Indo-Europeans

Indo-European Origins

From the Upper Paleolithic period to the beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC) Europe was inhabited by a pre-agrarian culture which seems to have been somewhat sedentary and fairly peaceful, extending from the eastern shores of the Black and Mediterranean seas to the Aegean and Adriatic seas. This period was followed by a rapid spread of agriculture, and improvements in technology. The reasons for this change are not clear, but have been ascribed to a changing social structure.

It is generally believed that agriculture and later other technologies originated for the most part in the Near East in the Neolithic about 10,000 years ago, and spread to Europe via Turkey, although some cultures seem to have developed food production and some other technologies independently.

Some scholars attribute this to the spread of a new and war-like ethno-linguistic group that spread both agriculture, technology, and language to the existing population. Other scholars believe that as Proto-Indo-European speaking groups split into smaller groups (and dialects that would eventually become off-shoot languages), the innovations spread more peacefully. These views have been and remain much disputed.

Jared Diamond, in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" provides some interesting possible reasons for these changes, and other matters. Though not without error (e.g., the oft-repeated but demonstrably incorrect statement that cavalry ruled the battlefield from its inception until fairly modern times), and some areas of controversy, it is an impressive and interesting work of multi-disciplinary scholarship that covers a large swath of human history and development over a wide geographic area, comparing and contrasting cultures, while attempting to answer the question of why Western Europeans and their descendants eventually became the currently dominant culture.

A recent DNA study conducted by a team of researchers has also led to some interesting developments. Archaeologists and geneticists recently analyzed DNA from 24 7500-year-old skeletons from Germany, Austria and Hungary, of people known as the "Linear Pottery" culture.

The team analyzed mtDNA (mitochondrial) transmitted through the female line. Use of mtDNA enabled them to distinguish cultural migrations, (which would include females), from Y-DNA transmitted as a result of warfare or other male-dominated activities.

Comparing these to a worldwide database of 35,000 modern DNA samples, they found DNA types now rare in Europe, which indicates that these people were probably not the ancestors of modern Europeans.

Professor Joachim Burger (U. of Mainz) said; "...most scholars tended to believe that modern day Europeans were descendents of the first farmers of 7,500 years ago. Our new data.. ...show that these farmers were not our ancestors."

Dr. Peter Forster, a geneticist (U. of Cambridge, who also collaborated on the linguistic study mentioned below) said: "...less than 50 Europeans today have these ancient farmer DNA types. In order to learn more about the fate of these early farmers and their rare DNA types, we now need an extensive sampling of people of European descent."

Dr. Forster is encouraging the public to contribute DNA to a project aimed at widening the database. For further information see here.

Sir William Jones and the Indo-European Language

The earliest linguistic evidence of the Indo-Europeans stems from a theory propounded by a most remarkable polymath, Sir William Jones (1746-1794). Though of modest birth, he rose through his outstanding abilities in many fields.

He studied at Harrow and University College, Oxford from 1764 to 1768, and was engaged for some years in translating. However, his interests were wide-ranging, and included anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, history, law, literature, music, physiology, politics, and religion, in addition to languages.

Jones knew and corresponded with many contemporary intellectuals including Burke, Gibbon, Johnson, Percy and Reynolds in Britain, and Franklin in America.

Sir William Jones as a young man

Jones eventually became a lawyer due to financial necessity, being admitted to the bar in 1771. He continued his Oriental studies, however. He eventually learned 28 languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, many self-taught. His knowledge of Middle Eastern languages and culture was so encyclopedic that he became known as "Oriental" Jones. His "Grammar of the Persian Language" (1771) was considered an authoritative work for many years. "Moallakât" (1782), was a translation of several pre-Islamic Arabic odes.

His new career prospered, and in 1783 he was knighted. He then voyaged to Calcutta as a judge of the Supreme Court. In 1784 he founded the Asiatick Society of Bengal, which stimulated great interest in India and the Orient in Britain and the West.

