas") is associated with the loanword "vərgas" in Uralic Moksha.
Yet Ossetic does have "Lymæn" friend reflecting Mordvin "Loman" man, whereas Sanskrit has "Ramana" - man {married}. (re: Latvian "Loma"- role / Lithuanian "Luomas"- marital status, class of men). Erzya has "Paz", reflecting Vedic "Bhagas" - a legacy of the I.E. Feast Cult (Slavic "Bogъ"). The Pur’gine Paz - Lit-ava hymns are thus part of a polyethnic shared tradition.
The East Baltic " šapalas " and Indic " śaphara " (chub-carp) isogloss is indeed very interesting ( Ossetian " kæf ", Old Japanese: kwop(j)i > koi ). Sanskrit scholars have determined at least two early Vedic dialects, (the IE *L > "R" only, vs. the "R" and *L - Madhyadeśa region ), and possibly a third ( the *L only ) existed. The Rig Veda we know today is in the "R" only dialect ( Indo-Iranian coalescence of L > R ). Thus, only occasional token words remain from 2 of the 3 Vedic era dialects. Baltic had retained IE *L.
The Greek / Indo-Iranian dialect area exhibited issues with syllabic resonants ( *l, *r, *m, *n ) - as when *m and *n became a, or Greek al/la & ar/ra, or Indo-Iranian's syllabic liquids, where *l usually became *r. There remained an Indic instability with *r (ṛH), where Iranian had "ar" vs. Indic "ir, ur" - with E-W dialect variants. Examples of this are Skt. śiras vs. Av. sarah-, Grk. karā-, or Skt giri- vs. Av gairi- ( Lith girė vs Slavic gora ). The conservative Satem speaking communities of IE dialects which begat the Baltics usually evolved reflexes of semi-vowels *l, *r, *m, *n into *il, *ir, *im, *in, yet also rendered them as *ul, *ur, *um, *un after original labiovelar plosives, and later rearranged after more changes. The two different reflexes cluster in contrast - inflectional morphemes have the "i*-" reflex, whereas the "u*-" reflex is not uncommon in the expressive lexicon.
There was certainly early Āryan, as well as Catacomb culture ( merger of Genitive & Ablative) influence - interaction with the respective emerging Baltic dialects (as Middle Dnieper artifacts actually reflect, & also "javas"- grain isogloss) and with Proto-Slavic while each neighbored near the larger proto "Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian" isogloss area of dialects. (eg. Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian past tense prefix augment isogloss).
The Armeno-Aryan remodeling of the Ablative suffix helps to date influences on Middle Dnieper dialects. Another relic of this same late Sredny Stog era influence/dialogue interaction maybe the proposed loss of a laryngeal (*H ) after the introduction of a long vowel (Korlandt 1975 - re: Latv. guovs, Skt. gauh ), and of course, RUKI. The Pre-Baltics & Slavics were thus distinct early autonomous N.W. Satem IE dialects (Upper / Middle Dnieper-Don region ), and even more so after becoming "Europeanized" polyethnics. Hydronyms by Tula, Russia appear quite Baltic.
Early Satem contacts ( mtDNA T ) may have also occurred with Don-Volga Repins before an exodus of a group far to the East, which evolved into the Afanasievo culture ( Russ. "toloka", Lith. "talka / telkti", Tocharian "talke" ). Tocharian may be thus related to both the early Middle-Lower Dnieper Repins (re: Mikhailovka Dnieper Repins > Usatovo > pre-Germanics?), and the northern Don-Volga Repins that migrated the Trans-Ural region East (Latv. "veļu", Tocharian A "walu").
The cultural convergence of these various Āryan, Baltic and Uralic peoples by the Urals in the second millennium BCE is reflected in name of the annual Finnish "Kekri " celebration, which exemplfies the state of developement of the Indo-Iranian at that time - as compared with later Rig Vedic Sanskrit sg./ pl. "čakras / čakrā-", PIE * kʷekʷlos. ( Finnish "yh-deksän" 9, "1 from 10" < IIr - vs. Finnish "tuhante" 1,000 < E. Baltic ).
It is apparent from above that at mid-second millennium B.C.E., the Fatyanovo East Baltic Satem [ š ] preceded a slower developing Indo-Āryan [ ś ]. Did one perhaps influence the other? ( Mari "indeś" 9, Ossetic "dæs" 10). East Baltic Fatyanovo "žemė" lowland, was adopted as a toponym "šäme", and is now known as the "häme" region of Finland. Before the Finnic change of "š " to "h", the toponym provided an ethnonym - "Saami " aka, the Lapplanders. (Koivulehto 1993).
It is all too common to read that the Finno-Ugric loanwords for "honey" - Hungarian "mez", Mordvinic "med'", Estonian/Finnish "mesi" were not borrowed from Baltic "medu" - honey, but rather from a later Āryan "madhu" - sweet drink! Even though the same Finno-Ugrics have loanwords - Mordvin "k'eras", Mari "karas", Udmurt "karas", for honeycomb/wax - reflecting East Baltic "kār'as" honeycomb (Lith. korys), and in spite of the archaeological chronology of centuries of Balt / Finno-Ugric interaction before Āryan culture arrival.
It is noteworthy that current Bashkir preserves "kärä-", along with Altaic Kazan Tatar "käräs" in that Ural region, and even distant Chuvash has "karas" - honeycomb. The single markers of mtDNA N1a also group Bashkirs with Lithuania and the Komi Permyaks. Surprisingly, neither Slavic ( w/ solitary exception of Polish skarzyk ), nor Indo-Iranian possess a cognate. Fatyanovo-Balanovo was not some "Balto-Slavic" - it was archaic East Baltic.
Another archaic Baltic loanword into Finno-Ugric exemplifying the range of influence the Fatyanovo-Balanovo had is the East Baltic Lithuanian žalga "fishing pole" or "long pole, stick" (Arm. "jałk" rod ), which has traces in Saami čuolggu "pole for pushing a net under the ice", Finnish salko "long pole", Mordvin śalgo "stick", Komi źal "lath-stick", Hungarian (!) szál "spear, cane".
Gradual climatic warming of the vast pine-birch forests of Russia also afforded a home to the woodland bison (Bison bonasus bonasus), known in Lithuanian as stumbras, or in Old Latvian as sumbrs - which bears a odd & curious resemblance to the Sanskrit śambaras (stag). A similar semantic drift is seen with the Russian " izubr' " - stag (*jьzǭbrь, jь< vь, OP wissambrs).
Evolution of the Baltic žambras > žumbras > zumbras > sumbrs noun for the dangerous forest dwelling wisent / bison is far from being etymologically settled, although "sumbrs" is unique to East Baltic. The wisent is the largest herbivore in Europe. Excavated sites in the Baltic countries indicate wisents constituted 20% of the hunted wild ungulates. In Lithuania, there are still meadow names such as Zumbriškės by Aukštadvaris, and Žumbrickiai by Ramygala in the central Panevėžys district, whereas Stumbriškis place-names appear less archaic.
Wisents often frequent lush meadows for grazing. Archaic Satem cognates for the Carpathian bison in central Europe extend beyond Slavic examples. Niketas Choniates recorded the " ζουμπρος " (< zumbros) of 12th century Cumanians hundreds of years after the advent of Old Church Slavonic liturgical texts. The apparently Thracian ζόμβρος (< zombros) cognate dates to the same century as the beginning of formalized Old Church Slavonic literature.
