Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread

Bibliographic Data

ID20344922
AuthorsRiho Grünthal (0000-0002-7648-5687, University of Helsinki), Volker Heyd (0000-0002-0889-6513, University of Helsinki), Sampsa Holopainen (0000-0001-6796-1648, University of Helsinki), Juha Janhunen (0000-0003-1242-8808, University of Helsinki), Juha A Janhunen (University of Helsinki), Olesya Khanina (0000-0001-5930-4656, University of Helsinki), Matti Miestamo (0000-0001-9801-9030, University of Helsinki), J Nichols (0000-0002-3709-1861, University of Helsinki), Janne Saarikivi (University of Helsinki), Kaius Sinnemäki (0000-0002-6972-5216, University of Helsinki)
Year2022
Volume39
Issue4
Pages490-524
Publication date2022-08-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiachronica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0176-4225 • E-ISSN: 1569-9714
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/dia.20038.gru
OpenAlexW3175509620
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited52

The widespread Uralic family offers several advantages for tracing prehistory: a firm absolute chronological anchor point in an ancient contact episode with well-dated Indo-Iranian; other points of intersection or diagnostic non-intersection with early Indo-European (the Late Proto-Indo-European-speaking Yamnaya culture of the western steppe, the Afanasievo culture of the upper Yenisei, and the Fatyanovo culture of the middle Volga); lexical and morphological reconstruction sufficient to establish critical absences of sharings and contacts. We add information on climate, linguistic geography, typology, and cognate frequency distributions to reconstruct the Uralic origin and spread. We argue that the Uralic homeland was east of the Urals and initially out of contact with Indo-European. The spread was rapid and without widespread shared substratal effects. We reconstruct its cause as the interconnected reactions of early Uralic and Indo-European populations to a catastrophic climate change episode and interregionalization opportunities which advantaged riverine hunter-fishers over herders

Archaeology · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Homeland · Political science · Prehistory · Steppe · Typology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Linguistics and language evolution