He took up Sanskrit originally in order to better understand the laws of the people he was judging, and to prepare a digest of Hindu and Muslim law. ("Institutes of Hindu Law" (1794) and his "Muhammedan Law of Inheritance (1792) were, unfortunately, the only parts of this vast proposed work to be completed.)

Jones is best known now for his "Third Discourse of 1786" which stated that the resemblance of some Sanskrit words to Greek and Latin could best be explained by a common, earlier source. His thesis laid the groundwork for what is now known as comparative linguistics.

Sir William Jones later in life

Here is an extract from his work on "The Sanscrit Language":

"The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have spring from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit, and the old Persian might be added to this family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia."

For further information, see these links:

Wikipedia biography of Sir William Jones

Article by Dr. K. L. Kamat on Sir William Jones

Characteristics of Indo-European Languages

As the name implies, the Indo-European peoples speak languages that are spread from India to Europe. Hindi, Russian, Gaelic and English all apparently have a common root, far back in time.

These early people and their language were originally referred to as Aryan, but that term was later perverted by racists, especially the Nazis, to the extent that most scholars no longer use it, referring the term Indo-European, due to the extremely wide geographical dissemination. 19th century German linguists called the language "Ur-Spräche" ("original speech"). It now appears possible that it is the descendant of a still earlier language.

Indo-European languages share some basic vocabulary, including grammatical affixes, whose shapes in the different languages can be related to one another by phonetic rules, especially the shared patterns of alternation of sounds.

The similarities Jones had noted in the sound and meaning of certain words in widely disparate languages (i.e., mother and three) are known in linguistics as cognate words, as opposed to borrowed words. For example, Irish Gaelic: "muinteoir" and Peshtu (Afghanistan): "munshi", both meaning "teacher". (In Peshtu, the word can also mean "scribe")

A form of the word "lachs" (meaning the Baltic salmon) is found in every country bordering that body of water. It appears that the original term in Indo-European may have referred to an inland fresh-water salmon-like species, as it seems likely from the linguistic evidence the Indo-Europeans originated in an inland region. (The Atlantic salmon, by contrast, is known in Gaelic as "bradan".) Linguists have used cognates to help determine probable Indo-European words, and ascertain the possible area of origin of the Indo-Europeans.

Also, as mentioned above, DNA research is now starting to play a larger role. The Human Genome Project, the National Genographic Project(mentioned above), and others are making headway in tracking the migration of people in far-distant times and places.

In addition, an interesting study may revise the dates and other aspects of both the Indo-Europeans and the Celts.

Dr. Peter Forster, a DNA researcher from Cambridge (see above), and Alfred Toth, a linguist (then at the University of Zurich, now at U. of New Mexico), used a novel combination of DNA sequencing and phylogenetic network methods to study Celtic languages.

Focusing on Gaulish, and using bilingual Gaulish–Latin inscriptions from the Coligny Calendar, a bronze calendar tablet and other sources, they revealed an early split of Celtic within Indo-European, then separated Gaulish (Continental Celtic) from Insular Celtic languages, with Insular Celtic subsequently splitting into Brythonic and Goidelic.

The Coligny Calendar (written in Gaulish and Latin)

The study suggests that the Celts arrived in Britain as single wave, then differentiated locally, rather than traditional two-wave scenario ("P-Celtic" to Britain and "Q-Celtic" to Ireland).

The new tentative dates for the rise of the Indo-Europeans is 8100 BC (± 1,900 years), and for the arrival of the Celts in Britain, 3200 BC (± 1,500 years).

(For details, see: PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

We have also found archaeological traces of peoples far away from the previously supposed "limits" of their range, who may have been Indo-European speaking people. These include the mummies of the Tarim Basin. (See below.)