Given the existing evidence of Žumbr- type place-names in Lithuania like Žumbrickiai, East Baltic (re: upė vs. apė ) obviously had a dialect variant Žumbras, but since local Finno-Ugrics were unlikely to pronounce the "ž-" or "z-" consonant, perhaps a multi-cultural Balt-Finnic term *sumbras arose (re: Old Latv. "Sumbrs") in the distant past (eg: Dyakovo culture) for the wisent. Some Balts remodeled their own cross-cultural trade contact variant ( with st-umti ) to stumbras ( ie: stirna ).
In many outlying regions after the animal disappeared, so did it's old name. Scandinavian and Slavic traders later brought in new substitute wisent names. Over thousands of years of multi-cultural interaction, the common trade term sumbrs replaced the older zumbrs variant in the Latvian region probably due to the Estonian-Finnic phonetic influence.
Modern Lithuanian still has žambras / žambris, although the semantics are now limited to a wooden plow ( Lith. žambuotas, Skt. jambhate). Regional polyethnic changes of "ž-" to "s-", as in žalga > salko, do not necessitate a convenient "taboo" in place of multi-millennial Finnic influenced cross-culture trade contact. For example, the related Baltic "tauras" is not at all uncommon in Uralic languages. The neighboring Finnic influence of "ž-" or "z-" to "s-" with zumbrs > sumbrs needs no extravagant linguistic explanation. This ain't rocket science.
Academia also attributes Finnish "porsas" pig as a loanword from an Iranian ( *pārsas ) source. Note that East Baltic "parša" pig ( neut.! ), was the signature livestock of East Baltic Balanovo culture archaeological excavations, in the very same Volga-Kama region as the later Khudyakovo group of the Pyanobor ( Udmurt " parś " boar ) culture region.
Some post-Balanovo Finnic Ananyino culture excavation sites (eg. Svinogorskoye) also favor the pig above other livestock. The Mordvin cognate may reflect "Sauromatian" (Prokhorovo) influence (eg. Khotanese "pā'sa-" < *pālsa- < *pārsa- < *parsa-). In contrast, the most conspicuous trait of the Indo-Iranian Andronovo culture is the complete absence of pigs. (re: the Sanskrit cognate of neuter E. Baltic "parša", > Estonian "pahr" < *parha).
* vẽźras > * vẽžras > vėzdras
The Finnish loanword "vasara" hammer, appears to be from a late Āryan *vazarah ( vajrah < *vazras ) without the final "s". Other Uralic terms include Karelian " vazara ", Erzya " uzjere ". The East Baltic cognates range from Lithuanian " vėzdras / vėzdas " mace, club, Latvian " vẽza " stick, club, " vẽzêt " to swing in the air, wave, "wag" < *u̯eg'. Latvian " veseris " maul-hammer, appears to be a loanword from Livonian, since the phonetics are closer to the Finnic versions than Lith. " vėzdras " mace, club. The "-d / da-" contamination of " vėz-das / vėzdras " may be from the closely related stone-less synonym " laz-da " - club, and may well have altered " * ź-da > zda " as in Lith. lazda < * laźda (Albanian lajthi, ledhi - id ).
Bored stone maces with a peculiar solar "rosette" design - ubiquitous in the Abashevo culture, have been unearthed in the Mariampolė district of Lithuania. East Balt four, five, or seven-bulbed stone bored maces are almost identical to Andronovo maces. The evolution from * vẽźras > * vẽžras > vėzdras / vėzdas appears rather old, but provides fresh new perspective to the etymology of Sanskrit " vajra " and Avestan " vazra ". The practical forest dwelling East Balt woodsmen apparently favored the utilitarian "kirvis"- axe-hammer, or " vedega "- adze more, and evidently shared them with the Finnic locals.
The early polyethnic East Balt / Finn / Pre-Indo-Iranian group would play a role in the settlement ( U. of AZ - radio carbon date average - 2026 BCE) of Sintashta / Arkaim, and later also influence the regional speakers in Iran / India, who become bilingual. Like the Huns in Central Europe, Āryan languages are marginally reflected in the gene pool of India. (re: Uralic variant of mtDNA N1a)
The Ethnogenesis of Abashevo / Sintashta / Arkaim
Abashevo pottery resembles and blends Fatyanovo and Balanovo East Baltic Corded Ware styles. Like Balanovo East Balts, the forest-zone Abashevo culture left both kurgans, and flat graves, although some burials may also reflect nearby Poltavka culture customs of the steppe-zone. This indicates a transitional group of Corded Ware populace of mixed affinities with an emerging Āryan elite (Mokša "azor ", Erzya "azuru" man of rank; Udmurt "uzər ", Komi "ozir " rich < "asura" - IIr ). Poltavka & Abashevo complexes of the Novokumak horizon coexisted by the Volga.
This widespread polyethnic (kulturnaya obshchnost’) Abashevo populace invites varied interpretation by differing viewpoints of different stages - resembling the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Abashevo defies oversimplification for convenience' sake. An expert on the Abashevo culture, A. Pryakhin, deduced that it evolved from contacts between Fatyanovo / Balanovo (Balts) and Catacomb / Poltavka (Pit-grave Āryan) peoples in the Ural forest-steppe. Most Abashevans were, like Fatyanovo / Balanovo, narrow faced and dolichocephalous - contrasting somewhat from the Catacomb / Pit-grave / Poltavka cranial & physical type.
Were the Abashevo culture people Āryan, or East Baltic, or partly Finno-Ugric? ... Yes.
Sintashta intensifies the regional forest-zone copper metallurgy of the Corded Ware Abashevo and the earlier pioneering Balanovo East Balt metalworkers.
Balanovo copper ( varis ) metallurgy in the Urals had become an attractive alternative to the then destabilized Carpathian sources, drawing the attention of southerly (Saami "Oar'je") Volga Pit-grave Āryans who had endured cyclic periods of drought. The Urals quickly became a major metallurgic center. Sintashta stock-breeding reflects the earlier Abashevo Corded Ware culture, as does some of it's metallurgic products, and flat graves. The Sintashta slightly concave knife-sickles are connected to the Abashevo polyfunctional ones (Skt. " kṛpā- ", Latvian "cirpe", Lith " kirpe-" ).
Many Sintashta remains were dolichocephalous europoids, like the forest-steppe Corded Ware Abashevans, and earlier Fatyanovans, while others resemble Pit-grave / Poltavka types. In fact, kurgans only accounted for about one third of the burials at Sinatashta (Epimakhov 2002). E. Kuz'mina (The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, Volume 3, p 222) suggests Sintashta was not purely Āryan in composition, and quite possibly bilingual. Over a period time, the cultures consolidated by the need for mutual co-operation.
The later stage of the polyethnic populace of Abashevo & Sintashta cultures may give an insight to the language of Proto-Indo-Iranian (Pre-Vedic/Avestan Sintashta). Remains of the Pokrovskij type continue dolochocephaly and narrow faces, with additional admixture of Uralic types detected in that group. The Arkaim / Sintashta area sites correspond to the Avestan Vara of the arriianəm vaējō.
Reflecting it's polyethnic populace is Finno-Ugric Hungarian var "fortress", Saami var "village" and East Baltic Lithuanian varas "tall timber palisade, stockade". Arkaim and Sintashta are also shaped like Central European "Rondels". The circular or oval settlement designs are very reminiscent of earlier Tripolye / Dnieper sites, or later East Baltic fortresses (eg. Tushemlya ).
