Ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans

Ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans

A. G. Vinogradov

S. V. Zharnikova

Translator Алексей Германович Виноградов

Illustrator Алексей Германович Виноградов

© A. G. Vinogradov, 2025

© S. V. Zharnikova, 2025

© Алексей Германович Виноградов, translation, 2025

© Алексей Германович Виноградов, illustrations, 2025

ISBN 978-5-0065-4503-8

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Introduction

In the modern world, the urgency of the problems of the ethnic history of the peoples of various regions of our planet is obvious. The growth of ethnic self-awareness, which has been observed everywhere in recent decades, is accompanied by an increase in interest in the historical past of peoples, in the transformations that each of them experienced in the course of its millennia-old formation. It became a spiritual need for a representative of a modern urbanized society to find the roots of his ethnic existence, to understand the diverse processes that led to the formation of that ethnocultural environment through which he perceives the world around him.

Since the origin and historical existence of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of our planet was associated with numerous migrations, movements to new habitats, causing changes in a number of cultural factors both among the alien people and the indigenous population, today, studying the ethnic history and culture of their people, we, of course, study them in the process of historical transformations and mutual influences of many tribes and peoples, which to one degree or another took part in their formation. Regional ethno-historical research in our time is becoming especially acute, since it is knowledge of the history of one’s own people that helps a modern person to free himself from the narrowness of the nationalist view of the world, to understand the role and significance of the contribution to the common treasury of human culture of all peoples, to realize that humanity is one.

Of course, it is impossible to solve the most difficult issues of ethnic history today without involving data from the most diverse fields of science. It is necessary to combine the efforts of ethnographers, historians, archeologists, linguists, folklorists, anthropologists, art historians, as well as paleobotanists, paleozoologists, paleoclimatologists and geomorphologists, since the development and formation of peoples took place in certain climatic zones, in certain landscapes, with a certain flora and fauna, and this must be taken into account.

Only if the questions posed by ethnic history will be given mutually supportive answers by all of the above branches of science, we can, with a certain amount of confidence, believe that we are close to a true understanding of a particular stage of the historical process. Therefore, at present, the search for an answer to any of the questions of the ethnic history of peoples cannot be considered legitimate without involving data from related sciences.

Viktor von Hen responded very interestingly in 1890 about Russian culture: «Russia is a country of eternal change and completely non-conservative, and a country of ultra-conservative customs, where historical times live, and does not part with rituals and representations, no matter how related. The modern culture here is an external gloss, it develops in a wave-like fashion, generates disgusting phenomena; what the Ancient Tradition has preserved with regard to goods, customs, tools, etc., has been invented solidly, rationally, wisely and skillfully used… They are not a young people, but an old one – like the Chinese. All their mistakes are not youthful flaws, but arise from asthenic exhaustion. They are very old, ancient, conservatively preserved all the oldest and do not refuse it. By their language, their superstition, their disposition, etc. you can study the most ancient times. " («Victor Hen, biography.» 1894.)

The book is a translation of the book by A.G. Vinogradov and S.V. Zharnikova «Происхождение индоевропейцев. Часть 1. Прародина индоевропейцев» in Russian. Published in 2013. All illustrations are taken from the book «Происхождение индоевропейцев. Часть 1. Прародина индоевропейцев».

Chapter 1 Problems of localization of the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans

The problem of localization of the ancestral home of Indo-European peoples has been facing science for a long time. As early as the mid-18th century, the linguistic kinship of European peoples was noted, and in 1767 Kerdu pointed out the proximity of a number of European languages to Sanskrit, the language of the sacred texts of Ancient India «Vedas». «The decisive factor for the birth of Indo-European studies was the discovery of Sanskrit, acquaintance with the first texts on it and the enthusiasm that began in ancient Indian culture, the most striking reflection of which was the book by F. von Schleged» On the language and wisdom of Indians» (1808), – writes V. N. Toporov.

F. von Schlegel, the first to express the idea of a single ancestral home of all Indo-Europeans, placed this ancestral home on the territory of Hindustan, but this assumption was soon proved wrong, since before the arrival of the Aryan (Indo-European) tribes, India was inhabited by representatives of other goy language family and another one-time type – black Dravidians.