Indo-European is divided linguistically into two major groups, "centum" and "satem" representing the word for one hundred in Latin and Avestan (an extinct branch of Indo-Iranian) respectively. This family of languages is spoken in most of Europe, European settlements, and in areas of Southwest and South Asia. Evidence for European languages at the end of the prehistoric period makes it clear that, with exceptions (such as Basque or Etruscan), they belonged to the Indo-European language group. Such diverse groups and languages as Indo-Iranian (i.e.; Persian); and Germanic (English) are all members of the Indo-European group. Other examples include: Italo-Latinic (Latin); Balto-Slavic (Polish); Hellenic (Greek); Anatolian (Hittite, now extinct). All have sub-groups and branches. (i.e., Germanic > English) With the spread of English as the language of world commerce, an Indo-European tongue has become predominant world-wide.

Theories of Homeland

Again, trying to ascertain the physical origins of a pre-historic people can be challenging. Professional opinion is still divided on many issues. Nobody has discovered a precise and reliable way to determine from linguistic evidence alone the date at which any set of related languages began diverging.

The best methods estimate the degree of difference between the languages in question, taking into account all that is known about them, and then compare them. The Human Genome Project, (collecting DNA/genetic materials from all possible sources world-wide) and other DNA projects have already produced much of interest. It is to be expected that as these projects go forward, much more will unfold, and an entirely new dimension will be added to paleoanthropology and history.

The Kurgan/Steppe theory of origin was advanced by the late Marija Gimbutas of UCLA,depicting the Indo-Europeans as a chariot warrior aristocracy, with primarily a herding economy from the area between the Don and Volga Rivers, on the steppes of the Caucasus and the Carpathian Mountains.

In this model, early domestication of the horse, and use of it in battle, gave them the edge in spreading East and West, conquering new territories needed to support and increase their herds. A modified version of this view has achieved some consensus.

However, her model was attacked for some aspects, especially as it relates to feminist interpretation, painting the Indo-Europeans as a "wicked" patriarchal culture responsible for all the ills of modern society.

She was also assailed in some quarters for her interpretations of archaic religious practices, which she put forward in her later works. ("Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe" "The Language of the Goddess" and "The Civilization of the Goddess.")

Despite her fall from favor with some scholars, there is little doubt that she did a massive amount of work and study, and helped formulate views on the Proto-Indo-Europeans, some of which, in modified form still stand.

A. Colin Renfrew, (Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn), University of Southhampton, and later Cambridge, advanced the Renfrew or Anatolian Hypothesis. Ha had collaborated with Ms. Gimbutas on some work, but later came to oppose some of her theories, and correlated the spread of farming with the spread of the Indo-Europeans. ("Archaeology and Language", C. Renfrew et al, 1988, Current Anthropology 29(3): 437-468.)

Dr. Renfrew's version of events is viewed by some linguists with skepticism, because of the dates. Linguists generally place Proto-Indo-European at c. 6000 years ago. However, Renfrew places it several thousand years further back to match the known dates for the spread of farming. However, some modern research (Forster and Toth, above, and others) seems to support his dates and ideas of the dispersion and spread of both languages and cultures.

Renfrew's concept has been attacked in some quarters for his seeming ignorance of the Afro-Asiatic language family. For instance, in an article ("World Linguistic Diversity", C. Renfrew, 1994, Scientific American, January, pp. 104-110), he gives migration-arrows that leave out the vast majority of Afro-Asiatic languages, (those spoken in Africa), which could invalidate his claim for the "original" homeland of Afro-Asiatic speakers.

Renfrew elaborated his ideas into a model for the peopling of the planet. He also later challenged the generally accepted model of cultural diffusion from the Fertile Crescent to Europe, arguing that European culture and civilization was much more ancient than previously thought, reversing his earlier opinion.

( See Bibliography )

J. P. Mallory is another noted authority on Indo-European language and possible origins. His work, ("In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth" (See Bibliography) does not specifically rebut Renfrew. He only addresses Renfrew in some footnotes. However, he presents evidence for a more "orthodox" position.

Mallory reads Russian, and thus can directly access the site reports of the Soviet archeologists who investigated the steppes of the Ukraine.

