WHO WERE THE INDO EUROPEANS?

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE), a now reconstructed prehistoric language. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology. PIE speakers cannot be assumed to have been a single, identifiable people or tribe. Rather, they were a group of loosely related populations ancestral to the later, still partially prehistoric, Bronze Age Indo-Europeans.
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The following traits of the ProtoIndo-Europeans and their environment are widely agreedupon but still hypothetical due to their reconstructed nature.

The spreaders of Indo-European languages are traditionally considered to have been blond, blue-eyed Nordic types. However, scientists are not in agreement about the location of the Indo-Europeans' homeland.

Some of the basic facts are:

stockbreeding and animal husbandry, including domesticated cattle, horses, and dogs agriculture and cereal cultivation, including technology commonly ascribed to early farming communities a climate with winter snow transportation by or across water the solid wheel, used for carts, but not yet chariots with spoked wheels

worship of a sky god

a patrilineal kinship system based on relationships between men

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were a patrilineal society, probably half-nomadic, relying on animal husbandry, notably of cattle and sheep. They domesticated the horse *ewos (cf. Latin equus). The cow (*gwous) played a central role, in religion and mythology as well as in daily life. A man's wealth would have been measured by the number of his animals (small livestock),

They practiced a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a priestly caste. Important leaders would have been buried in barrows or tomb chambers with their belongings, and possibly also with members of their households or wives

Thor

There is evidence for sacral kingship, suggesting the tribal king at the same time assumed the role of high priest . Many Indo-European societies know a threefold division of priests, a warrior class, and a class of peasants.

As for technology, reconstruction suggests a culture of the early Bronze Age, with bronze tools and weapons. Silver and gold were known. Sheep were kept for wool, and textiles were woven. The wheel was known, certainly for ox-drawn carts, and late ProtoIndo European warfare may also have made use of horse-drawn chariots.

The general idea is that the Proto-IndoEuropeans lived somewhere north east of the Black Sea. Some scholars will put them there during the Stone Age, others during the Bronze Age. They spoke a language we call Proto-Indo-European, which as you know is probably the mother of all the Indo-European languages. As people moved or expanded into more remote areas, their dialect developed separately from the others and so did their previously common culture and religion.

Currently, there are two main competing hypotheses: The Anatolia hypothesis, championed by archaeologist Sir Colin Renfrew, states that Anatolian farmers initially brought the PIE language with them as they fanned out through Europe and Asia beginning around 7000 BCE, soon after the beginnings of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. The more traditionally accepted Kurgan hypothesis argues that the PIE language was originally spoken by horse-riding pastoralists in the steppes north of the Black Sea, who expanded with their horse-driven wagons south into the Indus Valley and West into Europe in waves between around 4000 and 2000 BCE.

The most widely accepted theory places the Indo-European homeland in the steppes north of the Black Sea, proposing the following routes for the spread of Indo-European languages and peoples:

4500-2500 B.C.

Indo-European Invasions triggered by Flooding of Black Sea 5600 B.C.

Diffusion of Indo-European Languages

These off-shoot cultures got their own branches when they expanded into new territories, lost contact with the old or came into contact with new ideas from their neighbours. Eventually, the languages were no longer mutually intelligible and the customs were widely different from one another.

A general idea of Indo-European expansion

Indo-European languages have been examined for common forms and so the conclusion is that those elements of the vocabulary which all, or a considerable number, of the branches of the family have in common must have formed a part of the original word-stock.

Some of the words which various languages have in common include: snow, winter, freezing cold, oak, beech, pine, birch, willow, bear, wolf, beaver, otter, fish, polecat, marten, weasel, deer, rabbit, mouse, horse, ox, cattle, sheep, goat, pig, dog, eagle, hawk, owl, jay, wild goose, wild duck, partridge or pheasant, snake, tortoise, crab, ant, bee (and honey), religion (polytheistic), copper, salmon, grain, etc.

It would appear that the Indo-Europeans lived in a cold northern region, that it was not near an ocean, but among forests, that they raised such domestic animals as sheep, dogs, cows, and horses; that among wild animals they knew bears and wolves, and that among metals they probably knew only copper.

Indo-European languages

Nineteenth century comparisons of older languages such as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Gothic showed that similarities among word forms with similar meanings were so systematic as to rule out chance or borrowing as an explanation. Such systematic similarities, it was argued, could only have resulted if the speakers of these languages once formed a community that then broke up as groups of its speakers migrated to different places. Because these languages ranged geographically from India to Europe, their unknown prehistoric ancestor was called (Proto-)Indo-European

The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialectsincluding most major languages of Europe, and Asia,

The languages of the Indo-European group are spoken by approximately three billion native speakers, the largest number for recognised languages families. Of the top 20 contemporary languages in terms of native speakers, 12 are Indo-European: Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, German, Marathi, French, Italian, Punjabi and Urdu, accounting for over 1.6 billion native speakers.

CLASSIFICATION: The Indo-European Family Tree is divided into twelve branches, ten of which contain existing languages, while two branches are now extinct.