Assumed at different times as the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans (today these are the peoples of 10 language groups: Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Romance, Albanian, Armenian and modern Greek): India, the slopes of the Himalayas, Central Asia, Asian steppes, Mesopotamia, Near and Middle East, Armenian Highlands, territories from Western France to the Urals between 60° and 45° N, territory from the Rhine to the Don, Black Sea-Caspian steppes, steppes from the Rhine to the Hindu Kush, areas between the Mediterranean and Altai, in the Western Europe – at present, for one reason or another, most researchers reject it.

Among the hypotheses formulated in recent years, I would like to dwell in more detail on two: V. A. Safronov, who proposed in his monograph Indo-European ancestral home the concept of three Indo-European ancestral homelands – in Asia Minor, the Balkans and Central Europe (Western Slovakia), and T. V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. V. Ivanov, who owns the idea of the Near-Asian (or rather, located on the territory of the Armenian Highlands and adjacent areas of Western Asia) ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, detailed and argued by them in the fundamental two-volume book «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans».

V. A. Safronov, addressing the work of N. D. Andreev, emphasizes that on the basis of the Early Indo-European (hereinafter RIE) vocabulary, it can be concluded that «the Early Indo-European society lived in cold places, maybe in the foothills, in which there were no large rivers, but small rivers, streams, springs; rivers, despite the rapid the flow was not an obstacle; they were crossed by boats.

In winter, these rivers froze, and in the spring they flooded. There were swamps… The climate of the «RIE» ancestral homeland was probably sharply continental with severe and cold winters, when the rivers froze, strong winds; stormy sleep with thunderstorms, heavy snowmelt, river spills, hot, dry summers, when the grass was dry, there was not enough water.»

The early Indo-Europeans had early phases of agriculture and cattle breeding, although hunting, gathering and fishing did not lose their significance. Among the tamed animals are a bull, a cow, a sheep, a goat, a pig, a horse and a dog that guarded the herds. V. A. Safronov notes that: «Horseback riding was practiced by the early Indo-Europeans: which animals traveled around, it’s not clear, but the goals are obvious: taming.» Agriculture was presented in a hoe and razor-fire form, the processing of agricultural products was carried out by grinding grain.

The early Indo-European tribes lived settled; they had different types of stone and flint tools, knives, shelters, scrapers, axes, adzes, etc. They exchanged and traded. In the early Indo-European community, there was a difference in childbirth, taking into account the degree of kinship, and juxtaposition of friends and foes.

The role of the woman was very high. Particular attention was paid to the «progeny generation process», which was expressed in a number of root words that passed into the Early Indo-European language from the boreal parent language.

In the early Indo-European society, a paired family stood out, management was carried out by leaders, and there was a defensive organization. There was a cult of fertility associated with zoomorphic cults; there was a developed funeral rite.

From the foregoing, V. A. Safronov concludes that the ancestral home of the early Indo-Europeans was in Asia Minor. He notes that such an assumption is the only possible, because: «Central Europe, including the Carpathian basin, was occupied by the glacier.»