His summaries of Indo-European legacies and issues are interesting. He discusses innovations such as the domestication of the horse, the tripartite system of the Indo-Europeans (nobles / warriors, clerks / priests, and farmer / cultivators) and its possible influences on later forms of government (including possibly the three branched system in use in America today), and other such issues. He states in part;

"...horse domestication and the consequences this revolution in transportation and warfare brought to the world. In addition, the Indo-Europeans are at least one of the candidates for the inventors of wheeled vehicles...

...the trifunctional ideology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans permeates the religious texts of the ancient Indians and Iranians, emerges in the epic poetry and drama of the Greeks, hides behind the facade of history among the early Romans, and expresses itself in the prose tales of the medieval Germanic and Celtic people...

...the most secure legacy of the Indo-Europeans is surely to be found in the language spoken by over two billion people in the world. It is irrelevant whether we regard ourselves as Europeans, Asians, Africans or Americans; we cannot escape this legacy if we speak an Indo-European language.

...In characteristic hyperbole, Hitler once wrote that the collapse of the Aryans would see the light of civilization extinguished in the world; given the distribution of nuclear arms on this planet, it is far more likely that it will be Indo-Europeans who will end it themselves.

Yet we need not finish pessimistically, but rather hope to remind the great superpowers, that whatever their political differences, when they speak to one another, they do so in words that were once common when they shared the same language, the same home and the same beliefs."

Mallory has been the subject of heated debate also, but seems to state his position convincingly. His book, while written primarily for the academic, offers much to the lay reader willing to work through it.

Some interesting recent developments he has participated in have captured the attention of scientists and scholars, as well as the imagination of the general public. (See the "Tarim Basin Mummies" below)

Other origin theories include the Danubian, which postulates that they were indigenous to that area, and possible Middle Eastern origins.

As new scholarship develops, we shall hopefully be able to trace the development of these peoples with more accuracy and detail.

The Tarim Basin / Xinjiang Mummies

In recent years, the astonishing Tarim Basin mummy finds have spurred further speculation.

Four thousand years ago, there were ancient oasis towns in the Tarim Basin, near the end of the "Silk Road" in what is now the Xinjiang (aka Xin Zhiang) region of NW China on the edge of the Gobi Desert. They flourished for at least 1,500 years, and there are indications that they survived as a culture even into the second century.

About the turn of the 20th century, a few well-preserved mummies were discovered in the area by early European explorers of the Silk Road (including Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin). They had been preserved naturally by the saline soil and extreme aridity of the Taklamakan desert region. They are believed to have been buried between c. 4000-2000 BC.

"The Bohemian Burgher"

Tarim Basin mummy photographed by Aurel Stein, c. 1910

The remains are amazingly Caucasoid. Some had red or blond hair, and features that could be those of modern Europeans. They were largely ignored at the time because they were considered atypical, perhaps just a few traders or wanderers who had been in the region and perished.

Further exploration was put on hold by World War I, followed by years of unrest, civil war and then WW II. Following that came the Communist revolution and regime, the ensuing chaos, and the closing to the West of many of China's archaeological treasures.

However, in the 1970s, Chinese exchanges with the West became more open. More of the mummies began to come to light, buried together in large cemeteries. The principal work was conducted by Wang Binhua in 1978, who excavated the cemetery at Qizilchoqa. As China became more open in terms of trade and cultural exchange, more was learned about the ancient inhabitants of the area.

Dr. Victor H. Mair, an Austrian Oriental scholar, was in the region's museum when he came across some of the bodies. Struck by their appearance, particularly that of one mummy who Dr. Mair believed strongly resembled his own brother, he began to seek their origins and what contact they may have had with early Chinese civilization.

Eventually, he enlisted Dr. J. P. Mallory, the noted Proto-Indo-European language scholar, Dr. Paolo Francalacci, a DNA specialist, and other noted specialists such as Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Dr. Irene Good, and a considerable amount of fascinating work was done, including analysis of both new and existing finds. (See the Bibliography for the book they produced, "The Tarim Mummies".)