The dolichocephalous, narrow faced Volga-Balts originated from the Northern Fatyanovo variants of the earlier Middle Dnieper culture, which had assimilated some Tripolye C2 substrata. Here is perhaps an example of a East Baltic term "varas" ( timber stockade ) borrowed in Finno-Ugric, Vedic, and Avestan. In stark contrast, the later Āryan Petrovka phase preferred a rectangular settlement shape over the circular or oval forts of the Urals, yet still exhibit influence from western Abashevo. Abashevan socketed spear designs eventually end up in western China via Andronovo influence.
The archaeological evidence of both Finno-Ugrians & Balts in the ethnogenesis of the Abashevo / Sintashta / Arkaim cultures has provided scholars with linguistic opportunities in studies of the early Indo-Iranian dialects and in Finno-Ugric / Baltic etymologies.
The Avestan and Vedic combinations of neuter plural nouns, or multiple single and plural nouns, with the verb in singular reflects archaic Baltic constructions (Lith. "beržorai esti "). Just as Lithuanian dialect "pantas" - a crossbeam, provides insight to the origins of Greek "pontos" - sea (spanning ports) - Latin "pontis" bridge, Armenian "hown" - a riverbed (ford) - a new etymology of Sanskrit "panthās < panthas" - road, is also thus enhanced. ( re: Khanty-Ostyak - "pənt" path, vs. Mokša "pandaz" bridle ).
It is very important to keep in context the limited duration of this cultural horizon. Here is a key that may unlock many doors. It is a very unique horizon (chapter) of Eurasian and Russian prehistory, when early Vedic traditions blend with Finnic and East Baltic cultures ( re: DRD2 data). The bond between Tolstoy and Gandhi renewed a forgotten ancient kinship, and the world is the better for it.
There has been noted a widespread hybrid ceramic tradition of Fatyanovo, Abashevo, and Pozdnyakovo cultures, reflecting intimate polyethnic relations (re: mtDNA haplogroups U4 and T1 ). The Sintashta Culture was not monolithic, but rather a regional composite of various components. If Corded Ware Abashevo influenced and integrated with the Sintashta area people, did it also influence their Āryan language? (re: Eastern Sanskrit "r" & "l" dialects).
Indic-Baltic specific isoglosses (eg. śāpa- / šapas, miśra- / mišras) may need updated reappraisals in light of the unfolding archaeological evidence of Abashevo influence and ethnic presence. Latvian "sence" mussel, matches Sanskrit "śaṅkha" conch, rather well. The Sanskrit suffix - "inga-" (Skt. sphulinga-, spark) looks peculiarly Baltic (ie. Lith. "blezdinga" swallow).
The " šapalas " and " śapharas " (chub-carp) isogloss is quite unique, and curiously percise. Indic " śapharas " may well be an identifiable relic-loanword from the East Baltic Corded Ware Abashevo-Balanovo-Fatyanovo " šapalas ", since it is altogether absent in Avestan, or Ossetic (" kæf "), or other Petrovka derived Āryan languages. There is no cognate of East Baltic " šapalas " in the Catacomb culture derived languages, or even Slavic, for that matter.
The Perkūnijas, Parjanyah, Pəŕgəńä, Perkịno shared tradition is a delicate issue, since each is venerated to this day in their respective cultures. One may note that all three are very close in certain details. The East Baltic "*laitus" rain (Lith. "lietas, lietus") tradition with lightning. East Baltic " *Laita " may have been an archaic term for Summer / "rainy" season (re: Slavic "Lēto" year) which followed the return of Pleiades, before the northern migrations of Balts. The Erzya "Lit-ava" in their Prayer Hymns remained intact. Modern Pashto has "Perūney" - Pleiades (re: Greek "Keraunos", Slavic "Perun", all lacking a velar ). For the mushroom / Perkūnas relationship, see V. N. Toporov 1979.
Parjanya is the father of Uralic Soma. Perkūnas was to be the groom of the aquatic Laumė Indraja - Lith. hydronyms Indus, Indra, Indura (Mitanni "Indara", Skt. "Indu"). The Laumė Indraja is a mushroom teacher. And to uphold respect about these cultures, and to be as accurate as possible, I will only use the term "shared". That much is a fact.
The everyday bilingualism between the East Balts and Āryans in that culture is highly probable, considering their similar ( at times identical ) vocabularies and grammar. The cultural continuity of metallurgy in the Ural region that started with Balanovo continued with Abashevo, and was intensified at Sintashta and Arkaim. The artifacts reflect their co-operation with each other.
The chance of trace Baltic loanwords in old Indo-Iranian has shifted from unthinkable, to highly probable. Mainstream archeaological academia has reviewed the collective material evidence thoroughly and is quite confident in their evaluations of it. Archaeology, linguistics, and archaeogenetics are only now revealing this untold story. The scientific evidence is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss. Even Global Warming, as well, has some expected (air-conditioned) skeptics.
Suggested readings include: The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, Volume 3, By Elena E. Kuz'mina, edited by J. P. Mallory, p 222, Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands 2007 ISBN: 978 90 04 16054 5 , and The Horse, The Wheel, and Language, by David W. Anthony, Princeton University Press, ISBN10: 0691058873.
PIE *dei - > Dainā > Dhēnā > Daēna > Dēn
Vedic Sanskrit has the somewhat (15 times) obscure word "Dhēnā", meaning "hymn, song", which reflects East Baltic "Daina", meaning "dance > song". From IE *dei- ("move, spin, whirl") we have Latvian "deinis" dancer, "daiņa" restless person, "dainēt / daināt" to dance, sing, "deja" dance, Lithuanian "dainuoti "to sing" clearly illustrating the core Baltic etymology (It is also attested in West Baltic toponyms). But Vedic "Dhēnās" hymn-prayer, lacks any such "dance" etymology.
The Avestan "Daēna" ( Middle Persian "Dēn" ) is even more semantically vague - "that which is revealed, revelation". This implies a loanword, and like in Vedic - a word without a clear etymology. The closet indigenous Indo-Iranian cognate is Avestan "Dian", meaning "fast". Scholars interpret the actual pronunciations of the old Vedic Sanskrit "Dhēnā" and Avestan "Daēna" as "Dainā". Hello!!! By following this thread, the shroud of the past unravels, and finally falls apart.
There is only one (!) Rig Vedic hymn to Vāyu "wind" (Skt. nom. "Vāyus" < *Vējus, Lith. dialect "Vėjus"), which is otherwise called Vāta. Iranian Ossetic "wad " and Ob-Ugric Mansi loanword "wōt " indicate the primacy of "Vāta" usage in the early Indo-Iranian dialects, as Alanian "vayuk" giant ( Lith. "Vėjūkas "), appears to be a loanword. (note Skt. "vāhin" & Latv. "āzinis"). Note that Dhēnā is also used in the rare Vāyu hymn (I, 2, 3-).
Vāyu is closely associated with Parjanyah & Soma. Ancient Rig Vedic "Uṣas" and today's East Baltic Ūšas / Ūštun - "dawning / to dawn" illustrate the challenges. Vedic, like Baltic or Greek, often made an adjective into a noun by just moving the stress to another syllable, although in this case, Rig Vedic "Uṣas" has the adjectival accent. In other words, Uṣas = Ūšas, but no one writes about it (re: Skt. uśras / Lith. ūšras / OCS za-ustra). Neither OIT advocates, or closed-minded ethnocentric Balticists condone consideration of such affinities.