However, paleoclimatology data indicate something else. At the time in question, during the final stage of the Valdai glaciation (the chronological framework of which was established from 11,000 to 10,500 years ago), the nature of the vegetation cover of Europe, although it was different from the modern one, Arctic tundra with birch-spruce woodland, low-mountain tundra and alpine meadows were common in Central Europe, not a glacier. Sparse forests with birch-pine stands occupied most of Central Europe, and steppe vegetation predominated on the Great Middle Danube Lowland and in the southern part of the Russian Plain. Paleogeographers note that in southern Europe the influence of ice cover was not felt, especially in the Balkans and Asia Minor, where the influence of the glacier was not felt at all. Time to which the culture of Asia Minor Chatal Gayuk belongs, connected by V. A. Safonov with the early Indo-Europeans, marked by the warming of the Holocene. Already 9780 years ago, elms appeared in the Yaroslavl region, 9400 years ago linden in the Tver region, and oaks in the Leningrad region 7790 years ago. Moreover, the presence of a cold climate in Asia Minor is unlikely. Here I would like to refer to the conclusions of L. S. Berg and G. N. Lisitsina, made at different times, but, nevertheless, not refuting each other. So L. S. Berg in his work «Climate and Life» (1947) emphasized that the climate of the Sinai Peninsula has not changed over the past 7 thousand years and that here and in Egypt, «if there had been a change, it would rather be towards an increase, not a decrease in precipitation.» He noted that:" Blankengorn believed that in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, the climate in general remains constant and similar to the current one since the end of the pluvial period; the end of the last Blankenghorn refers to the beginning of the interglacial era» (130—70 thousand BC). In a 1921 paper, Blankenghorn writes that «From the Riesz-Wurm interglacial (mousterien of Western Europe) to the present (in these territories), the climate is dry desert, and in the north a semi-desert climate similar to the modern one, interrupted by short humid times corresponding to Wurm glaciation.» G. N. Lisitsina, who writes in 1970, comes to similar conclusions: «The climate of the arid zone in the 10—7I millennia BC is not much different from the modern one.» We have no reason to believe that the climate of the West of Asia Minor, where daphne, cherry, barb are currently growing aris, maquis, calabrian pine, oak, hawthorn, hmelegrab, ash, white and spiny astragalus, animals like mongoose, gyneta, jackal, porcupine, mouflon, wild donkey, hyena, bats and locusts also live, and not every snow falls year, snow cover, as a rule, is not formed», in 8—7 thousand BC so different from the modern one so that it could be similar to the harsh ancestral home of the early Indo-Europeans, which is being reconstructed based on their vocabulary.

In addition, V. A. Safonov writes: «The close relationship between the boreal and the Turkic and Uralic languages, according to N. D. Andreev, allows localization of the boreal community in the forest zone from the Rhine to Altai. It also follows from all areas where the carriers of the RIE could go; Anatolia seems to be the only possible one: the narrow straits did not serve as an obstacle, since the early Indo-Europeans knew the means of crossing (the „boat“ was recorded in the language of the early Indo-Europeans).»

Recall that according to the conclusions of N. D. Andreev: «Of the landscape vocabulary in the boreal parent language, the root words that are somehow related to the forest are most abundant. The image of this series clearly indicates, firstly, the wooded nature of the area where there were tribes who spoke BP, and secondly, the presence of conifers in these forests.»

But a strip of coniferous forests in 10—9 thousand BC it stretched not from the Rhine to Altai (in the latitudinal direction, as suggested by N. D. Andreev and V. A. Safronov after him), but sub-meridially from the southwest (from the foothills of the Carpathians) to the northeast (to Pechora). Consequently, the early Indo-Europeans from this forest zone could begin their movements in all directions (including the territory of Asia Minor), from which, of course, it does not follow that the population of Chatal Guyuk at the end of the 8th-beginning of 7 thousand BC it was not Indo-European. Probably Chatal Guyuk was only a small part of the vast Early Indo-European range. Recall that this time (7 thousand BC) was the peak time of mixed broad-leaved forests reaching the coast of the White Sea in the north of Eastern Europe, and that the early Indo-Europeans for cattle-breeding and agriculture (slash-and-burn agriculture) in combination with hunting, fishing and gathering, very significant territories were needed.

And although V. A. Safronov writes that: «At the beginning of the Mesolithic, the zone of the producing economy was extremely limited,» and it included «only the mountains of Zagros, Southeast Anatolia, Northern Syria, and also Palestine,» on the availability of a producing economy on The territory of Eastern Europe in 7 thousand BC, as noted earlier, is evidenced by archaeological materials obtained in recent years. Referring again to the conclusions of G. N. Matyushin, we emphasize that at the border of 7—6 thousand BC the presence of a domestic horse is recorded in the Southern Urals, and remains of domestic animals (goats, sheep, cattle, horses and dogs) are found on archaeological sites. Recall that it was this set of domesticated animals – bull, cow, sheep, goat, pig, horse and dog – that was recorded in the vocabulary of the early Indo-Europeans. And, of course, a deep kinship, the ancestor of the Early Indo-European Proto-language – the ancient Boreal (Northern) language with the Uralic (Finno-Ugric) and Altai (Turkic) languages naturally follows from the localization of the native tribes of the Boreal language in the era of the Upper Paleolithic finale (15—10 thousand BC) in the zone of mixed and coniferous forests, in Eastern Europe. The migrations of part of the boreal tribes beyond the Urals, to Siberia and to the foothills of Altai are logical and can be explained by the pressure of an excess of population in Eastern Europe during this period, which could be caused by a shortage of hunting grounds during the hunting-fishing type of economy, when the optimal population density was 1 person. 30—40 sq. km.

