The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited
Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics

The Indo-European dispersal inalterably shaped the Eurasian linguistic landscape. This book offers the newest insights into this dramatic prehistoric event.

Kristian Kristiansen (Edited by), Guus Kroonen (Edited by), Eske Willerslev (Edited by)

9781009261746, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 May 2023

575 pages
28.6 x 22.4 x 2.3 cm, 1.24 kg

This book examines the impact of ancient DNA research and scientific evidence on our understanding of the emergence of Indo-European languages in prehistory. Offering cutting-edge contributions from an international team of scholars, it considers the driving forces behind the Indo-European migrations during the 3rd and 2nd millenia BC. The volume explores the rise of the world's first pastoral nomads the Yamnaya Culture in the Russian Pontic steppe including their social organization, expansions, and the transition from nomadism to semi-sedentism when entering Europe. It also traces the chariot conquest in the late Bronze Age and its impact on the expansion of the Indo-Iranian languages into Central Asia. In the final section, the volumes consider the development of hierarchical societies and the origins of slavery. A landmark synthesis of recent, exciting discoveries, the book also includes an extensive theoretical discussion regarding the integration of linguistics, genetics, and archaeology, and the importance of interdisciplinary research in the study of ancient migration.

Introduction: re-theorizing interdisciplinarity, and the relation between Archaeology, Linguistics, and Genetics Kristian Kristiansen and Guus Kroonen
Part I. Early Indo-European and the Origin of Pastoralism: 1. The Yamnaya Culture and the invention of Nomadic pastoralism in the Eurasian steppes David W. Anthony
2. Yamnaya pastoralists in the Eurasian desert steppe zone: new perspectives on mobility Natalia I. Shishlina
3. Proto-Indo-Anatolian, the 'Anatolian Split' and the 'Anatolian Trek': a comparative linguistic perspective Alwin Kloekhorst
Part II. Migratory Processes and Linguistic Dispersals between Yamnaya and the Corded Ware: 4. The corded ware complex in Europe in light of current archeogenetic and environmental evidence Wolfgang Haak, Martin Furholt, Martin Sikora, Adam Ben Rohrlach, Luka Papa, Karl-Goran Siogren, Volker Heyd, Morten Fischer Mortensen, Anne Brigitte Nielsen, Johannes Muller, Ingo Feeser, Guss Kroonen and Kristian Kristiansen
5. Emergent properties of the corded ware culture: an information approach Quentin Burgeois and Erik Kroon
6. Linguistic phylogenetics and words for metals in Indo European Thomas Olander
7. Word mining: metal names and the Indo-European dispersal Rasmus Thorso, Andrew Wigman, Anthony Jakob, Axel I. Palmer, Paulus Van Sluis and Guus Kroonen
Part III. The Cultural and Linguistic Significance of Bell Beakers Along the Atlantic Fringe: 8. From the steppe to Ireland: the Impact of a DNA research James P. Mallory
9. Beaker culture metal and mobility in Atlantic Europe: some implications for genetic and language origins William O' Brien
10. 'From the ends of the earth': a cross-disciplinary approach to long-distance contact in bronze age Atlantic Europe John T. Koch and Johan Ling
11. With the back to the ocean: the Celtic maritime vocabulary David Stifter
12. European prehistory between Celtic and Germanic: the Celto-Germanic isoglosses revisited Paulus Van Sluis, Anders Richardt Jorgensen and Guus Kroonen
Part IV. The Bronze Age Chariot and Wool Horizons: 13. Relative and absolute chronologies of the chariot complex in Northern Eurasia and early Indo-European migrations Igor V. Chechushkov and Andrey V. Epimakhov
14. Indo-European and Indo-Iranian wagon terminology and the date of the Indo-Iranian split Alexander M. Lubotsky
15. Fire and Water: archaeology and linguistics (The bronze age of the Southern Urals and the Rigveda) Andrey V. Epimakhov and Alexander M. Lubotsky
16. Wool fibers of the Northern Eurasian bronze age: the cultural and geographical contexts Natalia I. Shishlina, Polina S. Medvedeva
Olga V. Orfinskaya and Daria V. Kiseleva
17. An archaeolinguistic approach to Indo-European wool terminology Birgit A. Olsen
Part V. Kinship Systems, Marriage, Fosterage, Free and Unfree: 18. Mobility, kinship, and marriage in Indo-European society Tijmen Pronk
19. Marriage strategies and fosterage among the Indo-Europeans- a linguistic perspective Birgit A. Olsen
20. Fostering women and mobile children in final neolithic and early bronze age Central Europe Philipp W. Stockhammer
21. Hiding in plain sight? The enigma of the linguistic remains of prehistoric slavery Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead
Part VI. Concluding Reflections: 22. New directions in archaeogenetics and archaeolinguistics: recapitulation and outlook Guss Kroonen and Kristian Kristiansen.

Subject Areas: Genetics [non-medical PSAK], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]