The colorful fabrics found included felt, plaited wool, and what we now call plaid or tartan. (For proper terminology, see the coming section on Dress and Tartans) The weave of their clothes is identical to that of "clo mor", the twill tweed and tartan weave used by the Gaels. In fact, one of the females is wearing a tartan dress!

Below are photos of pieces of plaid material. The first is from the site at Qizilchoqa, near Hami. (c. 1200 - 700 BC)

As can be seen, it is very similar in make, weave, and appearance to those below it, a c. 1200 - 400 BC piece found at Hallstatt, Austria, and a c. 3rd century piece found at Falkirk, Scotland, even though the pieces were made many miles and many years apart. (These and other fabrics from this site are covered in depth in the excellent book, "The Mummies of Ürümchi" by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.)

Plaid woolen twill from burial at Qizilchoqa, near Hami. c. 1200 - 700 BC

( Photo by Dr. Irene Good, taken from The Mummies of Ürümchi )

c. 1200 - 400 BC piece from Hallstatt, Austria,

c. 3rd century piece found at Falkirk, Scotland

(National Museum of Scotland)

There are also some female burials with trappings that may indicate a high social status, perhaps of a religious nature. One of the older females is wearing an extremely tall conical hat, reminiscent of a "witch's hat." Tall, conical caps and helmets of various were worn in more recent historic times by the Celtic aristocracy, and in Gaelic Ireland, tall conical "Beehive" hats were worn by the high chiefs and nobility until at least 1719, as witnessed by portraits of that date. A very similar style was worn by rustic women until the 19th century in Wales, and still constitutes women's "traditional" garb at folk festivals. The design may possibly have come down over the centuries, though what its significance may have been we have no way of ascertaining.

The precise origins of the mummies remain unresolved, but Mallory and Mair postulate that these early Bronze Age settlers originated on the north-west shore of the Black Sea, and that they may have been part of or related to the Afanasevo culture, which originated on the easternmost part of the Eurasian Steppe and highlands north of East Central Asia. (These steppes extend from the mouth of the Danube River along the north shore of the Black Sea, across the lower Volga to the east as far as the Altai Mountains.) They may have been Proto-Tocharians, but there is no way to prove that at present, since they left no written records.

The Tocharians are the most easterly known Indo-European speaking people, and their language is now extinct.

We only learned of the Tocharians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a result of finds of ancient manuscripts from the region.

There appears to have originally been two distinct Tocharian languages, Eastern ("A") and Western ("B"). Some scholars hold that only the Eastern should be called Tocharian. Today, the name for the Western form is sometimes referred to as Kuchean. Their nearest linguistic relative appears to be Hittite, which was anciently spoken in Asia Minor (c. 1600 to 1100 BC).

Tocharian A seems to have died out in daily usage, becoming a liturgical language like Sanskrit, while Tocharian B seems to have survived longer. The texts include religious liturgy, monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, medical and magical texts, and a love poem.

Tocharian seems to have died out after c. 840 AD. At that time, the Uyghurs (aka Uighurs) were expelled from Mongolia by the Kirghiz, and retreated to the Tarim Basin. Tocharian texts have been found translated into Uighur.

The genetic evidence, as well as the appearance of light hair and eyes among the modern Uyghur, seems to support the Uyghur contention that they are descended from the Tarim Basin people. See the article by Mark Dickens, the Wikipedia articles on Tocharian, and the Uyghurs for details.

The ancient Chinese seem to have been fascinated with a group or groups of people on the peripheries of their domain, whom they term "Yuezhi." These may refer to the Tocharians, and/or the earlier Tarim Basin people. If so, what little we can know of the Tarim people and their culture beyond the physical remains can be gleaned from the Chinese manuscripts, in the way that much of our knowledge of the Celts in ancient times is gleaned from Classical commentators.

They seem to have been warriors, herdsmen, and traders, and been highly skilled in medicine. The few clues to their language are in the form of words that appear to be transliterated in the Chinese manuscripts. Their physical appearance seems to have had Caucasoid traits, including red hair (the Chinese described them as being like red monkeys), and light colored eyes.