Such shifts in the subsequent Early Indo-European time could be very significant in all directions and «take away» part of the population of the Indo-European range up to the west of Asia Minor. J. Mellart, the discoverer of the culture of Chatal-Guyuk, noted that already 12 thousand years ago (10 thousand BC) aliens appeared in these areas, the associations of which were «larger and better organized than their predecessors.

These groups of Mesolithic people with their specialized tools, apparently, were descendants of the Upper Paleolithic hunters, however, only in one point – in Zardi, in the mountains of Zagros – materials were found that allow talking about the arrival of carriers of this culture from the north – maybe from the Russian steppes, from for the Caucasus.»

Thus, without rejecting the idea that the population of Anatolia was in 8—7 thousand BC Early Indo-European, who came from the territory of his ancient ancestral home – the forest zone of Eastern Europe, we can assume that most of the early Indo-Europeans continued to live in this very home, which is largely confirmed by the earlier conclusions of the American linguist P. Friedrich that: «the Pre-Slavic best of all other groups of Indo-European languages preserved the Indo-European tree naming system… the speakers of the common Slavic language lived in the ecological zone (per hour completely determined by the flora of wood) similar or identical corresponding zone Indo-European and after-Slavic period carriers of different dialects Slavic substantially continued to live in such an area.»

The zone of mixed coniferous-deciduous forests, we repeat, as early as 7 thousand BC reached the territory of Eastern Europe right up to the White Sea coast.

As for the role of the Early Indo-Europeans in the world historical process, it is difficult to disagree with the main conclusions of V. A. Safronov, which he made in the final part of his work. Indeed: «In solving the problem of the Indo-European ancestral homeland, which has been exciting for two centuries by scientists from many professions and various countries of the world, he rightly sees the origins of the history and spiritual culture of the peoples of most of Europe, Australia, America… How their descendants, the Indo-Europeans of modern times, dug the New World, so the Indo-Europeans of the Ancient World revealed to mankind the knowledge of the integrity of the earthly home, the unity of our planet… These discoveries would remain nameless if the echoes of the great wanderings were not kept in the Indo-European literature separated from us and from these events by millennia… Indo-European travels became possible due to the invention of wheeled transport (4 thousand BC) among Indo-Europeans.» And we add, due to the domestication of a wild horse in the southern Russian steppes already on the borderline 7—6 thousand BC As N. N. Cherednichenko notes: «The spread of a horse from the Eurasian steppes is now beyond doubt… the process of taming a horse is carried out on the distant plains of the Eurasian steppe region… Thus, at present, we can only talk about the ways the penetration of the Indo-European horse breeding tribes of Eurasia to the East and the Mediterranean… Eurasia, therefore, was the territory from where the chariots were brought by the Indo-European tribes to various regions of the Old World, which is very significant but was reflected in the political life of the Ancient East.»

