The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture" until it encompasses the entire Pontic steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC. Subsequent expansion beyond the steppes leads to hybrid cultures, such as the Globular Amphora culture to the west, the immigration of proto-Greeks to the Balkans and the nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures to the east around 2500 BC. The domestication of the horse, and later the use of early chariots is assumed to have incr ...

See also:

Kurgan hypothesis, Kurgan hypothesis - Overview, Kurgan hypothesis - Stages of expansion, Kurgan hypothesis - Timeline, Kurgan hypothesis - Secondary Urheimat, Kurgan hypothesis - Differences of interpretation, Kurgan hypothesis - Genetics, Kurgan hypothesis - Literature

Read more here: » Kurgan hypothesis: Encyclopedia II - Kurgan hypothesis - Overview

The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture" until it encompasses the entire Pontic steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC. Subsequent expansion beyond the steppes leads to hybrid cultures, such as the Globular Amphora culture to the west, the immigration of proto-Greeks to the Balkans and the nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures to the east around 2500 BC. The domestication of the horse, and later the use of early chariots is assumed to have incr ...

See also:

Kurgan hypothesis, Kurgan hypothesis - Overview, Kurgan hypothesis - Stages of expansion, Kurgan hypothesis - Timeline, Kurgan hypothesis - Secondary Urheimat, Kurgan hypothesis - Differences of interpretation, Kurgan hypothesis - Genetics

Read more here: » Kurgan hypothesis: Encyclopedia II - Kurgan hypothesis - Overview

Kurgan (кургáн) is the Russian word (of Turkic origin) for tumulus, a type of burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, often of wood. In 1956 Marija Gimbutas introduced her Kurgan hypothesis combining kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) speaking peoples. She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after their distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. This hypothesis has had a significant impact on Indo-European research. ...

Including:

• Kurgan - Archaeology
• Kurgan - Some excavated kurgans
• Kurgan - Literature

Read more here: » Kurgan: Encyclopedia - Kurgan

The Andronovo culture is a cover term for a group of Bronze Age cultures of southern Siberia and Central Asia, ca. 2300–1000 BCE. It is probably better termed an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The name derives from the village of Andronovo (55°53′N 55°42′E), where in 1914, several graves were discovered, with skeletons in crouched positions, buried with richly decorated pottery. At least four sub-cultures have been since distinguished, during which the culture expands towards the south and the east:Including:

• Andronovo culture - Successors
• Andronovo culture - External link

Read more here: » Andronovo culture: Encyclopedia - Andronovo culture

The Sintashta-Petrovka culture is succeeded by the Fedorovo (1400-1200 BCE) and Alekseyevka (1200-1000 BCE) cultures, still considered as part of the Andronovo horizon. In southern Siberia and Kazakhstan, the Andronovo culture was succeeded by the Karasuk culture (1500-800 BCE), which is sometimes asserted to be non-Indo-European, and at other times to be specifically proto-Iranian. On its western border, it is succeeded by the Srubna culture, which partly derives from the Abashevo culture. The earliest historical peoples associated w ...

See also:

Andronovo culture, Andronovo culture - Successors, Andronovo culture - External link

Read more here: » Andronovo culture: Encyclopedia II - Andronovo culture - Successors

Kurgan type barrows were characteristic of Bronze Age nomadic peoples of the steppes, from the Altai to the Caucasus and Romania. Sometimes, burial mounds are quite complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, members of the elite were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. K ...

See also:

Kurgan, Kurgan - Archaeology, Kurgan - Some excavated kurgans, Kurgan - Literature

Read more here: » Kurgan: Encyclopedia II - Kurgan - Archaeology

Marija Gimbutas arrived in the United States as a refugee from Lithuania in 1949 after earning a PhD in archaeology in 1946 at Tübingen University in Germany, though she never forgot her Lithuanian heritage. She began immediately at Harvard University, translating Eastern European archaeological texts, and became a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology. In 1955 she was made a Fellow of Harvard's Peabody Museum. In 1956 Gimbutas introduced her "Kurgan hypothesis", which combined archaeological study of the distinctive "Kurgan" bu ...

See also:

Marija Gimbutas, Marija Gimbutas - Life, Marija Gimbutas - Work, Marija Gimbutas - Assessment, Marija Gimbutas - Influence on Neo-Pagan movement, Marija Gimbutas - Works, Marija Gimbutas - Sources

Read more here: » Marija Gimbutas: Encyclopedia II - Marija Gimbutas - Life

Joseph Campbell and Ashley Montagu each compared Marija Gimbutas' output to the Rosetta Stone and the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Joan Marler wrote, "Although it is considered improper in mainstream archaeology to interpret the ideology of prehistoric societies, it became obvious to Marija that every aspect of Old European life expressed a sophisticated religious symbolism. She, therefore, devoted herself to an exhaustive study of Neolithic images and symbols to discover their social and mythological significance. To accomplish t ...

