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

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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 Cimmerians (Greek Kimmerioi) were ancient equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Russia and Ukraine, in the 8th and 7th century BC. Assyrian records, however, first place them in the region of Azerbaijan in 714 BC. Cimmerians - Origins. Their origins are obscure, but they are believed to have been Indo-European. Their language is regarded as being related to either Thracian or Iranian. The Thracian the ...

Including:

• Cimmerians - Origins
• Cimmerians - Historical accounts
• Cimmerians - Timeline
• Cimmerians - Language
• Cimmerians - Possible offshoots
• Cimmerians - Archaeology

Read more here: » Cimmerians: Encyclopedia - Cimmerians

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

The various subgroups of the Indo-European family include (in historical order of their first attestation): Anatolian languages — earliest attested branch, from the 18th century BC; extinct, most notable was the language of the Hittites. Indo-Iranian languages, descending from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, attested from the 2nd millennium BC Iranian languages, attested from roughly 1000 BC, including Avestan and Persian Dardic languages ...

See also:

Indo-European languages, Indo-European languages - Classification, Indo-European languages - Satem and Centum languages, Indo-European languages - Suggested superfamilies, Indo-European languages - History, Indo-European languages - Kurgan hypothesis, Indo-European languages - Competing hypotheses, Indo-European languages - Sound changes

Read more here: » Indo-European languages: Encyclopedia II - Indo-European languages - Classification

The first historical record of the Cimmerians appears in Assyrian annals in the year 714 BC. These describe how a people termed the Gimirri helped the forces of Sargon II to defeat the kingdom of Urartu. Their original homeland, called Gamir or Uishdish, seems to have been located within the buffer state of Mannae. The later geographer Ptolemy placed the Cimmerian city of Gomara in this region. Some modern authors assert that the Cimmerians included mercenaries, whom the Assyrians knew as Khumri, who ...

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Cimmerians, Cimmerians - Origins, Cimmerians - Historical accounts, Cimmerians - Timeline, Cimmerians - Language, Cimmerians - Possible offshoots, Cimmerians - Archaeology

Read more here: » Cimmerians: Encyclopedia II - Cimmerians - Historical accounts

By far the largest of the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, independent Kazakhstan is the world's ninth-largest nation in geographic area. The population density of Kazakhstan is among the lowest in the world, partly because the country includes large areas of inhospitable terrain. Kazakhstan is located deep within the Asian continent, with coastline only on the landlocked Caspian Sea. The proximity of unstable countries such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaija ...

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History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Background

The various subgroups of the Indo-European family include (in historical order of their first attestation): Anatolian languages — earliest attested branch, from the 18th century BC; extinct, most notable was the language of the Hittites. Indo-Iranian languages, descending from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan, including Sanskrit, attested from the 2nd millennium BC Iranian languages, attested from roughly 1000 BC, including Avestan and Persian. Greek language — ...

See also:

Indo-European languages, Indo-European languages - Classification, Indo-European languages - Satem and Centum languages, Indo-European languages - Suggested superfamilies, Indo-European languages - History, Indo-European languages - Kurgan hypothesis, Indo-European languages - Competing hypotheses, Indo-European languages - Sound changes

Read more here: » Indo-European languages: Encyclopedia II - Indo-European languages - Classification

In June 1989, Kolbin was replaced by Nazarbayev, a politician trained as a metallurgist and engineer. Nazarbayev had become involved in party work in 1979, when he became a protege of reform members of the CPSU. Having taken a major role in the attacks on Kunayev, Nazarbayev may have expected to replace him in 1986. When he was passed over, Nazarbayev submitted to Kolbin's authority and used his party position to support Gorbachev's new line, attributing economic stagnation in the Soviet republics to ...

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History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev

The 1980s brought glimmers of political independence, as well as conflict, as the central government's hold progressively weakened. In this period, Kazakhstan was ruled by a succession of three Communist Party officials; the third of those men, Nursultan Nazarbayev, continued as president of the Republic of Kazakhstan when independence was proclaimed in 1991. In December 1986, Soviet premier Mikhail S. Gorbachev (in office 1985-1991) forced the resignation of Dinmukhamed Kunayev, an ethnic Kazakh who had led the republic as first secr ...

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History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict

In June 1990, Moscow declared formally the sovereignty of the central government over Kazakhstan, forcing Kazakhstan to elaborate its own statement of sovereignty. This exchange greatly exacerbated tensions between the republic's two largest ethnic groups, who at that point were numerically about equal. Beginning in mid-August 1990, Kazakh and Russian nationalists began to demonstrate frequently around Kazakhstan's parliament building, attempting to influence the final statement of sovereig ...

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History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence

In 1917 a group of secular nationalists called the Alash Orda (Horde of Alash), named for a legendary founder of the Kazakh people, attempted to set up an independent national government. This state lasted less than two years (1918-1920) before surrendering to the Bolshevik authorities, who then sought to preserve Russian control under a new political system. The Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was set up in 1920 and was renamed the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1925 when the Kazakhs were differentiated officiall ...

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History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union's spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome was located in this republic at Tyuratam, with the secret town of Leninsk being constructed to accommodate the workers at the Cosmodrome. Current issues include: resolving ethnic differences; speeding up market reforms; establishing stable relations with Russia, China, and other foreign powers; and developing and expanding the country's abundant energy resources. ...