The Rig Veda uses the word "Dhēnās" for hymns but does not emphasize it, although that connection is later implied as such by Avestan "Daēna". From the new archeaological and archeaogenetic evidence of the polyethnic ethnogenesis of the Abashevo and Sintashta populace, it is not linguistically unreasonable to deduce that the Dainā "dance > song > hymn" tradition of the assimilated Abashevo Balts was adopted as the term Dhēnās "hymns, songs" by their fellow Āryan metalworkers near the Urals during a period of bilingualism, and was used as such later in the Rig Veda.
From IE *dei- ("move, spin, whirl") developed East Baltic "Dainā" - song / hymn, which was borrowed as Vedic "Dhēnā" - hymn / prayer, Avestan "Daēna" - revelation, Middle Persian "Dēn - religion. The word "dena" - religion, is still used in Kashmiri. Arabic "Dīn" ( دين faith, religion ) is beyond the scope of this topic.
Little did the stubborn Balanovo East Baltic forest-folk singing their Sacred Hymns of Divine Revelation (Dainās) near the "Country of Towns" by Sintashta in the Urals of 2,100 B.C.E. know how far their songs would travel, and for how long they would echo - up to this day. It is also suggested that Uralic "Panga", "fly agaric, entheogen { žalas - when dried }" is the source for the Sarmatian-Avar loanword in Slavic Polish "Pienka", Russian "Пенька" - "hemp, entheogen" ( < Finno-Ugric "Pəηk", via Sarmatians & Avars w/ U2e1 ). Ar prisiėdęs musmirių. Latvian "baka" < Livonian "paekā". The Volgaic Erzya "Rav-ava" - mother Volga, Volgaic Mokša "Rava" - river, and East Baltic Lithuanian "Ravas" - stream, or Latvian "Rāva" - marsh water, correlation is worthy of note. (Lith. "Rauti " - to run quickly, > s+rava > srava- flow )
The Baltic & Finno-Ugric in Vedic Sanskrit / Avestan
The mythical Avestan ten month winters and "Vara" legend, Āryan "Soma / Haoma" ( Volgaic Erzya, Mokša "Sjuma / Səma" hewn wooden trough, Estonian "Soim" hewn wooden manger, Khanty "Soma" mortar), Sanskrit "Śarabha" ( Mansi "Suorp", Mokša "Sjarda" ), the Avestan water goddess Anāhitā in a Northern forest's beaver furcoat (re: Finno-Ugric "mother-beaver" cult) , and the many Finno-Ugric loanwords from both early Pre-Indo-Aryan ( Finnish kekri ) and Volga-East-Baltic ( Finnish ratas ) uphold the archaeological findings. Soma is the guardian spirit of the North. U4 is U4. A multi-disciplinary approach combining archaeology, linguistics, and archaeogenetics together are yielding scientific results. The old tale of blind men describing an elephant illustrates this well.
That there is possibly a Ural-Baltic "Daina" or " Ratas " in Rig-Vedic or Avestan should not come as a surprise, considering Finno-Ugric ( re: Soma ) is indisputably present. (re: Khanty "Soma" )
Indo-Aryan "Soma" preserved the native Uralic word for a hewn wooden trough or bowl that was used as the dried Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) was pressed with stones in water ( Skt. "saumya"- soft ). Balts (N1a) to this day still partake dried Amanita muscaria with milk & honey, as they have done for well over four thousand years. It is "Senasis Takas"- The Ancient Way.
Such drift of semantics can be heard even today in the English phrase "Do you want to do a bowl?"
The Āryan Soma of the Urals eventually became a generic term to identify a entheogen.
Finding Baltisms ( ntr. pl., or multiple sg. w/ sg. verb ?, the -yu- / -ju- ) or specific loanwords will be next to impossible, especially without the displaced Vedic era "*R" & "*L" middle dialects (e.g. ślokas - Madhyadeśa region ) of earlier migrations.
The integration of the polyethnic Corded Ware Abashevo into the Sintashta cultures may have not had a significant impact beyond contributing their earlier equine cheek-pieces & Ural metallurgy, but it is probable they did leave other cultural traces (including DNA, ratas, daina ) as well - to the chagrin of vested academics. Why does East Baltic " šapalas " match Indic " śapharas" (chub-carp, re: koi / kæf ) so nicely, and as with other word matches, cognates are wholly absent in Avestan, and Slavic? Also, Skt. śāka-, Lith šėkas - green grass.
That a central European culture (3,400 BCE - Baden / Globular Amphora) centered new "wheel" term ( Old Irish masc. sg. roth / pl. rothai, Latin neuter sg. rota / pl. rotae, Albanian diminutive w/ th from a * t > sg. rreth / pl. rrathë ), reflected in Corded Ware East Baltic baritone masc. sg. ratas / pl. ratai , was loaned into Finnic languages is uncontested (re: Finnish ratas, North Saami ráhtis ), but where does an Āryan baritone masc. sg. "ráthas" - vehicle figure in the pre-Sintashta (2,100 BCE) Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian shared lexicon? It doesn't.
Bronocice Poland - Pot pre-3500 BCE - Farmer's Wagons
And why would Indo-Europeans need to rename the wheel? ( PIE * kʷekʷlos ). Perhaps the assimilated European farmers did it. East Baltic Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( 3200 - 1800 BCE ) copper metallurgy in the Urals has it's roots in central European cultural traditions ( re: Globular Amphorae ) which were ethnic contributors in the multi-ethnic "vortex" of the Middle Dnieper Cultural area.
The old Carpathian metal trade of central Europe provided for contacts and cultural exchanges between language groups like NE pre-Celts, pre-Albanians and Middle Dnieper Balts ( Albanian lopë - cow / Latvian Luops - id ), as well as Triploye C2 substratum interaction. Interaction between the central European Dniester Tripolye C2 refugees - which may also have spoken their native "Temematian" language - and the northern Middle Dnieper Tripolye C2 bi-lingual populace, may account as a medium of some unusual ( re: tauras ) archaisms, and with additional admixture of TRB, BBC, Globular Amphora, spread Corded Ware isoglosses & innovations ( plural dative "m" ) in polyethnic Middle Dnieper / Fatyanovo, as well as traditions of central European Carpathian arsenic copper metallurgy.
Arkaim and Sintashta fortifications are even shaped like Central European "Rondels". Balanovo jewelry from the Urals also duplicates specific designs of a central European provenance. The Baltic amber magical Solar Halo-Wheel, Saulės Ratas, is found distributed in central European cultures, particularly the Globular Amphora - which contributed to Fatyanovo-Balanovo, which in turn eventually contributed to Sintashta..