They appear to have died out in antiquity, and no recognizable remnant cultures have survived, though as noted, the present-day native Uyghurs firmly believe themselves descended from them.

The mummies may represent an Indo-European group, though we cannot of course determine their language from the remains. However,their physical appearance, clothing and accouterments strongly resemble those depicted in extant paintings of the later Tocharians, a nearby Indo-European speaking community known from written and pictorial remains. It is fair to postulate the possibility of some degree of linguistic affinity, based on the similarity in cultural aspects and clothing, as well as physical appearance.

"The Tocharian Knights"

(c. 6th century AD fresco, Qizil, Tarim Basin, from The Tarim Basin Mummies, used courtesy of Dr. Victor Mair )

These and other period depictions of Tocharians resemble the Tarim mummies. These may be the "Knights with Long Swords" mentioned in Chinese accounts. All depictions show light hair and light eye color. These men are dressed in Sassanian style. These frescoes were found with notations in Tocharian and Sanskrit apparently made by the painters. (Their garb corresponds interestingly with that of the Cherchen Man mummy photographed by Jeffrey Newman published in Discover Magazine, April 1994.)

Buddhist Monks

Blue-eyed, red-haired, large-nosed Buddhist monk, with an obviously Asian colleague, from Bezaklik, Eastern Tarim Basin

(c. 9th-10th century AD, from The Tarim Basin Mummies, used courtesy of Dr. Victor Mair )

There is also the possibility that these people may have introduced the chariot, and possibly bronze-working to the Chinese.

Unfortunately, many of the fabric and DNA samples were confiscated at the last minute from Mair's party by Chinese authorities.

However, due to the courage of a Chinese colleague who took the risk of slipping them some of the confiscated samples as they were leaving, some DNA tests were able to be completed. The sample showed genetic relationships to present-day Europeans, including Swedes, Finns, Tuscans, Corsicans and Sardinians. It also seems as though the Uyghurs do indeed have some of their genetic make-up, not surprising given that these otherwise Mongol people sometimes have reddish hair, and green eyes.

There remains considerable ambivalence among the Chinese political and scientific leadership on how to treat these people, both because of political considerations with the current indigenous Uyghur people, and how much {if at all} these Caucasoid people may have influenced Chinese development. It has the possibility of upsetting the Chinese official history of development in "splendid isolation" from the West.

If true, it matters little, because the Chinese obviously came up with much of their own culture, and have made splendid contributions to art, technology, and culture over the centuries of their long history. If they borrowed some useful techniques or technologies, they wouldn't be the first to do so - and of course, the exchanges may well have gone both ways, as it has in more historic times.

For more information, see: Xinjiang, the Tarim Basin mummies, and the Tocharians

The Tribe in the Khyber Pass

In the early 1990's, a French anthropological team working in Afghanistan in the area of the Khyber Pass found a Caucasoid tribal group, matrilineal, speaking a seemingly archaic Indo-European dialect and with what appeared to be some archaic Indo-European customs. I have not heard of the final outcome, but the team members at the time believed the tribe might possibly be a remnant group of the ancient Indo-Europeans. The unfortunate series of events in that region have caused so much disruption for several decades that the opportunities for investigation are currently almost nil.

Summary

In the final analysis, it seems probable that at some time in the remote past, a group of Caucasoid people from the steppe regions in the vicinity of an area spreading from the Caucasus and Carpathian Mountains spread out, (in my opinion) possibly heading both East and West. Whether by relatively peaceful migration, war-like invasion, cultural assimilation or some combination of these factors, they spread their language and to some extent their religious and cultural practices over a wide area.

These Indo-Europeans seem to have had some continuity of language and culture, as exemplified by their linguistic and archaeological remains. The war-wagon or chariot was apparently an essential part of most of their societies, as was a tripartite warrior aristocracy.

Further evidence for the continuity of the Indo-European warrior culture will be explored in the chapter on music in the section dealing with heroic poetry.