See also:

History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

The Cimmerians are thought to have had a number of offshoots. The Thracians have been identified as a possible western branch of the Cimmerians. If Herodotus is to be believed, both peoples originally inhabited the northern shore of the Black Sea, and both were displaced around the same time by invaders from further east. Whereas the Cimmerians would have departed this ancestral homeland by heading east and south across the Caucasus, the Thracians migrated west and south into the Balkans, where they established a successful and long-lived culture. The Tauri, the original inhabitants of the Crimea, are sometimes ...

See also:

Cimmerians, Cimmerians - Origins, Cimmerians - Historical accounts, Cimmerians - Timeline, Cimmerians - Language, Cimmerians - Possible offshoots, Cimmerians - Archaeology

Read more here: » Cimmerians: Encyclopedia II - Cimmerians - Possible offshoots

The present-day Kazakhs became a recognizable group in the mid-15th century, when clan leaders broke away from Abul Khayr, leader of the Uzbeks, to seek their own territory in the lands of Semirechie, between the Chu and Talas rivers in present-day southeastern Kazakhstan. The first Kazakh leader was Khan Kasym (r. 1511-1523), who united the Kazakh tribes into one people. In the 16th century, when the Nogai Horde and Siberian khanates broke up, clans from each jurisdiction joined the Kazakhs. The Kazakhs subsequently separated into three new ...

See also:

History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation

Their origins are obscure, but they are believed to have been Indo-European. Their language is regarded as being related to either Thracian or Iranian. The Thracian theory is based on the fact that the Greek author Strabo ascribes the "Treri" in one passage to the Thracians (13.1.8) and in another to the Cimmerians (14.1.40). The Iranian theory, on the other hand, argues that the material culture of the Cimmerians in Asia Minor is indistinguishable from that of the contemporary Scythians; furthermore, Assyrian Gimirri and Persian S ...

See also:

Cimmerians, Cimmerians - Origins, Cimmerians - Historical accounts, Cimmerians - Timeline, Cimmerians - Language, Cimmerians - Possible offshoots, Cimmerians - Archaeology

Read more here: » Cimmerians: Encyclopedia II - Cimmerians - Origins

See also: Proto-Indo-European, Historical linguistics, Glottochronology. The possibility of common origin for some of these languages was first proposed by Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn in 1647, proposing their derivation from "Scythian". However, the suggestions of van Boxhorn did not become widely known and were not pursued. The hypothesis was again proposed by Sir William Jones, who noticed similarities between four of the oldest languages known in his time, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian. Systematic comparison of these an ...

See also:

Indo-European languages, Indo-European languages - Classification, Indo-European languages - Satem and Centum languages, Indo-European languages - Suggested superfamilies, Indo-European languages - History, Indo-European languages - Kurgan hypothesis, Indo-European languages - Competing hypotheses, Indo-European languages - Sound changes

Read more here: » Indo-European languages: Encyclopedia II - Indo-European languages - History

Of the language of the Cimmerians, only a few personal names have survived in Assyrian inscriptions: Te-ush-pa, mentioned in the annals of Esarhaddon, has been compared to the Hurrian war deity Teshub; others interpret it as Iranian, comparing the Achaemenid name Teispes (Herodotus 7.11.2) Dug-dam-me (Dugdammê) king of the Ummân-Manda (nomads) appears in a prayer of Ashurbanipal to Marduk, on a fragment at the British Museum. Other spellings include Dugdammi, and Tug ...

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Cimmerians, Cimmerians - Origins, Cimmerians - Historical accounts, Cimmerians - Timeline, Cimmerians - Language, Cimmerians - Possible offshoots, Cimmerians - Archaeology

Read more here: » Cimmerians: Encyclopedia II - Cimmerians - Language

Humans have inhabited present-day Kazakhstan since the earliest Stone Age, generally pursuing the nomadic pastoralism for which the region's climate and terrain are best suited. Prehistoric Bronze Age cultures that extended onto Kazakh territory include the Srubna culture, the Afanasevo culture and the Andronovo culture. The earliest well-documented state in the region was the Turkic Kaganate, or Gokturk, Köktürk state, established by the Ashina clan, which came into existence in the 6th century AD. The Qarluqs, a confederation of T ...

See also:

History of Kazakhstan, History of Kazakhstan - Background, History of Kazakhstan - Historical Setting, History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements, History of Kazakhstan - Forming the Modern Nation, History of Kazakhstan - Russian Control, History of Kazakhstan - In the Soviet Union, History of Kazakhstan - Reform and Nationalist Conflict, History of Kazakhstan - The Rise of Nazarbayev, History of Kazakhstan - Sovereignty and Independence, History of Kazakhstan - Moving forward

Read more here: » History of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia II - History of Kazakhstan - Early Tribal Movements

As the Indo-European languages broke up, the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) sound system diverged as well. The difference between the palatalized and plain velars (or perhaps velars and uvulars) seems to have been allophonic in PIE, but became phonemic in many of the daughter languages. Note - this draught table needs to be completed, verified, and the allophones explained. Notes: C- is an initial consonant, -C a final consonant, -C- an intervocalic consonant, and 'C a consonant following PIE s ...

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Indo-European languages, Indo-European languages - Classification, Indo-European languages - Satem and Centum languages, Indo-European languages - Suggested superfamilies, Indo-European languages - History, Indo-European languages - Kurgan hypothesis, Indo-European languages - Competing hypotheses, Indo-European languages - Sound changes

Read more here: » Indo-European languages: Encyclopedia II - Indo-European languages - Sound changes