Saulės Ratas
Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo Ural copper metallurgy preceded Corded Ware Abashevo and later Sintashta metalworking, predating them by about half a millennium. The typical dual wheeled cart ( Lith. vežimas / ratai ) of the early East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo (Goldina 1999) metallurgist-woodsmen and Abashevo successors may have been a source of a unique northern archaic *dialect form, " ratHas > * rat'as > ratas " wheel ( *- circa 2,400 BCE Baltic), for an Āryan masculine singular " ratHas > * rat'as > ráthas ", which was transferred in the singular form to the new dual wheeled chariot of the Abashevo - Sintashta era metallurgic bonanza. One might have expected an Āryan neuter form, as T. Burrow did, or a plural form. The wheel spread faster than the flu in central Europe, and words were traded as well (Baden / Globular Amphora). In fact, the PIE *roteH2 / *rotH2os / *rotoH2s discussions are currently at a stalemate, an academic impasse. Why would Indo-Europeans want to rename the wheel? ( PIE: * kʷekʷlos )
An East Baltic loanword proposal for Sintashtan ráthas is not only linguistically practical, and etymologically grounded, it is archaeologically probable. We do know the Corded Ware Abashevo cheek-pieces were copied - but what else? Given the "boatload" of Corded Ware influenced artifacts at Sintashta and Arkaim, maybe one or two Corded Ware words leaked out. Just maybe. To quote M. Witzel (2003) quoting J.P. Mallory (2002), "there are still degrees of geo-linguistic plausibility".
"Some ornament traits let us to link Sintashta with northwest forest Fatyanovo culture".
( Oleg Mochalov - Samara State Pedagogical University, Institute for History and Archaeology of Volga region, Samara, Russia)
- The origin of Sintashta culture ceramic / Ceramic through the Millennia: methods, approaches, results -
East Balt Fatyanovo-Balanovo pioneers entered the North around 3,200 BCE, and shared their " ratas " wheel with the local Finnics (Finnish ratas, North Saami ráhtis ) on the way to the copper deposits by the Urals. About 1,000 years later, Sintashtan Āryans - after spending a couple of centuries with the Corded Ware East Baltic speaking woodsmen, ride off into the dawn of history on their new Āryan dual-wheeled " rathas " - drawn by two horses using Corded Ware Abashevo-Catacomb Multi-roller Ware inspired cheek-pieces.
Academics still dismiss the coincidence of a baritone masculine singular Āryan ráthas "spontaneously" produced in the linguistic company of Ural East Balt metallurgists who had an isolated northern archaic * dialect form ( *- circa 2,400 BCE Baltic) of baritone masculine singular " ratHas > *- > ratas " for near a thousand years since 3,200 BCE. The Catacomb culture neighbors of the Abashevo would manifest shaft graves with cheek-pieces in distant Mycenae near Athens, by around 17th century BCE. Mycenaean warriors also wore baltic amber.
The combination of kurgan and flat graves, reflecting the integration of indigenous Europeans with I.E. steppe ethnicities (re: Dniester Usatovo-Tripolye), is found in the Middle Dnieper culture, Fatyanovo-Balanovo, and Corded Ware Abashevo. Abashevo integration at Sintashta is indicated by various material artifacts. Sintashta kurgans account for about a third of the burials - the rest are, interestingly enough, flat graves.
Then there is the intriguing Perkaunijas, Pəŕgəńä, Parjanya legacy - the Sintashtan Ural elephant in the room, so to speak. Why are Parjanya cognates with a velar absent in the multitude of other surrounding Iranian-Dardic-Nuristani languages and dialects, or even closely related Slavic? (re: Pashto "Perūney", Slavic "Perun" )
The Prakrits of India also preserved related words ( the tadbhava layer ) not found in classical Sanskrit, such as Hindi "kukur- " and Lith. "kukur-", both of mushroom compound words. Was the Sanskrit (ṛH) dialect "ir/ ur" variation ( Skt. śiras vs. Av. sarah-) an innovation, or perhaps a polyethnic relic of the first migration South? It is a rich field awaiting someone to harvest it.
This approach to the polyethnic ethnogenesis of early Eurasian Pre-Vedic culture will, of course, upset some people. It's not really all that new. Such material was reviewed by W. Tomaschek in 1883 (Ausland p. 862), and discussed later by H. Arntz, S. G. Oliphant, and S. K Chatterji.
It was women who made the pottery, sang their songs, and mothers who taught language to their child. Men sometimes forget this. The mtDNA evidence should not be overlooked. As L. Koryakova and A. Epimakhov note in their "The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron ages", Balanovo culture villages consisted of above-ground wooden log houses, and in their cemeteries (flat & kurgan), men were buried on their right side (sleeping lion position), women on their left side - as per Baltic Corded Ware tradition.
After the Sintashta polyethnic horizon by the Urals, and subsequent first migration South, we find a continuity of this same Baltic Corded Ware (Abashevo?) burial custom in Tulkhar, by the Andronovo Bishkent culture (1700-1500 BCE), and the later Vakhsh and Swāt (Vedic "Suvastu") cultures. This unusual Andronovo gender dimorphism M/R F/L burial trait was even noted by J. P. Mallory & Douglas Q. Adams in their "Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture". Bishkent skulls were dolichocranial (Khodzhayov 2008), like Fatyanovo-Balanovo (Denisova 1975).
Pottery shards found at a tin miners camp on the lower Zeravshan, at Karnab, have an Abashevo style of decoration from an early phase of contact. Two pots, unearthed far away by Sarazm, betray their polyethnic Abashevo / Sintashta Ural area origination by their talc admixture. Near the tin mining camps, the Tazabagyab variant of Andronovo buried their dead in flat cemeteries, not kurgans. The Saka of the Pamirs were also dolichocranial, and narrow faced. A unique cognate for barley-seed invites further speculation ( Lith. "miežys", Khotanese "miṣṣa-, ttumäṣa- ).
The early metallurgy of the Urals had fostered a far reaching network of contact we are only now beginning to grasp and map out. Some Corded Ware traditions of the integrated polyethnic Abashevo ( w/ Uralic admixture) appear to have continued beyond Sintashta with the first of many migrations of that Āryan population South, as well as those left behind contributing in the ethnogenesis of the Timber Grave Culture. The Corded Ware Abashevo ethnic character would persist as integrated parts of some certain select groups, eventually melting away over generations, leaving only relics in the earth, inherited DNA evidence, and a few traces in later regionalized Āryan vocabularies.
The archeaological evidence suggests integration & assimilation. Haplogroup N1a (mtDNA) in the Volga-Kama Komi Permyaks indicates some farmers stayed. Recent studies regarding the DRD2 gene are producing data which show a relationship between Eurasian people near the Volga-Kama Urals area and Brahmins in India. Go figure. Uralic descendants of the Fatyanovo/Balanovo settlers preserved some of their language (re: karas), and most likely have Finno-Baltic Balanovo DNA as well.
The Eastern Balts of today have thus preserved a Continuum of Cultural Tradition for Indo-European use of the dried "žalas" Fly Agaric in collective celebratory use (such as peasant weddings) from the very mists of antiquity - before Abraham, the Shasu "YHW", or even the Rig Veda itself. The above daina / dhēnā song-hymn topic has often been muddled with the inclusion of unrelated Vedic "dhēnā" - milk cow, which is cognate with Baltic "daine" - cow (that calves in the 2nd year, re: FU * tajine) and "daini" - pregnant with offspring (Adj. of cow or mare).
Even discussions about the Dainava "dancing waters / singing rapids" region of Lithuania are not immune from such distractions. New archeaological and genetic DNA evidence continues to unveil the unexpected, as will comparative study of the ancient Latvian, Lithuanian, and varied Finno-Uralic languages like Estonian. The Light of India is all it's own - and of it's own.
The Assimilated East Baltic & Āryan in Finno-Ugric Ethnogenisis
Fatyanovo and Balanovo settlement sites scatter during the extreme Winters around 2,100 BCE, when the East Baltic speaking population for the most part assimilated in with their surrounding Āryan or Finnic neighbors ( e.g. Sintashta-Arkaim, Chirkovo-Seyma, Pozdniakovo, Timber grave culture & the much later diverse polyethnic Northern "Burtas" pig-farmers ).
