On the Trail of the Indo-Europeans: From Neolithic Steppe Nomads to Early Civilisations

Contents


Introduction: The mystery of the Indo-Europeans
In search of linguistic affinities from a people to a race: Indo-Europeans and Aryans
The swastika, an Aryan symbol?

1.Homeland in the southern Russian steppe (11th - 8th millennium BCE)
Neolithic transitions: nomadic herders in the East, farmers in the West
Homeland Anatolia? New findings in human genetics 28 natural environment of the steppe
Indo-Europeans and Uralians: Early encounters

2.Proto-Indo-European language and culture (from the 7th millennium BCE)
Basic structures and properties 46 names as ethnic identity markers
functional variations of proto-Indo-European

3.Early steppe nomads: Social systems and worldviews (from the 7th millennium BCE)
Proto-Indo-European regional cultures
Early social hierarchies and patriarchal power structures
Families, kinship, clans
Outlines of a proto-Indo-European mythology

4.Contacts with farmers to the west (from the 5th millennium BCE)
Adoption of the 'agrarian package'
Technological innovations

5.The first migration of the steppe nomads (from the middle of the 5th millennium BCE)
Migration and the motivation behind it
Evidence of the nomads' migrations
Primary Indo-Europeanisation: adaptation to the elite and language shift

6.The fragmentation of Proto-Indo-European (from 4000 BCE)
Southwards: Interactions with the Old Europeans
Eastwards: Exploration of central Asia and southern Siberia
The fragmentation of the common language
Indo-Iranian as a macro-group
The Armenians: Outlier in the Caucasus

7.Southeast Europe: The emergence of Hellenic culture (from the 3rd millennium BCE)
How the Hellads became the Hellenes
Under the patronage of pre-Greek deities
From ritual to theatre
The Hellenes and their political systems
The development of the Greek language

8.Apennine Peninsula: The dominance of Latin (from the 2nd millennium BCE)
Indo-Europeans in Italy
The Etruscans, teachers of the

Harald Haarmann is one of the world's bestknown linguists. He has been awarded the "Prix Logos" of the Association européenne des linguistes, Paris, as well as the »Premio Jean Monnet«. His books have been translated into many languages. Marixverlag has published among others The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation (2019), Wer zivilisierte die Alten Griechen? (2017) and Die Anfänge Roms (2019).