Contacts Between the Steppe and Agricultural Tribes of Central Asia in the Bronze Age

Bibliographic Data

ID3779568
AuthorsNatalia M Vinogradova, Natalia Vinogradova (0000-0003-1628-7037, corresponding author), Elena E Kuz'Mina, Elena Kuzmina (0000-0001-6192-7852)
Year1996
Volume34
Issue4
Pages29-54
Publication date1996-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology & Archeology of Eurasia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1061-1959 • E-ISSN: 1558-092X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2753/aae1061-1959340429
OpenAlexW2041949525
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited3

Understanding the interaction between the steppe and agricultural tribes of Central Asia in the Bronze Age and the possible migrations in the sixteenth—ninth centuries B.C. is of paramount significance for the resolution of the problem of Indo-European origins and the localization of their original homeland. Since the nineteenth century, it has generally been accepted that the Indo-European homeland was within the confines of Europe, delimited either by the northern Black Sea coastal area [Prichernomor'e] or by a triangle between the Rhine, the Danube, and the Dnieper. It was assumed that the Indo-Iranian nationalities had left the original homeland toward the east, into the Eurasian steppes, where later a part of them (the ancestors of the Scythians, Sauromatians, Massagetai, and Saka) remained, while others moved on to the south and migrated through the territory of Central Asia into India and Iran. More recently, two leading linguists—V. V. Ivanov and T. V. Gamkrelidze [22, pp. 80-92]—have suggested that the homeland of the Indo-Europeans was found in Western Asia. They consider that during the second half of the second millennium B.C., groups of Indo-European speakers migrated in several waves through Iran and Central Asia to the north, into the northern Black Sea coastal area, and subsequently settled throughout Europe. The last to come from Iran, as late as the eighth century B.C., were the Iranian-speaking Scythians and Saka. According to either scenario, Central Asia occupied a key position in the history of either all of the Indo-Europeans or of only the Indo-Iranians. In which direction the migrations took place and to what extent they were mass migrations remain subject to discussion; the linguistic material does not provide an answer to these questions. Their resolution must be addressed through archeological data

Ancient history · Archaeology · Black sea · Bronze Age · Central asia · Ethnology · Geography · Homeland · Political science · Steppe · Ancient Near East History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Law · Linguistics and language evolution · Geology · Oceanography