Fatyanovo & Abashevo characteristics are noticed on ceramics from Chirkovo-Seyma ( > later Ananino ) culture sites near the Volga river, as well as on Sintashta culture pottery. The Ural Forests are unimaginably immense, and the Winters around 2,100 BCE were unusually long and severe ( Vidēvdāt 2,3 ). The demand for skilled metalworkers was growing fast with the Ural metallurgic bonanza.
Regional bilingualism probably persisted for centuries, reflected today in archaic residual "loanwords" ( re: Meadow Mari " tüžem " 1,000 ). Many Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture Balts assimilated ( Erzya Pur’gine & Permic Pera myth traditions ) and adopted Uralic languages and cultures, as many had done earlier with the Abashevo culture, and repeating again with the early Sarmatian ethnogenesis (w/ Gorodets admixture).
The first millennium BCE Dyakovo culture was, again, polyethnic - part Baltic, mainly Finno-Ugrian, perhaps part Sarmatian, is known from it's hillforts with palisades (E. Baltic "varas / gardas" > Volgaic "kardaz", Permyak "kar" city, town ). The building styles of log cabins in the hillforts change from North to South - above ground to semi-subterranean - reflecting Balt & Āryan building traditions.
The fibulae buckle (Mordvin "sjulgam") artifacts appear Baltic, as do many sickles and bronze headdresses. The Volsk-Lbishche culture, known from sites like Shiromasovo in Mordovia, exhibited Fatyanovo Corded Ware characteristics and was unexpectedly found far away from a excavated settlement in Tenteksor (Kazakhstan) - a northeastern area of the Trans-Caspian region.
The genetic, linguistic, and archaeological record documents a prolonged assimilation by descendants of Volga-Kama Balanovo East Balts, various polyethnic Abashevo "Āryans", and later mixed Sarmatians into the ethnogenisis of regional Finnic peoples of the Chirkovo-Seyma, Ananino, Pianobor, Pozdniakovo, and related Djakovo / Gorodets cultures. (eg. Finnish "vuosituhat" ). Volgaic ( " śid́-al / se͔d́ " bridge, Finnish "silta" id ) of an East Baltic provenance attest to ethnic movements, as well as East Baltic " balandis " - dove, Ossetian "bælon " id., Latvian " lanka " low plain, Ossetian " länk " id.
Contacts were valued - Udmurt "andan" & Ossetian "ændan"-steel. The Abashevo also played a part in the ethnogenesis of the Timber-grave culture. The single markers 187, 270, 272 of mtDNA N1a1a1a group Bashkirs with Lithuania and the Komi Permyaks. Elevated R1a1 (haplogroup R-SRY10831.2, aka SRY1532.2) is found not only with the Erzya, but also with the Bashkirs (38-48%) of the Urals, who still harvest their ancient "kärä- " honeycomb.
The region's surviving autonomous Baltic speakers assimilated again in the 5th century A.D. as new Slavic type cultural groups filtered in from the South, although in some areas Baltic speakers remained intact as evident from the historic record. The new Slavic speakers (Komi " rot'ś ") followed the same path into Russia as the old Fatjanovo-Balanovo era East Baltic speakers did three thousand years before the Slavic immigration. The Old Russian Ipatiy Compilation of Chronicles mentions that in 1147 the Prince of Rostov-Suzdal defeated the Golyad' ( ГОЛЯДЬ ) who lived by the River Porotva.
The Golyad' < * Golędь ethnonym was derived from a Baltic hydronym * "galin-" meaning "deep water". For more info, see Marija Gimbutas here. Today, the family of related decendants of all these mixed forebearers can be seen in Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, as well as in Russians, the Erzya / Moksha Mordvins, Mari, Permics, Bashkirs, Ural Tatars, and Indians. ॐ
Balto-Slavic
The late Sredny Stog Middle Dnieper Culture grew from conservative peripheral IE dialects related to Yamna Satem, with admixture of different assimilated indigenous peoples from Dnieper Donets and the Tripolye culture of Central Europe, as well as Globular Amphorae contributors ( w/ TRB, BBC), and a host of others (re: Mikhailovka Dnieper Repins).
The ethnogenesis of these distinct dialects with assimilated indigenous peoples formed various diverse regional "Baltio-Slavic" speakers, which were localized as the polyethnic "Europeanized" peripheral Satem dialects of Baltic and Slavic closely related to early Pit-grave Āryan, yet distinctly different even then, with diverse degrees of admixture.
The Balto-Slavic Middle Dnieper culture was a fusion of ethnic groups - a melting pot - so to speak, with a "retro" core Satem dialect (archaic Balto-Slavic lacks perfect reduplication - agreeing with Albanian. Hamp 1963). The unique peripheral components of the Middle Dnieper culture, say the early East Baltic Fatyanovo, migrated away before a homogenization of that Middle Dnieper Satem lingua franca could consolidate. ( E. Baltic kur, kame, W. Baltic kuei, Slavic kъde ).
The Y-STR variation among Slavs* has given the evidence for the Slavic homeland near the middle Dnieper basin, which provides a geographic correlation for the Slavic linguistic correlation to the early Satem East Baltic Upper Middle Dnieper homeland, and the nearby Pit-grave Āryans to the East.
During the period (3,400 BCE) of the oxen pulled wheeled wagon revolution, the Yamna culture slowly expanded toward the edge of the Corded Ware horizon of late Sredny Stog culture. The Eastern area of the contact zone, near the middle Dnieper, a later polyethnic Slav / Iranian ethnogenesis would develope the (Komarov > Chernoles culture).
A separation of Belarus subpopulations along a North / South line can be demonstrated particularly in distribution of Y chromosomal lineages R1b, I1a and I1b, N3 and G-chromosomes. The uniqueness of the northern Belarusian population is most likely due to the high incidence of Яцьвягі Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c [old name N3] (homogeneous Baltic Яцьвягі substrate with allele DYS19*15), which is twice the frequency as in central and southern Belarus.
The central and southern Belarusian substratum Baltic Milograd physical traits differ somewhat from Ukrainian substratum Slav/Scytho-Sarmatian traits (re: U3). The assimilation of Belarus may have been mainly linguistic and less physically ethnical.
The Autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov Culture
The autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov culture complex of the Podolian Upland bordered the Trzciniec and Sosnitsa (early peripheral Baltic) complexes to it's far North, but appears culturally related to the Montreoru (early Dacian) complex to it's near South in regard to burial rites and pottery. (also see Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs; 1985, by Oleg N. Trubačev). Native Pre-I.E Tripolye culture farming populace ("Temematian") were assimilated also, as they were to a somewhat lesser extent with Middle Dnieper Baltic.
The unique close relation of early Slavic origins to Proto Indo-Iranian, and later, Dacian and Thracian, are often lost to the worn out Balto-Slavic chorus of cliches. After the arrival of the Huns (w/ G, V, mtDNA N1a, U4) in Europe, and a devastating plague in the 6th-7th century A.D., post-Cherniakhov culture Slavic soon became the lingua franca of commerce / trade throughout most of Central Europe and beyond.