See also:

Marija Gimbutas, Marija Gimbutas - Life, Marija Gimbutas - Work, Marija Gimbutas - Assessment, Marija Gimbutas - Influence on Neo-Pagan movement, Marija Gimbutas - Works, Marija Gimbutas - Sources

Read more here: » Marija Gimbutas: Encyclopedia II - Marija Gimbutas - Assessment

The Corded Ware culture, Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic (stone age), flourishes through the copper age and finally culminates in the early bronze age, developing in various areas from ca. 3200 BC/2900 BC to ca. 2300 BC/1800 BC. With the Yamna culture, it represents the introduction of metal into Northern Europe, and the earliest expansion of the Indo-European family of languages. Corded Ware culture - Extent. Including:

• Corded Ware culture - Extent
• Corded Ware culture - Nomenclature
• Corded Ware culture - Origins and Development
• Corded Ware culture - Economy
• Corded Ware culture - Graves
• Corded Ware culture - Language
• Corded Ware culture - Subgroups
• Corded Ware culture - Corded Ware culture
• Corded Ware culture - Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture
• Corded Ware culture - Finnish Battle Axe culture
• Corded Ware culture - Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures
• Corded Ware culture - Sources

Read more here: » Corded Ware culture: Encyclopedia - Corded Ware culture

The Yamna (from Russian яма "pit") or Pit Grave or Ochre Grave culture is a late copper age/early bronze age culture of the Bug/Dniester/Ural region, dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hillforts. Domestication of the horse, cattle, sheep and goat, use of plough and carts is attested. Characteristic for the culture are the inhumations in kurgans, (tumuli) in pit graves with the dead body placed in a supine position ...

Including:

• Yamna culture - Sources

Read more here: » Yamna culture: Encyclopedia - Yamna culture

Human migration denotes any movement by humans from one locality to another, often over long distances or in large groups. Humans are known to have extensively migrated throughout history. This can be compared with the periodic migratory behaviour of groups of animals such as some birds and fishes (see migration). This article concentrates on the historical human migrations. Migration and population isolation is one of the four evolutionary forces (along with natural selection, genetic drift, and mutation). The study of the distribution of and change in allele (gene variations) frequencies under suc ...

Including:

• Human migration - Overview of historical migrations
• Human migration - Earliest migrations
• Human migration - Spread of Agriculture
• Human migration - Indo-European migrations
• Human migration - The Great Migrations
• Human migration - Other Old World migrations
• Human migration - Polynesian migration
• Human migration - Migrations to the New World
• Human migration - World War II and post-World War II Migrations
• Human migration - Migrations and climate cycles
• Human migration - Literature

Read more here: » Human migration: Encyclopedia - Human migration

Gimbutas earned a reputation as a world-class specialist on the Indo-European Bronze Age as well as on Lithuanian folk art and the prehistory of the Balts and Slavs, partly summed up in the definitive Bronze Age Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe (1965), but she gained unexpected fame with her last three books: The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1974), The Language of the Goddess (1989)— which inspired an exhibition in Wiesbaden, 1993/94— and her final book The Civilization of the Goddess (1991), which ...

See also:

Marija Gimbutas, Marija Gimbutas - Life, Marija Gimbutas - Work, Marija Gimbutas - Assessment, Marija Gimbutas - Influence on Neo-Pagan movement, Marija Gimbutas - Works, Marija Gimbutas - Sources

Read more here: » Marija Gimbutas: Encyclopedia II - Marija Gimbutas - Work

The author and poet Robert Graves' study of the nature of poetic myth-making, The White Goddess, first published in 1948, and revised, amended and enlarged in 1966, represents a tangential approach to the study of mythology from a decidedly idiosyncratic perspective. It proposed the existence of a European deity, the White Goddess of Birth, Love and Death, represented by the phases of the moon, who he argued lies behind the faces of the diverse goddesses of various European mythologies. In this work, Graves argued that "true po ...

Read more here: » The White Goddess: Encyclopedia - The White Goddess

Slavs are customarily divided into three major subgroups: East Slavs, West Slavs, and South Slavs, each with a somewhat different background. The East Slavs may all be traced to Slavic-speaking populations that were organized as Kievan Rus' beginning in the 9th century A.D. and eventually fell under the influence of the Mongol Empire. Almost all of the South Slavs can be traced to ethnic Slavs who mixed with the local population of the Balkans (Vlachs, Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians and Getae) and with later invaders from the Ea ...

See also:

Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples - Ethno-cultural subdivisions, Slavic peoples - The emergence of Proto-Slavic, Slavic peoples - The Slavic homeland debates, Slavic peoples - General argument, Slavic peoples - Diverse theories, Slavic peoples - Slavs as Aryans theory, Slavic peoples - Ethnonyms applied to Slavs, Slavic peoples - Etymology of Slav, Slavic peoples - Slavs in the historical period, Slavic peoples - Religion and alphabet

Read more here: » Slavic peoples: Encyclopedia II - Slavic peoples - Ethno-cultural subdivisions

Human migration has taken place at all times and in the greatest variety of circumstances. It has been tribal, national, class and individual. Its causes have been climatic, political, economic, religious, or mere love of adventure. Its causes and results are fundamental for the study of ethnology, of political and social history, and of political economy. In its natural origins, it includes the separate migrations first of Homo erectus then of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens) out of Africa across Eurasia, doub ...

