Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Aryan Migrations


What are the implications of the two theories about the Proto-Indo-European homeland? Were they farmers in one place (Anatolia) or riders, hunters or warriors from elsewhere (such as the Steppes)?

The "mainstream" theory is that they were horsemen from the Steppes c 4,500 BC, who spread their culture comparatively quickly. The alternative view is that they were farmers in Anatolia who had been there since c 6,500 BC and whose influence only spread slowly.

One would like to imagine of course that they might have been both - that they could have been the people who lived at Çatalhöyük and who then became the fearsome horse-lords of the Caucasus.

But that is almost certainly fanciful.

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