A polyethnic ethnogenesis interpretation (Proto-Slav Komarov > Chernoles culture) helps to explain why Slavic has partial elements of a dialect of an early autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov culture language, and was distinct from the Baltic (Trzciniec culture) languages bordering to the North. The archaeology also agrees with regional hydronyms of a decidely Slavic provenance (vs. Trzciniec Baltic) as proposed by the renowned Russian philologist Oleg N. Trubačev.
It also explains some of the Slav / Iranian religious vocabulary as well ( re: Pashto "Perūney", Slavic "Perun" ) as the higher frequency of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 in many Slavs from the Yamna culture genetics and detection of common Slav / Iranian mtDNA types. Also, the later Sarmatian presence near the Dnieper by Kiev was enormous (re: mtDNA U3). In the Ukrainian gene pool, six Y-dna haplogroups are revealed: E, F (21.3% / including G and I), J, N3 (9.6%), P, and R1a1.
Northeast European Slavo-Sarmatians (Poles, Russians) are not merely romantics, as Saka kurgan (mtDNa N1a1a1) genetics bear out - although historical Sarmatians ("Śarmis") included Uralic admixture (N3 / U4). Note Udmurt "andan" & Ossetian "ændan"-steel. The tripartite division of the Slavic languages may reflect latent regional dialects within the Proto-Slav Komarov culture territory, designated by hydronyms of a Slavic provenance.
Kelan / Kolo / Ratas
Does this support the construct of a so-called "Balto-Slavic" region or horzon of anciently related initial dialects like Satem "Armeno-Aryan" or the more distant Centum "Celto-Italic" ? Probably. The distance between Slavic & Baltic each to early Satem Indo-Iranian (Pit-grave Āryan Satem) is not as great as such labels would imply.
One can also easily group together Satem "Baltic-Slavic-Indo-Iranian" with "RUKI" & declension ( loc.Pl. ending *-su ) considerations. They were all in obviously close contact by horseback or river travel. But if there never was a monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se, how can you ever have a monolithic Proto "Balto-Slavic" amid the chaotic multiculturalism of the Middle Dnieper horizon? Early Corded Ware East Baltic Fatyanovo sites in Estonia date to 3,000 B.C.E. The different Balts are even physically distinct around that time.
The Baltics and Slavics were already well differentiated and autonomous (e.g. separate mythologies & RUKI, archaic divergent vocabularies ) yet close to one another with the adoption of the wheel "kelan / kolo / ratas" (3,200 BCE). Zaza "ləzga", Ossetian " лæдзæг " - branch, Russian dialect " ляэга ", vs. Lith " laz-da " (Albanian ledhi - id ). Note Slavic "a" - and, but, reflects an ablative form of a pronoun (Avestan " āt "- then, and). Archaeologists have not found the archetypal "Balto-Slavic" settlements per se, probably because each branch group were formed and influenced in different NE. / W. / S. regions (re: ratas / kelan / kolo) of the Middle Dnieper culture by a diverse admixture of various peoples and influences, albeit somewhat near each other.
Of course they are related. Balto-Slavic is a generic generalization of a brief "Europeanized " Satem linguistic horizon, like "Armeno-Aryan" (remodeled ablative suffix, etc) - but initially more polyethnic. The idealized unified "Proto-Balto-Slavic" Satem dialect probably pertains to an earlier pre-Middle Dnieper Culture peripheral area somewhere bordering Pit-Grave groups, and in contact with northern Repin dialects for awhile, perhaps farther East, by the Don river. But Baltic, like Slavic, are in fact, products of multiculturalism. E Pluribus Unum.
Proto-Slavic and the more northern early Baltics were partially composed of assimilated Dnieper-Donets and acculturated later Tripolye peoples emulating the Yamna-like I.E. Satem speakers of peripheral related Sredny Stog dialects, among a multi-ethnic converging cultural vortex of others (TRB, Globular Amphorae, CWC polyethnics), and with more admixture later where they would settle. With the mobility of wheels, changes were occuring rapidly - isolation was fading fast.
The Slavic nominative neuter appears to resemble East Baltic more the West Baltic, although Slavic agrees with West Baltic more in other respects. Like Wild West movies, debates on Balto-Slavic have had a duration longer than the original horizon probably lasted!
The close affinity of Satem Slavic & Baltic to Yamna related Indo-Iranian can be no surprise, nor their distinctive 'European" polyethnic accents. The fiction of ethnic or racial "purity & superiority" is clinical insanity. It seems the growing early pre-IIr. Yamna and Eastern Baltic dialect areas moved Northward as did the early West Balts, as the Thracians, Dacians, Pre-Albanians, and Slavs, who migrated southwestward, assimilating various Central European non-IE native peoples into their cultures.
Thereafter, the original Slavic future tense (which was perhaps similiar to Baltic & Indo-Iranian) was lost while assimilating Dniester Tripolye C2 populace - as did the neighboring Germanics, who had replaced the future tense as well. (It now appears that Winter's Law also applies to Albanian, which draws the probability of including Thracian into serious academic consideration).
The early Pre-Proto-Slavic dialect was perhaps near to, or on a peripheral inter-ethnic "dialogue" border ( RUKI of Slavic / Mid-Iranian ) of early (prior to coalescence of *l > *r ) Pre-Timber Grave / Pre-Proto-Iranian (by Mid-lower Dnieper River basin), but also evolved within a emerging polyethnic Balto-Slavic dialects accent region due to non-IE substratum admixture. Slavic loss of word-final *-s probably had a "visarga" stage ( *-s > *-h > * ) resembling Indo-Iranian. Culturally, the innovative regional I.E. Potlatch Feast Cult (Slavic "Bogъ", Vedic "Bhagas", Greek "Phagein") did not gain traction with the rustic nearby Early Baltic Steppe-Forest Dwellers.
An earlier hypothetical "Balto-Slavic" dialects "Dnieper Basin Accent" (DBA) of the Middle Dnieper Culture area would be at least later-Sredny-Stog era, followed by a gradual Pre-Proto-Slavic westward steppe trajectory.
Maps indicating the location of the ("Temematian") non-IE Tripolye (Cucuteni-Trypillian) Culture of Dniester farmers compared with maps of the Proto-Slavic language region (based on hydronyms) parallel each other closely, although there is at least two thousand years between each horizon. Herodotus describes "Scythian farmers" where once were only Tripolye culture farmers. On either side of the early Slavics were lively trade partners of early Germanics to the Northeast , and early Baltics to the Northwest - both of which were also polyethnic to various degrees.
If the Corded Ware "Europeanized " isogloss of Dative Plural - "M" occurred as an areal innovation due to substratum influence, it probably started with the assimilation of ( originally non-IE European ) Dnieper basin peoples now of mixed affinities ( Tripolye C2, Sofievka & Globular Amphora ), and spread at a very early formative stage of the Germanic / Slavic / E+W Baltic development. The Sanskrit alphabet long ago anticipated the natural progression of B to M. Assimilation often accompanies innovation.
It is interesting, given the above, that both polyethnic ( Dniester Tripolye C2 ) neighboring Centum Germanics and Satem Slavics replaced the original future tense construct of "-s-" (re: relics - Slavic "byšęšteje", Czech "probyšucny "), as opposed to the Italo-Celtics as well as the more eastern Baltics, who shared borders and the original future tense with "-s" with the early Satem Āryan Yamna cultures. A example of Baltic "s" future may be seen in Lith duos < * dōH3s < * doH3s ( Lith dial. dōs ). The mtDNA reflects such a scenario, but whether it happened like this is anybody's guess.