See also:

Human migration, Human migration - Overview of historical migrations, Human migration - Earliest migrations, Human migration - Spread of Agriculture, Human migration - Indo-European migrations, Human migration - The Great Migrations, Human migration - Other Old World migrations, Human migration - Polynesian migration, Human migration - Migrations to the New World, Human migration - World War II and post-World War II Migrations, Human migration - Migrations and climate cycles, Human migration - Literature

Read more here: » Human migration: Encyclopedia II - Human migration - Overview of historical migrations

Human migration has taken place at all times and in the greatest variety of circumstances. It has been tribal, national, class and individual. Its causes have been climatic, political, economic, religious, or mere love of adventure. Its causes and results are fundamental for the study of ethnology, of political and social history, and of political economy. In its natural origins, it includes the separate migrations first of Homo erectus then of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens sapiens) out of Africa across Eurasia, doub ...

See also:

Human migration, Human migration - Overview of historical migrations, Human migration - Earliest migrations, Human migration - Spread of Agriculture, Human migration - Indo-European migrations, Human migration - The Great Migrations, Human migration - Other Old World migrations, Human migration - Polynesian migration, Human migration - Migrations to the New World, Human migration - World War II and post-World War II Migrations, Human migration - Migrations and climate cycles, Human migration - Toward an understanding of migration, Human migration - Types of Migrations, Human migration - Laws of Migration, Human migration - Causes of Migrations, Human migration - Literature

Read more here: » Human migration: Encyclopedia II - Human migration - Overview of historical migrations

Also known as Copper Age, European Chalcolithic is a time of changes and confusion. The most relevant fact is the infiltration and invasion of large parts of the territory by people originating from Central Asia, considered by mainstream scholars to be the original Indo-Europeans, although there are again several theories in dispute. Other phenomena are the expansion of Megalithism and the appearance of the first significant economic stratification and, related to thi ...

See also:

Prehistoric Europe, Prehistoric Europe - Paleolithic, Prehistoric Europe - Neolithic, Prehistoric Europe - Chalcolithic, Prehistoric Europe - Bronze Age, Prehistoric Europe - Iron Age

Read more here: » Prehistoric Europe: Encyclopedia II - Prehistoric Europe - Chalcolithic

The formative phase of the field may be considered to begin in the 18th century, with Jones' 1782 discovery, and the beginning research into the grammar and philology of individual non-classical languages. This early phase culminates in Franz Bopp's comparative grammar of 1833. The classical phase of Indo-European comparative linguistics leads from Bopp to August Schleicher's 1861 compendium and up to Karl Brugmann's Grundriss published from the 1880s. Brugmann's junggrammatische re-evalutation of the field, and F ...

See also:

Indo-European studies, Indo-European studies - Comparative Linguistics, Indo-European studies - History of the Field, Indo-European studies - List of Indo-Europeanists, Indo-European studies - Journals, Indo-European studies - Contemporary IE studies, Indo-European studies - Origin of the Term

Read more here: » Indo-European studies: Encyclopedia II - Indo-European studies - History of the Field

That the Germanic languages form a markedly distinct group within Indo-European is beyond question. Grimm's law was a profound sound change that affected all of the stops inherited from Indo-European. The Germanic languages also share common innovations in grammar as well as in phonology: more than half of the noun cases featured in more conservative languages such as Sanskrit or Lithuanian are not present in Germanic.1 The Germanic verb has also been extensively remodelled, showing fewer grammatical moods, and markedly decreasing the inflections in use for the passive voice. G ...

See also:

Germanic substrate hypothesis, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Distinct language group, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Hybridization as conjectured cause, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Non-Indo-European influence, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Words derived from non-Indo-European languages, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Controversy, Germanic substrate hypothesis - Notes

Read more here: » Germanic substrate hypothesis: Encyclopedia II - Germanic substrate hypothesis - Distinct language group

The core group spread its pottery nearly everywhere. Corded Ware culture - Corded Ware culture. The prototypal Corded Ware culture, German Schnurkeramikkultur is found in Central Europe, mainly Germany and Poland, and refers to the characteric pottery of the era: wet clay was decoratively incised with cordage, i.e., string. It is known mostly from its burials, and both sexes received the characteristic cord-decorated pottery. Whether made of flax or hemp, they had rope. Corded Ware cultu ...

See also:

Corded Ware culture, Corded Ware culture - Extent, Corded Ware culture - Nomenclature, Corded Ware culture - Origins and development, Corded Ware culture - Economy, Corded Ware culture - Graves, Corded Ware culture - Language, Corded Ware culture - Subgroups, Corded Ware culture - Corded Ware culture, Corded Ware culture - Swedish-Norwegian Battle Axe culture, Corded Ware culture - Finnish Battle Axe culture, Corded Ware culture - Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures, Corded Ware culture - Sources

Read more here: » Corded Ware culture: Encyclopedia II - Corded Ware culture - Subgroups