V. A. Safronov writes: «The period of the general development of the Indo-European peoples – the pre-Indo-European period – was reflected in the amazing convergence of the great literatures of antiquity, like the Avesta, Vedas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Iliad, Odyssey, in the epics of the Scandinavians and Germans, Ossetians, legends and fairy tales Slavic peoples. These reflections of the most complex motives and plots of common Indo-European history in ancient literature and folklore, separated by millennia, fascinate and await their interpretation. However, the appearance of this literature has become possible only thanks to the creation by the Indo-Europeans of the metric of poetry and the art of poetic speech, which is the oldest in the world and dates back no later than the 4th millennium BC… Having created their own system of knowledge about the universe, which opened the way for civilization to humanity, the Indo-Europeans became creators of the most ancient world civilization, which is 1000 years older than the civilizations of the Nile Valley and Mesopotamia. There is a paradox: linguists, having recreated, according to linguistics, the appearance of the pre-Indo-European culture, by all the signs of the corresponding civilization, and determined its oldest in the series of famous civilizations (5—4 millennium BC) could not cross the Rubicon of prevailing historical stereotypes that „light always comes from the East“, and limited themselves to finding the equivalent of such a culture in the areas of the Ancient East (Gamkrelidze, Ivanov, 1984), leaving Europe as a „periphery of Middle Eastern civilizations“… The civilization of the great Indo-Europeans turned out to be so high, stable and flexible that it survived and remained, despite the global cataclysms.»

V. A. Safronov emphasizes that «It was the late Indo-European civilization that gave the world a great invention – wheel and wheeled transport, that it was the Indo-Europeans who created the nomadic economy,» which allowed them to go through the vast expanses of the Eurasian steppes, to reach China and India… We believe that the guarantee The sustainability of Indo-European culture was created by the Indo-Europeans. It is expressed in the model of the existence of culture as an open system with the inclusion of innovations that do not offend the foundations of its structure… As a form of existence with the world, the Indo-Europeans proposed a model that remained in all historical times – introducing factorial colonies into an indo-speaking and foreign culture environment and bringing them to the level of development of the metropolis. The combination of openness with tradition and innovation, the formula of which was found for each historical period of the development of Indo-European culture, ensured the preservation of Indo-European and universal values. «We allowed ourselves such a long quotation, since it is difficult to more clearly, compactly and comprehensively determine the significance of pra-Indo-European and early Indo-European culture for the fate of mankind, than this is done in the work of V. A. Safronov «Indo-European ancestral home.»

Chapter 2 «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans»

The next fundamental work devoted to the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, the main provisions of which I would like to dwell on, is the work of T. V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. V. Ivanov’s «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans», where the idea of a common Indo-European ancestral homeland on the territory of the Armenian Highlands and the adjacent areas of Western Asia, from where part of the Indo-European tribes then advanced into the Black Sea-Caspian steppes, develops and is thoroughly argued.

Paying tribute to the very high level of this encyclopedic work, which collected and analyzed a huge number of linguistic, historical facts, data from archeology and other related sciences, I would like to note that a number of provisions postulated by T. V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. Ivanov, causes very serious doubts. So V. A. Safronov notes that: «The linguistic facts cited by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov in favor of localizing the Indo-European ancestral homeland on the territory of the Armenian Highlands can also receive other explanations. The absence of ie hydronymy in this area can only indicate against localization in it Indo-European ancestral home. Environmental data presented in the parsed work even more contradict such localization.In the territory of the Armenian Highlands there are almost half the animals, trees and plants listed in the list of flora and s listed Gamkrelidze and Ivanov, reconstructed in Indo-European (aspen, hornbeam, yew, linden, heather, beaver, lynx, grouse, salmon, elephant, monkey, crab).»

It is on these environmental data cited in the work of T. V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. Ivanov, I would like to dwell in more detail. The authors of the «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans» in confirmation of their concept, indicate the oldest names of trees recorded in the ancient Indo-European parent language.

These are birch, oak, beech, hornbeam, ash, aspen, poplar, yew, willow, branches, spruce, pine, fir, alder, walnut, apple, cherry, and dogwood.

As for the Armenian Highlands, at present it is a combination of folded-block ridges and tectonic depressions, often occupied by lakes – closed saline (Van, Urmia), and less commonly – flowing fresh (Sevan). The semi-desert and even desert landscapes are characteristic of the deepest depressions.» Here there are dry feather-grass fescue steppes turning into herbaceous grasses,» in some places in the middle reaches (between 1000 m and 2300 m.) There are dry rare-standing forests of deciduous oaks, pine and juniper.»