The influence of Dnieper Donets or the Tripolye substratum in the DBA, or RUKI, has not been given the attention it deserves. The assimilation of regional Baltic speakers also influenced various Slavic languages, such as the Milograd (E. Slavic jas'en' vs. jesen - ash tree), Kolochin, and Yotvingian cultures in Belarusian, the large-scale East (& West!) Baltic substratum in the Old Novgorodian territory, the Pomeranian presence in West Slavic, Dnieper-Dvina East Balt foundation of the Tušemlja culture (which later included immigrant Sudovians and Slavs in the Long Barrow culture), and the widely scattered East Baltic speaking tribes in Western Russia.
In contrast, specific lineage characterized by 16304C-16311C mutations, which indicate the Slavonic migrations from Central to E. Europe, was not found among Lithuanians. It also is important to note that populations shrink dramatically as one goes back in time. Proto-Indo-European may have had less than 70,000 people.
Theories about dating the earliest Proto-Slavic in relation to the distinct early Baltic branches need to examine the carbon dated chronology of East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultural remains ( 3200 - 1800 BCE ), Baltic hydronyms in Russia such as the Oka river, the loss of the original Slavic Future tense, and Baltic loanwords (from assimilated East Balts) in Finno-Volgaic which help date the evidence.
Examples of archaic Baltic loanwords into Finno-Ugric are: East Baltic Lithuanian žalga "fishing pole" > North Saami čuolggu "pole", Finnish salko "long pole", Hungarian (!) szál "spear, cane" or Lithuanian šaras "fodder" > Moksha Mordvinian śora "grain" < ? Saka ṣara "seed". Another Finno-Ugric loanword from Fatyanovo-Balanovo East Baltic "forest-border" is > Finnish "metsä"- forest, Estonian "mets", Karelian "mečču" id, Saami "meahcci " forest, fringe, Hungarian (!) "messze" far, distant / vs. OCS "mežda" - alley, lane.
Words to the wise about any theoretical "Balto-Slavic" dates - "Caveat emptor", and compare it to all the facts we already know from empirical science. There are Latvia's eleven C-14 cal. dates of CWC with the oldest around 3360 cal. BCE. No time-travel technology has yet been found with those CWC artifacts to validate the possibility of other proposed dates of a "Proto-Balto-Slavic" by certain academics.
Fatyanovo East Baltic developed from an earlier Northeastern forest variant of the Middle Dnieper culture horizon, while Southwestern Proto-Slavic steppe variants were emerging at the same time elsewhere. Each were regionally distinct (forest / steppe), yet related hybrid retro-core Satem cultures of diverse cultural components. Neither group ever identified themselves with the chronically xenophobic "Āryan" terminology (re: Mansi "tas", stranger).
The more conservative Northern Satem groups preferred to use the IE inclusive term "Tauta" (people), or "liaudis" (re: Russ "ljudi", Khowar "roi"). The facts speak for themselves. Unsupported misinformation is a disservice to serious Slavic studies. Balto-Slavic, like Indo-Uralic, is a useful generalization of a linguistic horizon, and generic at best.
For an example of the archaic nature of the Baltic / Slavic relationship.
There never was a monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se. Note the LWb gene analysis below. The various West / East Baltic, Thracian, & Slavic languages (along with the Indo-Iranian branch) represent an archaic continuum of remnants of former core Satem I.E. dialects, the last Proto Indo-European branches to finally split. The "Proto-Baltics" would be none other than some "Proto Satem Indo-European" dialects together with the closely neighboring Satem Proto-Thracian, Proto-Slavic, and Proto-Indo-Iranian. It may be more helpful to visualize East Baltic as part of the still growing main Satem trunk, rather than as another language branch. Kas bus, kas nebus, bet žemaitis nepražus.
The LWb gene / BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype
In respect to hematological variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW) blood group, the frequency of the uncommon LWb gene was highest in the Central East Balts, around 7.5% among Lithuanian Samogitians, and very low among the other western Europeans (0-0.1%). # The LWb Blood Group can be seen as a genetic Tribal Marker of Prehistoric Central East Baltic Migrations and Admixture, and perhaps not a West-Baltic marker, since inhabitants of the Sūduva region average only a mere 2.7% (vs. 2.9% for Finns or 4% for Estonians!) - even after over 600 years of continuous Lithuanian colonization and admixture. ( For those who still think all Sudovians "vanished", please reread the prior sentence. ) Genetic structure analyses suggest Poles from Suwalszczyzna (northeastern Poland) differ from all remaining Polish and Russian samples.
The Western Balts were a hybrid mix of Funnel Beaker, Globular Amphora, and Corded Ware Satem peoples with Uralic Comb & Pit Ware people on Neolithic Nemunas and Narva substratum populations. Archaeologist today can distinguish "Europeanized" West Balt culture skulls from those of nearby neighboring Satem East Baltic Fatyanovo types. The distinction was evidently more than just grammatical.
The myth of Terra Nullius ( deserted wasteland ) was merely historic ethnocidal propaganda, justifying centuries of Papal Conquests, Atrocities, & Theft - in both the Old, and the New World. It was a lie, and DNA now proves it was only ethnic cleansing fiction. A census by the Orthodox clergy of the Belarus Grodno area in 1860 had as many as 30,929 inhabitants identifying themselves as Yatviags (Yotvingians). Another Baltic migration marker may be a significantly increased frequency of the BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype.
The spread of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 is associated with the spread of the Indo-European languages, too. Many Latvian plaid weavings are nearly identical to ancient Tocharian plaids / tartans found recently with Tocharian mummies (w/ U4) recovered in Western China. (see "Secrets of the Silk Road"). Tocharians were evidently also dedicated hemp farmers, like the Balts and historical "kapnobatai" Thracians.
East Baltic Lithuanian "beržorai" (birch clumps) reflects the Tocharian B. distributive suffix /-ār/ perfectly. Slavic also has such a parallel arboreal related suffix. It would be worthy to note that some Dnieper culture horizons exhibit a degree of intrusive Repin style pottery from Middle Dnieper Repins. Repin pottery often had cord-impressed decoration.
A high frequency of the CCR5-D32 allele in Lithuanian populations, at levels of about 16% has been documented. This allele confers resistance to HIV (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).
Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews have also interested geneticists, since they display a number of unique genetic characteristics.
SONGS OF THE FOREST
Traditional ancient Baltic songs ( Lith. Dainos, Latv. Dainās, re: Vedic "Dhėnās" ) are a vast resource of the Baltic languages. The Dainos are the Rig Veda of the Baltic people. They are usually Hymns of stanzas, many of which are divine revelations from the ancient Native Religion and Mythology, but in contrast to most other similar forms, they often lack earthly heroes. These ancient Hymns are superb relics of the pre-Christian Native Religion and the life of the people, especially its' three important events - birth, weddings and death/burial, but also life's infinite experiences.
Dod, Dieviņi, ko dodamis,
Dod man labas div’ lietiņas:
Ceļā labū kumeliņu,
Mūžāi labu līgaviņu.
There are literally millions of verses of these ancient Dainos / Dainās now in written form. So intertwined with the languages and their enormous vocabularies, it is virtually impossible to try to separate the two. These Hymns are still sung to this day.
The magic of language is a gift,
from mother to child,
living as a memorial to all Women,
who gave it to us.