The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World Paperback – August 15, 2010

This book appears to be a quintessential "gosh-wow!" science book. By Gosh-wow!, I mean a book that tackles a big unanswered question in a mind-blowing way. The reconstruction of a language that was not written down and which has not been spoken for 4,500 years, and the final answer to the question of where the ancestors of the Indo-European languages came from is such a question.

The first quarter of the book hummed, in my opinion. The author, David W. Anthony, did a fantastic job of describing the work that goes into reconstructing Proto-Indo-European ("PIE"). He also did a fantastic job of making the case for the when and where of PIE language group, namely between 4,500 and 2,500 years ago on the steppes between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The concepts and ideas that emerged in this section were stunning. We got a description of how the proto-languages we know, Latin, Celtic, German, Slavic, Greek, etc., sloughed off the PIE homeland and began making their move westward, southward, and eastward (in the case of Tokharian.) I had always believed that Lithuanian was one of the oldest PIE languages because it bore such a resemblance to Sanskrit, but the truth appears to be that Lithuanian and Sanskrit were the last languages to separate, which explains their similarity. Likewise, I'd always understood that Hittite was an Indo-European language, but Anthony suggests that Hittite may have split off of the PIE stock at a pre-PIE point in time. Another interesting point is the appearance of themes and deities from the Rig Veda in Mittanian culture. Anthony's theory is that the Mitanni were chariot conquerors of Mitanni who adopted local language and culture except for the tradition of Indo-European names.

Fascinating.

Based on language roots, Anthony locates the PIE era in the period after the domestication of sheep and during the development of wheels and wagons. The horse/wheel/wagon technology gave PIE speakers the ability to exploit the steppes and an attractive resource for setting up client relationships with non-PIE tribes, who would eventually be brought around to the PIE language culture.

Anthony's understanding of the PIE expansion does not involve epic migrations and conquests. Rather, based on his model of language acquisition in more contemporary settings, Anthony explains the IE expansion as involving trade and the guest/host relationship.

However, the balance of the book becomes a slog as Anthony canvasses every pot and artifact dug up in the steppes. This is important stuff, and it casts off a periodic nugget of intense interest. Based on archeological data, Anthony identifies the Yamnaya culture as the PIE group:

"The Yamnaya horizon meets the expectations for late Proto-Indo-European in many ways: chronologically (the right time), geographically (the right place), materially (wagons, horses, animal sacrifices, tribal pastoralism), and linguistically (bounded by persistent frontiers); and it generated migrations in the expected directions and in the expected sequence. Early Proto-Indo-European probably developed between 4000 and 3500 BCE in the Don– Volga– Ural region. Late Proto-Indo-European, with o-stems and the full wagon vocabulary, expanded rapidly across the Pontic-Caspian steppes with the appearance of the Yamnaya horizon beginning about 3300 BCE. By 2500 BCE the Yamnaya horizon had fragmented into daughter groups, beginning with the appearance of the Catacomb culture in the Don-Kuban region and the Poltavka culture in the Volga-Ural region about 2800 BCE. Late Proto-Indo-European also was so diversified by 2500 BCE that it probably no longer existed (chapter 3). Again, the linkage with the steppe archaeological evidence is compelling."

This is fascinating and potentially revolutionary stuff, made possible in the last 15 years by the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, honestly, if you aren't an archeologist, the last two-thirds of the book involve a lot of trudging through cultures, cities and artifacts. I did a lot of skimming at that point.

Clearly, Anthony is not to be faulted for the book he wrote, and the information is first-rate. Nonetheless, most readers might not be expecting this kind of book, particularly after the opening portion of the book, which involved a higher altitude survey, rather than getting into the weeds.

At times, (we) must risk ridicule and disbelief to obtain reward. Gimbutas, initiator of the Kurgan Hypothesis, certainly took some risks with her conclusion, and her expansion on those of the Steppe overwhelming the "peace, love, priestess" culture of "Old Europe" with their brutality nearly derailed the hypothesis's initial value.

It's been nearly a decade since the author published this book. In that time, the book has received considerable praise and some detraction, and is credited for the Kurgan Hypothesis revision. Additional evidence, genetic and otherwise, has confirmed the author's speculations -- at least confirmed as much as is possible with 5000 years of separation and minimal evidence.

I've minimal disagreement with most of the author's speculations and conclusions, and his arguments have weathered time and improved technology well. I understand the need for rehash and documentation which seems to have annoyed many layman readers. I found several "explanations" humorous, especially the author's petulance on the subject of the "first use of the chariot" (and his numerous "jibes" after initial explanations). I felt the author somewhat "hidebound" when he so quickly passed off the benefits of genetics -- it appears that acceptance of linguistics into archaeology and anthropology doesn't always open the doors to newer fields and technology.

There are so many questions yet unanswered, others to be refined. Genetics will be one key, as it provides physical evidence as does grave site remains. What cultural imperatives drove these Steppe people, people that went from hunter/gatherers along forested areas to Steppe herdsmen, to becoming the primary language and culture over so much of Eurasia? How were they organized and in what numbers? What happened between the speculated diaspora from the Steppes to recorded history?

Several of these questions are being researched -- no doubt more will be over time. As someone with interest in genetic genealogy and cultural anthropology, I hope the wait for answers won't be too long...